On 20 January, 2017, a dark thing will happen to America. In the past, some exquisite and less-than-exquisite statesmen have been inaugurated into the office of the presidency, but never before have we seen anything like this. And no, I’m not talking about the Muslim registry, the spectre of fear that caused the loss of our civil liberties, or even the “pussy-grabbing” misogynistic objectification of women.

I’m talking about a candidate who has no elected or military experience; who has an openly adversarial relationship with many in the US Armed Forces, diplomatic corps and the intelligence community; a man whose candidacy, it seems, was helped by infiltration from an adversarial foreign power and who openly states that he trusts foreign dictators over the domestic opposition.

And, as though that isn’t enough, the man who will take the oath of office will assume his new role with an unprecedented array of conflicts of interest combined with the least amount of transparency of any modern president this country has seen.

Oh, and his opponent, a former First Lady who will be attending his inauguration, is someone he threatened to imprison on the campaign trail, right after he appeared to suggest his supporters should assassinate her.

Dress rehearsal takes place ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration

Now, Hillary Clinton does not have to attend the inauguration. But in 250 years, just five former presidential couples did not attend the inaugurations of their successors. The fact that Trump is assaulting our norms calls for us to vigorously reassert them, not to partake in denigrating the traditions of civil democracy. In this way, she is staging more of a protest by attending the inauguration than she would be by boycotting it. She explicitly states that her duty is to the American people and US norms.

I’m pretty sure there are many places she’d rather be... like literally anywhere else in the world. But Clinton is doing this for a reason.

Some tense, if not outright violent, scenes will emerge from Washington,DC on the 20th. We all saw Donald Trump’s rallies. Lyndon B Johnson once famously said: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best coloured man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

Nothing changes for the white man between the “before” and “after” in that picture. He is still at the nadir and nothing has been solved. The only difference may be that, in the “after” picture, he’s given away his vote and has no money left in his pocket. But Trump’s supporters haven’t figured out that they've been played yet. It still looks like they would give their last cent to see the apotheosis of his outright xenophobia.

Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Show all 14 1 /14 Donald Trump's most controversial quotes Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Isis: "Some of the candidates, they went in and didn’t know the air conditioner didn’t work and sweated like dogs, and they didn’t know the room was too big because they didn’t have anybody there. How are they going to beat ISIS?" Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On immigration: "I will build a great wall — and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me —and I’ll build them very inexpensively. I will build a great, great wall on our southern border, and I will make Mexico pay for that wall. Mark my words." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Free Trade: "Free trade is terrible. Free trade can be wonderful if you have smart people. But we have stupid people." PAUL J. RICHARDS | AFP | Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Mexicans: "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re sending people that have lots of problems. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists." Getty Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On China: "I just sold an apartment for $15 million to somebody from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?... I love China. The biggest bank in the world is from China. You know where their United States headquarters is located? In this building, in Trump Tower." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On work: "If you're interested in 'balancing' work and pleasure, stop trying to balance them. Instead make your work more pleasurable." AP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On success: "What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate." Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On life: "Everything in life is luck." AFP Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On ambition: "You have to think anyway, so why not think big?" Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On his opponents: "Bush is totally in favour of Common Core. I don't see how he can possibly get the nomination. He's weak on immigration. He's in favour of Common Core. How the hell can you vote for this guy? You just can't do it." Reuters Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Obamacare: "You have to be hit by a tractor, literally, a tractor, to use it, because the deductibles are so high. It's virtually useless. And remember the $5 billion web site?... I have so many web sites, I have them all over the place. I hire people, they do a web site. It costs me $3." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On Barack Obama: "Obama is going to be out playing golf. He might be on one of my courses. I would invite him. I have the best courses in the world. I have one right next to the White House." PA Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On himself: "Love him or hate him, Trump is a man who is certain about what he wants and sets out to get it, no holds barred. Women find his power almost as much of a turn-on as his money." Getty Images Donald Trump's most controversial quotes On America: "The American Dream is dead. But if I get elected president I will bring it back bigger and better and stronger than ever before and we will make America great again." GETTY

As for the misogyny, I’ll bet you there will be more than your fair share of people wearing the notorious “Trump that bitch” T-shirts chanting “Lock her up” – only this time Hillary will be in attendance, as well as the man she ran against. And then there’s the 200,000-plus people who are planning to protest in defiance with the Women’s March on Washington that day.

Of course, we can only speculate exactly what the resultant chaos will be like, but when you combine what is essentially a mega-Trump rally on steroids with a record number of protesters, it’s clear that the situation has the potential to ignite.

In a few days, Donald Trump will stand before a few hundred million Americans and a few billion people across the globe to take a solemn and legally binding oath to “protect and defend” the constitution that he either hasn’t read or doesn’t comprehend. Surrounding him will be people like Steve Bannon – who ran Breitbart, a right-wing “news” publication which published articles entitled “The solution to online harassment is simple: women should log off”, “Trannies whine about hilarious Bruce Jenner billboard”, “Birth control makes women unattractive and crazy”, “Would you prefer your child had feminism or cancer?” and “Gay rights have made us dumber, it’s time to get back in the closet” – and Jeff Sessions, who has consistently shown disdain for civil rights.

I’m embarrassed by what is happening in the United States. One aspect of this reality makes me blush most of all: that perhaps the whole world thinks that all Americans are buying into this circus and that Donald Trump, scary clown par excellence, has fooled everyone.

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It’s not an unreasonable assumption. We are, after all, watching this blatant lying and duplicitous behaviour being escalated to the most visible sanctum of American power at the US Capitol. The entire world cannot be faulted if they were to think that we're all stupid enough to blithely watch this and not know any better. Even those of us (more than half of the population) who did not vote for him.