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It is wild that it has come to this: The fourth anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection will pass with the architect of that day’s terrible events having his victorious electoral count overseen by the woman whose vice presidency he tried to extrajudicially subvert before it started.

A new Congress, now controlled by the insurrectionist’s allies but still full of people whose lives were threatened by the Donald Trump–instigated mob, will prepare to do his bidding when he is sworn in in two weeks. And with that, the remaining legal efforts to hold him accountable for the attempted coup will disappear. It’s not quite like observing 9/11 by inviting the surviving al-Qaida leaders to board ceremonial flights to New York and Washington, but it’s still pretty bad. The reality settling over the United States today is that the insurrectionists outmaneuvered both Democratic leaders and America’s antiquated laws and institutions, and now they will have an extended opportunity to show us all what we’ve won.

That this grim moment seemed unimaginable four years ago almost goes without saying. Even some Republicans leaders and commentators who had spent four years laundering Trump’s vile indecency and explaining away each new assault on the country’s norms and institutions were momentarily chastened. Inside the Capitol, the insurrection was violent and terrifying and could have resulted in multiple members of Congress getting killed or wounded. But while it was shocking to watch, it was also bumbling and rudderless and rather obviously doomed. From the outside, it mostly looked like angry fans storming and looting the field and the clubhouse after their favorite team lost the Super Bowl—bad, but also not likely to change the final score.

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