By contrast, Trump’s response to being caught on tape bragging about sexually assaulting women was to apologize while simultaneously dismissing it as “locker room talk.” Asked recently if he regretted anything he’d said in the campaign — calling immigrants “rapists,” for example, or criticizing women as too unattractive to have sex with — he said: “No. I won.” It’s disappointing enough that all the moral reservations Republicans such as U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke and Gov. Scott Walker had about Trump before the election vanished after he won the election. Worse is that the election results have convinced a squeaky clean politician like Obama to gloss over Trump’s awfulness.

Whether they know it or not, they’re going about the task of defining deviancy down — especially when the connections between Trump’s rhetoric in the campaign and the current level of hate in the Madison area or anywhere else could be much more than incidental.

“Trump’s behavior was considered unacceptable by many people, including Trump voters,” Breuer said. “But now that he is elected, he has national legitimacy. Therefore, his behavior is legitimate as well.”