Calm Down

The main thing the Left would like us to take away from January 6 is how outrageous and scary it was. And let’s face it, that’s not just huffing and puffing. But the actual, enduring lesson for us is how quickly and completely it failed. In part, it failed because it was a half-a**ed effort to begin with: The idea that mob dressed up in buffalo horns and body paint was going to topple the government of the United States was preposterous from the get-go. They were, to say the least, pitifully unprepared for civil war however well prepared they were for Halloween. And now, of course, the main thing hundreds of them need to prepare for is jail.

But the main reason it was inevitable that they would fail to “hijack American democracy” is the same reason Trump won’t either, even if in a second term he were to try: You’re simply not going to displace over 200 years of constitutional governance with Palace Rule over the opposition of every major institution in the country. A Trump-imposed dictatorship would be opposed by a huge majority of the Congress, the courts, the military, the press, the corporate world, academia and every instrument of the culture. It could not possibly be sustained, and would collapse in 24 hours.

A second Trump term very likely won’t be pretty. His instincts are bad and his devotion to traditional norms of governance even worse. But, the Left’s screaming to the contrary, it won’t be a dictatorship.