After Trump, Will Our Politics Get Better or Worse?

The potentially baleful consequences of a Trump victory in 2020 are clear. But what if, as seems more likely at this point, he is defeated? If Trump loses, a cloud will lift from American politics. But the circumstances that produced him will not vanish—and the changes that he wrought will outlast him. Like Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire cat, when Donald Trump fades from the scene, his teeth will linger after him—but unlike the cat’s, those teeth will not be smiling. They will bite and draw blood for years to come.

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If Trump loses the election narrowly, Republicans will likely contain their state-level losses—maintaining their ability to protect and possibly build on the gains from gerrymandering and voter suppression that they scored after 2010.

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If Trump loses badly enough, he might find himself suddenly shunned and discredited by his own party. When narcissists like Trump perform at a high level, they usually retain their popularity—but “when narcissists begin to disappoint those whom they once dazzled,” as Dan P. McAdams, a psychology professor at Northwestern University, has written in these pages, “their descent can be especially precipitous.”

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