Going into this election, it was clear that a country was broken enough to vote Donald Trump Once it’s certainly broken enough to do it again. Anyone who didn’t believe that was mistaken. And yet his confident victory is over Kamala Harris is still a shock to the conscience. We know how bad Trump was in his first term, and he made it clear how much worse he would be in a second. But the voting public gave it to him anyway.

Trump not only retained his support base despite his endless personal and political scandals; He expanded It appears to be making gains in blue strongholds like New York and among voting blocs traditionally considered reliably Democratic, including Hispanic and younger voters. He did this not by weakening his message or broadening his appeal; He served even more toxic alcohol than in his previous campaigns, and millions of Americans decided they wanted another helping.

Unlike his victory in 2016, in which he prevailed in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote, Trump’s victory in 2024 cannot be dismissed or blamed as an accident of the system James Comey or Vladimir Putin or Hillary Clinton I’m not going to Michigan. In fact, Trump is on track to win the popular vote, the first Republican to do so since 2004 and only the second to do so since 1988. This time he had no luck with the presidency; The Americans have chosen this.

Not all Americans, of course. Nearly half of voters voted against him — and even more would have done so if Democrats hadn’t faced brutal international backlash for the incumbents, or if they hadn’t weakened their own electoral prospects with a series of mistakes and misinterpretations that have yet to be reported The days, weeks and months that lie ahead of us are discussed. In this regard, Trump’s success is a catastrophic strategic failure for the Democratic Party.

But the mandate given to Trump and the Republicans on Tuesday – namely Is a mandate – is also a statement about what America itself is. In 2020, one could hope that Trump was an aberration. But in 2024, it’s hard not to conclude that the country is much more right-wing, much more cynical, and much more nihilistic than many of us would like to believe.

It’s worth fighting to change — and it’s still possible, despite the power Trump will inherit and despite the way he has committed to wielding it. But we have to reckon with the reality of where we actually are. A large portion of the country is now Trump country.