The voters spoke, and voted to extend the Obama presidency, but due to a quirk in the vote tabulating system, the result went to the Republican candidate, for the second time in 16 years. That’s quite a quirk, and it fits nicely with the quirk that gives Republicans a built-in advantage in the Senate, and the quirk that allows gerrymandering that has given Republicans a built-in advantage in the House of Representatives, plus the brand new quirk that allows the Republicans to never vote on Democratic nominations to the Supreme Court. Talk about a quirky system!

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In any case, the difference in our future now from what the voters actually selected is about as profound as it gets.

A reader accused me of whining about the electoral college, but I feel it more as genuine dismay. Whining is unfortunately all too accurate. The Democrats accepted the results so fast and supinely in both 2000 and 2016 that barely a ripple of discontent registered in body politic.

Contrast this with the body-blow that President-elect Donald Trump was threatening to deliver if he lost. Lawsuits, accusations of rigging, and marshaling his voters toward the invalidation of American democratic mechanisms. Does this tell us anything?

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It tells us that in addition to the two often-cited explanations for Trump voters — economic anxiety and racial animus — there is a third, hidden one. There is an apparent widespread voter desire for ruthlessness.

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This was the real Trump campaign platform. The policy contradictions added up to nothing particular, and his on-again, off-again stigmatization of groups may or may not have been actual beliefs. But the one constant throughout was ruthlessness, and voters liked it. They assumed, of course, that the ruthlessness was aimed away from them.