Adam Serwer, The Atlantic: “Donald Trump was a punishment. Conservatives saw him that way, and Trump saw himself that way, too. After his upset victory over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election, some conservatives started to respond to any perceived liberal excess with a simple phrase: ‘This is why Trump won.’ If that was a convenient deflection, a way to rationalize Trumpian malice as the left’s responsibility, it was also a concise expression of Trump’s appeal to them. Trump was not a successful president. But as a form of punishment, he was everything conservatives dreamed of, and they loved him for it. Throughout his term in office, and even after his electoral defeat, Trump proclaimed to his admirers that he was all that stood between them and annihilation, cultivating a sense of existential dread among the conservative faithful. On January 6, the former president warned his supporters that ‘our country will be destroyed’ if Joe Biden were allowed to take office, minutes before they went on to sack the Capitol building.”

“Whereas Trump entered office and immediately sought to use the power of the state to crush the rival party’s constituencies, Biden and the Democratic Party will be deploying that same power to ensure that Americans, regardless of partisan affiliation, will receive the necessary vaccines to contain the coronavirus pandemic, and have enough money to feed their families, stay in their homes, and keep their businesses afloat. The passage of the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 symbolizes more than an ideological divergence on public policy; it reflects a radically different theory of governance. The Democrats are no saints, but they’ve come to believe that both the viability of their party and the sustainability of American democracy depend on their capacity to broaden their appeal to right-leaning voters. Trump wanted to punish his enemies; Biden must convince Trump supporters that he is not their enemy. Defeating Trump was but a battle; defeating Trumpism is the war.”