Scholars of the media have known for years that journalists—like all of us—have a tendency to latch onto a theory and stick to it long after they should have ditched it. It isn’t just that they disregard inconvenient evidence. It’s also, as authors S. Holly Stocking and Paget H. Gross observe in a 1989 book called How Do Journalists Think: A Proposal for the Study of Cognitive Bias in Newsmaking, that “theories are tested sequentially, not in parallel fashion.” Journalists focus on whether Vladimir Putin is pulling the strings rather than on a range of possible explanations for Trump’s actions or policies. The hypothesis favored by some Trump supporters, for instance, is that hatred for Putin runs so deep in Washington that people behind the scenes are dead set on finding any way possible to box Trump in and prevent him from making friendly overtures to Russia. Like all theories, it probably accounts better for some points and leaves others more poorly explained. But the point is that it’s not even on the table.

Just to try clearing the slate, let’s attempt a completely different hypothesis: that it’s Beijing that’s pulling a lot of the strings in the Trump White House. With that in mind, we’d suddenly find suspicious links to China on the part of Rick Perry, Wilbur Ross, Betsy DeVos, and Mike Pence. We’d surely be finding meetings with ambassadors and statements that changed. If you wanted to build an entire edifice on China-meddling conspiracy, you can do that. Bill Clinton’s enemies did that in the 1990s. Or pick Saudi Arabia. George W. Bush’s enemies did that in the 2000s. (Ironically, Hillary Clinton’s enemies did the same this past year.) And, of course, you also have people who think everything’s being controlled out of a tunnel under Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, something common on the David Duke right. That your own certitude about Moscow is shared by Paul Krugman might mean you’re in good company; or it might mean you’re both kooks.

I’ve digressed, but here is my point: the pain of the garden stake that is Donald Trump is causing people to succumb to dangerous temptation to look for any way to remove it, even if it means abandoning normal restraint. You can tell yourself that Trump is an illegitimate president—that he lost the popular vote and therefore doesn’t count, or that he won only because John Podesta’s tech guy fell for a phishing e-mail that even a four-year-old hacker could have devised, or that James Comey threw the election to Trump at the last minute, or that Moscow engineered it all. But even someone as icily competent as Putin, with his alleged record of serving polonium-210-laced tea to overseas enemies, could not have engineered Trump’s near-sweep in the primaries, or the 85 percent approval rating he now has among Republicans, or the flipping from blue to red by states that hadn’t gone Republican in over 30 years. The victory of Trump caused something approaching trauma in the psyches of millions of Americans, and that’s understandable, because old truths were overturned and suddenly everything was in the air. But let’s not pretend it was a coup d’état or a subversion of democracy.

So we’ve got to live with the garden stake, at least until the doctor will see us in 2018 or 2020. As temperamentally unsuited for office as our demented granddad might be, until he’s had a chance to govern, until his own supporters have seen fire and not just smoke, attempts to eject Trump prematurely from his post could unleash demons far worse than any we imagine we’re seeing now. It would be like what Republicans did to Bill Clinton—which was plenty bad, and for which voters punished them in 1998—but much worse, because of the particular dynamics of this moment, in which millions feel that they’re part of a populist movement to reclaim their voice. If an imperfect but democratically elected leader is taken out by means viewed as illegitimate, then people can do terrible things. We can look at near-failed states around the world for reminders.

Liberals—and plenty of conservatives—talk a lot about the violations of norms and scruples that Trump has committed. But if you don’t yourselves stick to norms and scruples, even when fighting those who don’t, you lose. This can feel like having your hands tied. But civilization depends upon keeping your hands tied. Let them rip, and good luck ever getting them back under control. We’ll manage Trump, if we manage ourselves.