Trump as a Judgment on Republicans

Ross Douthat:

Finally, for those of us covering this campaign with some kind of rooting interest in a wiser, more public-spirited Republican Party down the road: What we should be rooting for — what I’ve tried to hope for — is a candidate who can channel, à la Richard Nixon with George Wallace, the legitimate grievances of the Trumpistas while stiff-arming his rank, un-republican fascismo.

But if no such candidate emerges — as seems increasingly likely — what then should we root for? For a compromised “establishment” candidate limping out of a contested convention? For Cruz’s self-limiting True Conservative™ message to prevail?

Or should we begin to root for Donald Trump — not as a candidate actually to champion, now or in the fall, but as an agent of divine retribution for a corrupt and stumbling party, a pillaging-and-torching Babylonian invasion of which it must be said: The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.