Thaddeus Stevens, radical Republican and author of the 13th amendment.

Conversely, clinging to the idea that the Trumpists are simply too incompetent to cause any real damage, a clown show not worth taking seriously, won’t cut it either. And I find the notion that the second Trump presidency will mostly be a rerun of the first mostly misleading.

It bears repeating: Being lawless does not make Trump omnipotent – and obscuring that distinction is an act of defeatism that only serves the regime. There is a vast gulf between Trump’s authoritarian aspirations on the one hand and the realities of a complex modern state and society on the other.

We must resist the temptation to perpetuate Trump’s constant attempts to assert dominance by reflexively despairing over our supposedly hopeless situation. MAGA desires to project power and strength – something we should subvert rather than confirm. Let’s not indulge the false bravado.