“American democracy cracked last night, but it didn’t break,” said Mayor Mike Duggan of Detroit, on the morning after the certification back-and-forth. “We are seeing a real threat to everything we believe in.”

One of those beliefs is the idea that honorable people will put aside partisan passions to keep the machinery of democracy moving forward.

But it’s pretty hard to do that when the routine act of ballot counting has become a life-threatening job. Arizona’s secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, described “ongoing and escalating threats of violence” against her and her family for trying to perform her duty.

This is Trump’s legacy: an attempt to blow up an election, from Wayne County, Mich., to Maricopa County, Ariz. For Trump the failed businessman, cheating and suing were a way of life. For Trump the failed president, cheating and suing are a blueprint for his followers into the future. And I fear there’s no going back.