After four tumultuous years, the sordid Donald Trump administration finally reached its conclusion today. It could be argued that as a nation we avoided disaster, though anyone looking around at the raging tire fire that engulfs the United States could be forgiven for thinking otherwise. That said, our constitutional republic endured an enormous amount of abuse, culminating with an insurrection, but held up. The Trump presidency was a deafening wake-up call that bad actors can be elected here, and we may not be so fortunate next time. I’ve read World War II history for decades, and the legitimate question of Germany embracing Adolf Hitler persists. How on earth did good people go against their better angels and best interests to accept an abhorrent man with abhorrent ideas? Perhaps we have now seen how easy it is for a nation to lose its way.

It has been said before but bears repeating. As bad as Trump was, he was just a symptom of our real problems. The devils were already here and they remain: the growing wealth gap, racial inequality, disdain for or outright denial of science, disregard for facts, the dark money flowing freely into the political system, the GOP at the national level lurching from conservative to reactionary politics, the violence that always bubbles beneath the surface and often erupts in this country, etc. We have to do better solving our problems. Trumpism isn’t going anywhere, though its name may change thanks to the damaged brand.

Trump was the great purveyor lies and came dangerously close to overturning election results, which led to his second impeachment and created new legal issues for him though he is out of office. There has been much talk of unity since the breach of the United States Capitol. It can be heard everywhere, including from voices hoping to avoid any accountability for their actions in fomenting the insurrection. That simply does not work. Unity and impunity are not partners. There needs to be justice in order to move forward. Not vengeance. That’s easy. Justice. That’s harder. But it is required of those who cruised through the Capitol taking selfies while hunting for elected officials and destroying public property. It is mandatory of the politicians who courted and incited these groups by echoing statements they knew to be false from a vituperative con man.

There is a lot that needs to be dragged into the light. We’re probably going to see in the coming weeks that things were even worse than we thought. But if our elected officials lose interest in holding accountable those responsible, all in the interest of moving on, then we’re just postponing another rendezvous with catastrophe.

That’s not all. We have to do serious work to address our problems that were laid bare in 2020, including our health care system, inequality, climate change, disdain for science, contempt for truth, and the wealth gap that is shrinking the middle class. The root causes for these issues are deep, challenging to overcome, and often seated in utter human selfishness, but they relate to so much of what happened during the past four years and how Trump came to power in the first place. There is accountability needed here too.

We best get to it. There are Trump acolytes waiting in the wings, and you can bet they’ve been observing. Some are smarter, more competent, and less repulsive as human beings. And they have learned that people can be convinced to vote against their own best interests. That should scare all of us into being more vigilant about the American Experiment.

What should give us hope is how many resisted the administration’s worst impulses and spoke out loudly about the injustices. We have a new president who is eager to leave the toxicity of that administration behind. There is a lot of good in this country, and the tide is starting to change in the right direction. Let’s make sure the last four years are a regrettable blip, not the start of a trend.

I don’t write much about the current occupant of the White House. There is never anything good to say, and it requires a shower afterward. But once a year, usually around this time, I have a few thoughts after drinking from the firehose of depravity that is his administration.

Last week the president got away with his high crimes and misdemeanors. With the notable exception of Senator Mitt Romney who had the moral courage to vote for conviction on abuse of power, the Republican majority in the Senate voted to acquit Donald Trump on his impeachment articles. While not surprising this was tragic. The worst thing about the GOP’s (mostly) collective shrug on holding the president accountable is that in the future there will be another bad actor — someone much smarter and more capable than Trump — with precedent set that he or she can do whatever they want. What party they hail from will not matter. That is where a republic dies. These are just the seeds of our own destruction willingly sewn while the mass media breathlessly calls it like a ballgame.

The Trump administration is largely functioning as a monarchy while conservatives in Congress embrace reactionary politics. It has been an odd thing to watch over the last three years, but I also believe it is the result of changing political demographics. That means a dangerous year lies ahead.

From now until November American politics is a runaway train — a train engulfed in flames! The president will continue his behavior pattern, quite comfortable knowing there will be no repercussions other than stern looks and “troubled” speeches from party members in front of cable news microphones. While I cannot see another impeachment happening, despite suggestions to the contrary, there remain numerous investigations of this president for much more serious crimes than what he was impeached for — the kind that earn a person jail time. Those are going to be out in the open as the year progresses, and it is not going to help the GOP, which has steadfastly tied its credibility and election fortunes to his. Trump knows he is in trouble and that his best course of action is to stay in office to avoid prosecution. He will fight as though his life depends on winning reelection. With his visibly worsening health, there is also a chance that if he wins in November, he resigns midterm after negotiating a non-prosecution agreement. Infuriating, but getting him out of the White House would be worth it. Justice doesn’t always mean vengeance.

That said, I don’t see Trump getting reelected. He’s deeply unpopular and there are far too many people affected by his policies who don’t believe the picture he tried to paint at his reality television-inspired State of the Union last week. In what seemed unfathomable a year ago, even the Senate isn’t a lock for keeping a Republican majority. It’s not just Democrats that are incensed. There are prominent and equally furious conservatives rolling out attack ads against the president’s sycophants, and they are just getting started. The Republican Party has consistently administered fatal wounds to itself through fealty to an emperor who has no clothes, which adheres well to the pattern that whatever Trump touches he destroys…or bankrupts. Whatever the GOP is going forward is not what it was, and legacies have been forever ruined. History will not be kind.

While Trump has only been a symptom of what is wrong with the country, I’m sad for those who have embraced him as the answer to our problems. History consistently shows that embracing these kinds of leaders is a common occurrence that never leads to good outcomes. The bold lying with impunity, gaslighting, criminality, and the lurching toward an authoritarian government while using these tactics of totalitarian regimes is thoroughly depressing to witness, but there is hope.

I firmly believe that truth still matters. I believe that the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice. And I believe that what is coming in November will be devastating to Trump, the merry band of grifters in his administration, and his cronies in Congress. Vote. Bring your friends. Don’t give up. It may not look or feel like it at this very moment, but we’re winning. The only way we lose is by not showing up.