Give it up

Maybe Donald Trump finally sees that the trash compactor walls are closing in. After otherwise loyal Republicans increasingly acknowledged that his legal options are exhausted and urged the transition to President-elect Biden to begin immediately, Trump allowed the General Services Administration to finally allow the process to proceed.

Pray this means the famously adolescent and mercurial president is prepared to transform into something approximating a grownup, acknowledging the election results he still refuses to fully accept and enabling a full and smooth passing of the baton to Biden, lest COVID vaccine distribution and other critical functions are impaired.

What finally began to wake him up? Was it Blackstone’s Steve Schwarzman, a stalwart ally of the president, acknowledging reality? “I am ready to help President-elect Biden and his team,” the Trump confidant said Monday. Another 164 American CEOs wrote an open letter Monday urging Trump to smell the bitter coffee.

Also, following Georgia’s certification of Biden’s victory Friday, Michigan Monday confirmed its count, bucking Trump’s meddling. Nevada is set to follow suit Tuesday.

While Trump is nominally allowing the transition to proceed, he still tweets that “I believe we will prevail!” That delusion remains a very troubling sign.

The wider damage he’s done to democracy is already irreparable. Some significant percentage of Trump’s enthusiasts, fed a steady diet of tripe, have been conditioned to believe that the United States is in the throes of a coup by leftist vote-counters.

Thus, U.S. institutions already in the throes of a legitimacy crisis — remember, Trump won in 2016 by calling the government a globalist liberal cabal — will drift ever further from ever larger numbers of Americans. Public health officials’ lifesaving advice will be ignored. Anti-state violence will increase.

Let this mark a turning point. It’s never too late to do the right thing.