On Monday, Donald Trump was officially certified by Congress as the winner of the 2024 Electoral College vote. Vice President Kamala Harris, who Trump defeated in the election, fulfilled her responsibilities by overseeing the vote count and ceremony. Trump will take power on January 20. His inauguration coincides with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Remembrance Day. Trump is America’s first White president. Dr. King is one of America’s great freedom warriors for multiracial democracy and human rights. He was martyred for his struggle to force America to live up to its professed ideals and unrealized potential. The coincidence of these two events is one more example of how this version of reality feels fundamentally broken.
Trump’s official victory as the 47th president of the United States also took place on the fourth “anniversary” of his attempt to remain in office despite being defeated in the 2020 election. On Jan. 6, four years ago, in one of the most infamous moments in American history, many thousands of Donald Trump’s MAGA followers, at his encouragement, participated in a violent assault on the Capitol. They came dangerously close to succeeding. Then-Vice President Mike Pence (and other high-ranking government officials including Nancy Pelosi) were minutes if not seconds away from being tracked down by the MAGA mob. The quick thinking by an African American Capitol Police officer named Eugene Goodman likely saved Pence’s life — and American democracy.
