What happens to Trumpism now is intriguing — does it retreat, lick its wounds, and come back in four years time? Or does it turn into a radical protest movement that refuses to accept the legitimacy of the Biden administration? The answer could well be the latter. Conservatives spent a lot of this year expressing concerns that, if Trump won, Democrats would refuse to accept the result to the extent that they would destroy the union and cause civil war. Last night, however, it was Trump supporters calling for secession because they are convinced the system has stolen democracy from them. The Texas suit was supported by various conservative groups, including ones that claimed to represent the breakaway states of ‘New Nevada’ and ‘New California’. This does not suggest a healthy state of the union…

Vote counting in 2020, especially in swing states, was a strange business — even after you take into account the much anticipated late surge of mail-ins for Biden. But the Republican legal process to overturn the confirmed results — or uphold election integrity, depending on how you see it — has been a bit of a joke from the start, even though the substance of the matter could not be more serious. From Rudy Giuliani’s eccentric press conferences, to Sidney Powell’s theories about international socialist plots, to the charmingly madcap witnesses, the crank factor has been strong throughout — aided and abetted by legions of right-wing media grifters who aren’t really interested in the truth and just want to make money from peddling paranoia.