The abrupt failure of the GOP effort to repeal Obamacare, after months of halting progress, confronts Republicans with a basic choice between decency and nihilism: Will bitter partisanship and ideological inflexibility drive them to use the levers of government to vandalize the health care system, now fully under their control? Or will they reluctantly engage in bare-minimal governing and bring basic stability back to health insurance markets?

The party’s conduct throughout the Obama years, and in the face of Donald Trump’s rise to power, should leave nobody confused as to which course they are likely to take. But there is at least some hope that cooler heads will prevail in the party, if only out of sheer self-preservation.

The failure of Trumpcare tells us something very valuable: There are at least 51 votes in the Senate for the proposition that sabotaging the health insurance system is bad—that however imperfect the Affordable Care Act’s reforms were, we shouldn’t go back to the vicious status quo ante of underwriting, rescission, annual and lifetime limits, adverse selection, and discrimination against the sick.

What it doesn’t tell us, but what we’ll soon find out, is whether there are large majorities in Congress—and enough political will within the GOP leadership—to take modest legislative steps that would improve and stabilize the system, and leave partisan health care battles that have dominated politics for eight years in abeyance.

Does that sound likely? No it does not.