DAVID FRUM: What happens in the next four years will
depend heavily on whether Trump is right or wrong about how little
Americans care about their democracy and the habits and conventions that
sustain it. If they surprise him, they can restrain him. Public
opinion, public scrutiny, and public pressure still matter greatly in
the U.S. political system. In January, an unexpected surge of voter
outrage thwarted plans to neutralize the independent House ethics
office. That kind of defense will need to be replicated many times.
Elsewhere in this issue, Jonathan Rauch describes some of the networks
of defense that Americans are creating.