We have learned one crucial lesson since January 20 – we are not Germany in 1933. I shared the fear that Trump represented an existential threat to American democracy. I am not convinced those fears have been entirely allayed. But the first hundred days of the Trump presidency have demonstrated that American institutions and traditions of democratic constitutionalism are not as easily “deconstructed” as Steve Bannon might have hope.

We should be proud of the resistance shown by our civil society. Ordinary citizens have taken to the streets in record numbers; we have confronted our representatives in town-hall meetings; we have flooded members of Congress with letters and emails; we have organized ourselves into groups such as Daily Action, mobilizing the energies of millions unwilling to quietly acquiesce in the destruction of American democracy.

In one weekend, the ACLU received more online contributions than it typically receives in six years. Art supply stores are enjoying gravy days, as Americans race to purchase poster boards and magic markers, the low-tech tools of peaceful protest.

We should be proud of our “so-called” federal judges, who, in jurisdictions from Massachusetts to an “island in the Pacific,” have put a stop to Trump’s travel bans and now have barred the administration from penalizing sanctuary cities by withholding federal funds. These judges, appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents, have demonstrated the indispensability of judicial independence to the maintenance and preservation of constitutional values.

The Democrats delivered one thing in the past 100 days: disappointment | Cornel West Read more

We should likewise feel grateful for the work done by our great institutions of “fake news” that have withstood unprecedented attacks from the president, and have worked tirelessly to subject Trump’s lies and distortions to the rigors of fact-checking and critical scrutiny.

Early in the new administration, Steve Bannon, in a profanity-laced interview, called the free press the “opposition party”. Bannon was correct – if by opposition we understand resistance to a politics of mendacity designed to deprive Americans of the truths necessary to informed self-governance.

Also deserving our admiration is the resistance that has emerged from within government itself. Hundreds if not thousands of dedicated public servants in agencies from the CIA to the EPA, from the Pentagon to the Department of Education, remain distressed and appalled by Trump.

These public servants have worked to keep the president in check by using two of the most powerful tools available to government officials – news leaks and bureaucratic inertia. The leaks, in particular, have helped bring about an astonishing reversal in the administration’s handling of Russia – from treating Putin as cozy partner to world menace.

Finally, some credit must go to President Trump himself. In his sheer incompetence and inconstancy, Trump has emerged as our best bulwark against Trump. But something else also is at work. As opposed to Bannon, a genuine radical with a grand vision and a resentful contempt for all elites, Trump always seemed something of an accidental authoritarian.

The qualities that brought him success in real estate, reality TV and on the campaign trail – a genius for self-promotion, a brazen disregard of facts and feelings, and an ability to effortlessly outrage and bully – all promised to make a mess of the presidency.

And yet the very craving for adulation, the need to chalk up successes, the deep, even cynical, pragmatism also predicted that Trump would have no stomach for Bannon’s reign of terror. The banishing of Bannon from the innermost precincts of power can only be viewed as a good.

Which is not to say that grave dangers do not remain and constant vigilance is not warranted. Trump’s environmental policies may prove catastrophic. His foreign policy, mercurial and possibly nonexistent, appears ill-equipped to master the challenges presented by North Korea, Iran and now Russia. But one hundred days in, we are entitled to a small measure of relief – relief we have created for ourselves.