There is no legal reality in US politics; there is only the reality that Trump has nearly 43 million dull-eyed drooling howling supporters who will continue to back him whatever he does. This means no Republican politician who hopes for re-election will ever oppose Trump in any meaningful way, and the GoP majority in the Senate leaves Trump free to do literally anything at all. We need to accept the fact that the norms of democracy were so easily cast aside, not by a clever scheming ruthless man but by a mindless infantile cretin and a gang of craven enablers. This should tell us something very important about our fantasies regarding the suitability of representative democracy as a form of governance.