Donald Trump Brings a New Age of Political Combat

On Saturday night, about a hundred hours after Donald Trump’s election as President, Wanda Sykes took the stage at the TD Garden, in Boston, to deliver a short set, part of a comedy evening for charity. Sykes, a gay black comic and often a political one, told the crowd that, in the days since the election, she had found herself consoling her friends, telling them that everything was going to be O.K. “I am certain this is not the first time we’ve elected a racist, sexist, homophobic President,” she said at the Garden. “He’s just the first confirmed one.” At this, loud, heavy boos came from the crowd. “Fuck you, motherfuckers,” Sykes said. “Fuck all y’all.” She raised her middle finger, and started indicating particular places in the crowd. “Fuck you, you, you you you you you.” The image of Sykes’s extended middle finger was the cover of yesterday’s Boston Herald.