Eight years after his shocking win in 2016, and four years after his defeat in 2020, Donald Trump is now, once again, on the cusp of being elected the next president of the United States. He will regain this seat of immense power with fresh grievances, threats of being a dictator on “day one” and calls for retribution against his “enemies” — ushering America into something both familiar and strange.

This projected win comes after many losses — including the rollback of women’s reproductive rights with the striking down of Roe v. Wade and the realization now that two prominent, experienced female presidential candidates — former Sen. Hillary Clinton and Vice President Kamala Harris — have failed to crack the highest, hardest glass ceiling in the land.

The first Trump presidency — marred by incompetence and scandals — was a mess, but it could have been much worse if not for the career Republicans in his midst, constantly working to hide his flaws and rein him in. But this time around, there will be no John Kellys or Mike Pences to be the more rational actors when dealing with an irrational man. There will be no one to say “That’s against the Constitution” that Trump does not adhere to and has been dismissive of in the past. There will be no respect for the rule of law — only the rule of one. It is the greatest challenge to our Democratic experiment since the Civil War.

This is not a drill.

But now is not the time to cower or capitulate. I can promise you that HuffPost is doing neither. (And you can do your part and join us in this fight. Click here to support HuffPost.) We’ve been sounding the alarm on Trump since day one. Reporting extensively on his authoritarian leanings, his dangerous foreign policy, his racist and fascist rhetoric, and how he stoked a bloody insurrection on our nation’s Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. This campaign season, reporters including HuffPost’s Liz Skalka have been on the ground in nearly every swing state while others, such as S.V. Dáte, have followed every move at the White House, documenting this unprecedented year in presidential politics.

This is the........

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