He won Four years ago today I watched on television as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol during the joint session of Congress to stop the certification of the presidential election and I thought to myself, “it’s finally over. Trump can’t possibly come back after this.” Until then I had assumed that he would immediately start his comeback. It didn’t occur to me that he could survive inciting this violent assault, especially since he egged it on as it was happening: As we later saw on video, the crowd soon began chanting “hang Mike Pence!” Later in the evening Trump finally emerged and put out a video telling the rioters he understood why they were so upset about all the evil people who stole the election but they needed to go home now. He said he loved them and they were very special: Over the course of many hours we watched on TV as bizarre Trump supporters occupied the Senate floor and took possession of the dais, the Capitol was vandalized and trashed and rioters beat police over the head with American flags. It was the most shockingly surreal event I’ve ever observed in American politics. The whole world was stunned by the live pictures we saw over the course of that momentous afternoon. Yet later that night, once the police and National Guard restored order and the rioters dispersed, the Congress returned to the Capitol and they certified the election. For many people that signaled that the guardrails had held,…