In this strange electoral cycle, Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of the Republican Party shattered the old GOP coalition. Governors and senators were defeated easily in the primaries by someone who appeared to be a joke candidate. Professional conservative pundits didn’t see Trump coming and neoconservative ideologues are now either dabbling with a long-shot independent candidacy or heading back to their ancestral home in the Democratic Party.

But the most dramatic defection has been the Christian right, which has been riven by disputes over whether it’s possible to support a candidate whose values seem anything but “traditional.” Meanwhile, independent conservative candidate Evan McMullin is polling so strongly in the Republican stronghold of Utah that he may become the first third-party candidate since 1968 to win a state’s electoral votes.

Due to their high profile, the influence of conservative Christians on the Republican Party has often been exaggerated. In truth, they’ve never held the dominant role that outsiders imagined. Barry Goldwater had no time for them, and would tell anyone who would listen. The deeply irreligious Ronald Reagan brought them into his big tent but gave them very little in return. Candidates from Bob Dole to Mitt Romney have had a strained relationship with them.