Despite Everything, Trump

Photo by Doug Mills of the New York Times.

A few minutes ago, Donald J. Trump became the 47th President of the United States. His political victory is unlike any other. Multiple federal and state indictments, an absurd lawsuit over transparently false claims of sexual abuse, a felony conviction and even literal assassination attempts could not stop it. The moment feels almost fated, and much bigger than the man himself.

Trump is a flawed politician, but he is also a force of nature – a force before which his political opponents have withered like grass in the summer heat. Despite histrionic pleas for Trump’s defeat and the determined framing of the November election as a fight against fascism and worse, all that the holier-than-thou Defenders of Our Democracy could field against their great orange nemesis in the end were a senile old man and a jumped-up overpromoted diversity hire who would be beyond her abilities (if not her temperament) staffing a desk at your local DMV franchise.