Jonathan Chait had this story in the New York Influencer:

One of the most predictable developments of the post-Trump era was that the small band of anti-Trump conservative intellectuals and Republican officials would quickly melt away. They had been repulsed by Donald Trump’s combination of grotesque character and ideological heterodoxy — opposing American alliances, free trade, and so on – but when given the chance to support Republicans who believed in traditional Reaganite principles and weren’t career criminals, politics would go back to normal and they would return to the fold.

Instead, something surprising has happened. Anti-Trump Republicans are refashioning their identity as pro-democracy conservatives.

Here are a few examples to give a flavor of their thinking. It’s not close to an exhaustive list:

Read the full article here to find out more.