It’s natural when one feels disgust for a political movement to develop some sympathy for its enemies.

Natural but wrong, I should add. All political movements deserve a healthy amount of fear and loathing, however obnoxious their opponents might be.

But there’s a reason many anti-Trump conservatives have evinced a Strange New Respect for Democrats and their policies since 2016. Given a choice between being governed by a would-be American Putin or a neoliberal geezer, a patriotic right-winger might find himself rationalizing his preference by musing that, truth be told, not all of the libs’ ideas are terrible.

I spend so much time whining about Trump that one of my own Dispatch colleagues seemed surprised recently to learn that I don’t share the progressive view of whether transgender children should be allowed to alter their physiology with parental approval.