N.H. reveals GOP truths

If the New Hampshire primary was supposed to be democracy’s last stand, it has hardly played out that way.

For weeks, political analysts were saying that this might be the last, best chance to head off the comeback most of us really don’t want: the return of Donald Trump.

Trump himself has painted his possible return to power in semi-apocalyptic terms, making clear that consolidating power and getting even with his many enemies will be at the top of his agenda if he is elected again.

But before any of that could happen, he would have to run through the gantlet of the Granite State, and that offered his adversaries some hope.

Maybe the Never Trumpers could find their alternative in former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. Maybe popular Governor Chris Sununu could rally the troops on her behalf.

But by the time voters were making their way to the polls Tuesday, there was little besides carnage in Trump’s wake.

Ron DeSantis, the culture-warrior governor of Florida, dropped out Sunday, having figured out two months after anyone else paying attention that he had few supporters and no chance.

Haley — suddenly the darling of moderates everywhere willing to look past her rote conservatism — wasn’t faring much better. By Tuesday, she was reduced to merely vowing that she wouldn’t get out of the race no matter how big Trump’s victory.

None of this qualifies as a surprise. Every prediction that the GOP might somehow be ready to move beyond Trump has proved to be absolutely laughable, and usually pretty quickly. Everything that was supposed to weaken him has made him stronger, at least to the diehards.

And let’s be honest: DeSantis and Haley haven’t posed stiff competition.

DeSantis has been a star in Florida. Though he won his first race for governor by a relatively thin margin, he’s turned that into a stranglehold on Tallahassee. A thoroughly cowed Legislature has given him whatever he wants for years. He’s removed district attorneys and taken over local school committees. Florida has never seen anything like it.

But running for president is a lot more challenging than steamrolling Florida. Trump’s attacks on DeSantis weren’t just relentless, they were merciless. And in the process, he made the Florida governor look like a journeyman boxer suddenly in the ring with Muhammad Ali. Trump didn’t just beat him, he crushed him.

As a final indignity, DeSantis endorsed his tormentor Sunday. Having learned the painful lesson that the GOP is Trump’s party, he knew there was no payoff to getting out of line.

To be fair, Haley ran a better campaign. Not a good campaign, mind you, just somewhat less bad. Trump’s former ambassador to the United Nations was very slow in realizing that the only way to run against Trump was to actually attack him.

And — like others before her — she learned the harsh lesson that substantive policy disagreements don’t move the needle much in a battle that is all about personalities. The only question on the table for her Tuesday was just how much she would lose by, whether there would be anything left of her campaign after the polls closed.

Technically, the race is not over. It moves now to South Carolina, where Trump is expected to defeat Haley soundly on her own turf. (South Carolina Senator Tim Scott recently endorsed Trump, a sure sign that he knows which way the wind is blowing.)

Barring something truly unexpected, that will pretty much be the end of the GOP race, such as it ever was.

With all due respect to Democrat gadfly Dean Phillips, we’re on to Biden-Trump II.

As a Florida native who’s watched the reign of DeSantis with horror, I have to confess that I’ve enjoyed his abject humiliation. He even managed to suspend his campaign with a bogus Winston Churchill quote, a perfect ending to a misbegotten campaign.

It’s common journalistic practice to overreact to the results of the New Hampshire primary, but I’ll try to refrain.

New Hampshire voters proved what America already knew. This country is tired of Trump.

But GOP voters can’t see past him.