let's look at the not-surprises.

- MAGA is not dead.
donalds, blackburn, huckabee won.

- like no other time in history, gop is clinging on to business-as-usual ' typical midterm anti-incumbent' result.

- do not mistake midterm disinterest by gop voters as any sign of improved cognition.

yes, i am referring to the unfalsifiable 'vote like trump is on the ballot'.
he was most certainly not on the ballot because he was not running for anything...were he, no one would would float 'the quality of the candidates'. trump clearly lost in 2020, but his turnout for the entire gop ticket is undeniable.
whether the cult is transferred via an trump potus endorsement sale in 2028 is a minor point.
(The Atlantic's most experienced journalist on trump believes his cult is unique, built up over many years of fabricated success on NBC geared to mass lower educated\reality tv fans, and overwhelming media blitz fabrications as potus)

final and simplest point : take a guess as to whether the gop voting block will ever realize things are much harder , much more expensive, and critically much slower to fix than break. this is THE american skepticism shared by the free world.

it is absolutely critical that Dems waste no time on the broad trump\MAGA crime cartel until he is no position to sell pardons.
the states may pursue certain cases, like ICE killings, on their own priority.
history shows that outright crimes under authoritarianism must ultimately be held accountable (usually too late for the direct victims) in order for society to lower the chances of slipping back.