Good and Evil Were on the Ballot and America Is on the Edge
On Election Day 2020, good and evil were on the ballot and, by the day after, it appeared American voters were deeply split as to which they supported. But even if, as seems likely as of this writing, good ekes out a narrow victory, immense damage has been done by an American president who has compounded his past crimes with what is nothing less than an attempted coup and by the substantial constituency for evil that remained an important force in American politics.
Astonishingly, in the small hours of the morning, as we watched the election returns in bleary horror, on the most bizarre and disturbing election night in American history, the normalizers were at it again. Sure, some of them were trying to be calm and say all is fine, the guardrails will hold. But they did a huge disservice to the degree that they understated the extraordinary nature of the president’s words and actions and the very real and likely damage the president has just done.
It is dangerously misleading to underplay the danger posed by Donald Trump right now. Yes, our system should still work. It appears, barring something unforeseen, that it still will. But the unavoidable truth is that so far, for four years now, it often has not. Manifold crimes have gone unpunished. Our institutions have come under repeated assault from those sworn to protect them.