No, this is about our very capacity for self-governance, which is a
fundamentally different beast, and no small thing. Perhaps you are
inclined to tell yourself stories about Trump’s huge loss in the popular
vote, how but for a few thousand ballots here or there and the quirks
of the Electoral College, he would not be President. But you’d be wrong.
Even if he lost, that he could get so close exposed the ruin of our
political parish. From day one of the election campaign — that Mussolini
on-an-escalator gesticulating incoherently about Mexican rapists —
Trump ought to have been booed off the stage 20 times over. The list of
should-have-been disqualifying moments is too long and too familiar to
rehearse, but some of the highest crimes still linger: mocking heroes,
banning Muslims, gleefully consorting with white-supremacists and
anti-Semites (you name them, he retweeted them), more generally parading
dangerous ignorance (about things like nuclear weapons) as if it was a
virtue, showering praise on murderous authoritarian enemies of America,
and conducting his affairs more broadly as if he was an incurious,
spoiled game-show host surrounded by sycophants — this is the man that
has been chosen by the people to lead us.
(via America, America – BLARB)
