What’s surprising is just how many Republicans — men and women — have been all too happy to smell like him. Political operatives feigned ignorance about whether grabbing a woman’s genitalia is sexual assault (it is), while female supporters claimed these weren’t important issues to women (they are). Voters will punish the party for this collective shrug.

Alienating women — who vote in higher numbers than men, and who have voted Democratic in every presidential election after 1988 — would seem a flawed business model for the “Art of the Deal” mogul.

Women are not unwinnable for Republicans. Ronald Reagan won a majority of them in both of his elections, and by 10 points in 1984. The largest spread in recent history was in 1972, when Richard Nixon, even with that mug, won women by a whopping 24 points.

Still, more than 20 years is a long time to go without women. I’d argue conservative policies were badly explained and liberals benefited from more emotional messaging. But it’s going to be much harder to make that case now.

When women flee the Republican Party in the coming years, no autopsy will be necessary. The explanation is all too clear.

And yet we have to try to repair the relationship between the Republican Party and women. Not just so that Republicans can be competitive in national elections, but because I believe our policies are genuinely better for women.

Democrats’ lofty language about empowering women sounds great (and way better than Mr. Trump’s), but President Obama’s economy has done just the opposite. By many metrics, women (and men) are worse off. The poverty rate is higher than it was in 2007. Real median household income is down. More Americans are dependent on the government for assistance. Homeownership is down. Student debt has skyrocketed, along with the national debt. We now know that Obamacare is becoming unaffordable.