Donald Trump’s wild and reckless behaviour since losing the presidential election has only emphasised that the norms and conventions of democratic politics serve a purpose.

Donald Trump’s wild and reckless behaviour since losing the presidential election has only emphasised that the norms and conventions of democratic politics serve a purpose. One such convention is to know when you are beaten, and say so; and then be generous to your opponent and assist in a smooth transfer of power. Not only has he widened and exacerbated the divisions in American society that already existed, but he has created one of his own: for or against himself. To his allies he is a saviour; to his opponents, a dangerously unhinged demagogue. It is vital that his legal challenges to the result are processed fairly – and rapidly.

Now he has become one of the problems that his successor, only the second Catholic president in the history of the United States, will have to contend with. Joe Biden will take over in the midst of a political and legal crisis as intense as Trump can muster, with growing unemployment, racial tensions higher than for decades, and – even with an effective vaccine now on the horizon – an epidemic that has killed nearly a quarter of a million Americans and which will still be wreaking havoc on human lives and on the economy well into his presidency.

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