This afternoon, after Kamala Harris confirmed Donald Trump’s victory in 2024, the vice president had a strange choice of words: “Today, America’s democracy endures.” Although such a statement is intended to represent the durability of institutions, in reality it shows how volatile and fragile the American experiment has become.

This time no one is arguing about who won. Trump completed the Electoral College with 312 votes, well above the 270 threshold required for the presidency. (And unlike in 2016, he also triumphed in the popular vote.) So today, in the midst of a snowstorm, Harris and other officials entered the Capitol and fulfilled their constitutional duty, certifying those results and initiating the peaceful transfer of power. Like former Vice President Al Gore 24 years ago, Harris personally confirmed the victory of the man who defeated her. For a moment there was a shared reality in Congress that vote totals, free and fair elections, and facts mattered.

However, in the weeks, months and years after January 6, 2021, none of this mattered – not enough. You may recall that after attempting to overthrow the government, Trump was impeached in the House but acquitted in the Senate, opening up the possibility of his return. He embarked on a revenge spree, defeating his Republican rivals in the primaries and silencing virtually all dissenters into submission (or retirement). Democracy existed, as Harris put it, because democracy is a set of systems, and all systems can be shaped, changed, and exploited by people.

Trump had help last time in his attempt to illegitimately cling to power. In 2021, 147 members of the GOP voted to overturn the most recent presidential election results. But after dark on January 6, Sen. Mitch McConnell could theoretically have rounded up his fellow Republicans into an anti-Trump bloc that would have remained in place from that day forward. He didn’t. Senator Lindsey Graham, who proclaimed “enough is enough” hours after the mob took over the Capitol, has also concluded that he has not, in fact, had enough, and is among many former Trump critics to speak out again have connected. JD Vance, who once called Trump a “cultural heroin” in an essay for this magazine, will resign his Senate seat to become Trump’s vice president.

Trump’s historic comeback can be attributed to many things – inflation, immigration, the economy, grievance politics, his own charisma, his weak Democratic opponents – but perhaps nothing was more important than his keen understanding of the nebulous nature of rules.

Decades ago, people close to Trump, like Roy Cohn and Roger Stone, taught him that rules are malleable and that winning is all that matters. However, the Democrats are, by and large, a party of rule-followers. Despite being forced out of the race by his own party, President Joe Biden is still an institutionalist. There he stood, smiling, next to Trump, the man he had described as an “existential threat.” Biden’s pleasantries and adherence to norms run deep. Susie Wiles, Trump’s former co-campaign manager, said Biden’s chief of staff Jeff Zients was “very helpful” to her and even hosted a dinner for her and others at his home.

This is not an opposition party. The Democrats are playing one game and Trump is playing another. Trump wins.

“Today I did what I have done my entire career, which is to take seriously the oath I have taken many times to support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” Harris said this afternoon. As with Mike Pence four years ago, there is no convincing argument why she should have done otherwise. She had a job to do and she did it.

Harris and everyone else at the Capitol today supported and defended a system that Trump has bent to his will – and all but broken. Trump takes his own oath two weeks from today. In his second term, he is ready to reshape the existing systems in his own image. Nobody knows exactly what comes next.

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Evening reading

Americans need to celebrate more

By Ellen Cushing

What if there was a way to bring all of your friends together in one place – perhaps one with drinks, snacks and chairs? What if you could see your work friends, your childhood friends, and the people you had friendly chats with at school all at once instead of scheduling several different appointments? What if you could introduce your friends and have them flirt with each other without any apps? What if you could set up your own Elks Lodge, even if just for one night?

I’m obviously being annoying – there’s a way! They’re parties, and we need more of them.

Read the full article.

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Culture break

Regard. Nikki Glaser hosted last night’s Golden Globes (streaming on Paramount+) — and the roaster was prepared, writes Shirley Li.

Debate. Why don’t men text other men back? Maybe then they would have more friends, writes Matthew Schnipper.

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Stephanie Bai contributed to this newsletter.

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