In the final weeks of the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump did the following: He falsely accused Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, of eating their neighbors’ pets; invited a comedian to go on stage at a rally to call Puerto Rico a “floating garbage island”; He said he wouldn’t care if someone shot at journalists who cover their rallies; “I fantasized about former Representative Liz Cheney having guns”trained in your face”; called the United States a “garbage can for the world”; and pretended suck a microphone in public. Then, on Tuesday night, he decisively won the presidential election, sweeping every battleground state in the country.

That Trump routinely gets away with saying things that would have ended the career of any other politician is not a novel observation. People have been harping on this point since they launched their first campaign nine years ago. Theories abound to explain the phenomenon, and we’ll get to them in a moment. But first, do me a favor and re-read the previous paragraph. Control your reflective reaction. Do you find yourself browsing listlessly or do you notice that your attention has started to wander? Do you roll your eyes at what appears to be another scolding catalog of Trump’s alleged misdeeds, or mentally question my characterizations? (he was obviously joking about Cheney.) Maybe you’re thinking you missed one of these moments, or maybe you’re not quite sure. Haven’t you said something before about shooting journalists? Who can remember it? All this is mixed.

What we are experiencing is the product of Trump’s clearest political achievement, and perhaps his most lasting legacy: in his nearly decade as America’s leading figure, he has completely desensitized voters to behavior that, in another era, they would have considered disqualifier in a president. The national bar for outrage continues to rise; the ability to receive an electric shock has decreased.

Trump is not the first modern president to contribute to this national chilling effect. Richard Nixon’s abuses of power shattered the idyllic image many Americans had of the presidency, sowing a skepticism that would eventually turn into generational cynicism. And Bill Clinton’s affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky—with the airing of every graphic detail by his opponents and the rush to excuse his indiscretions by his allies—helped normalize the idea that presidents They do not need to be moral examples.

But when it comes to lowering our collective expectations about presidential behavior, Trump is a singular figure. The lines he has proactively crossed (legal, ethical, constitutional, moral) are too numerous to list. (Also, chances are you’d get bored and abandon this article if I tried.) But it seems worth noting here just a few of the firsts. He is the first president to try to remain in power after losing an election. He is the first president to be impeached twice (for trying to exchange military aid for political favors from the Ukrainian president and for sending a violent mob to storm the Capitol). He is the first to be convicted of a felony (for crimes related to paying money to an adult film star with whom he had an affair) and the first to be found. responsible for sexual abuse (for attacking E. Jean Carroll in the dressing room of a department store). He shows no contrition for these acts. In fact, he has always denied any wrongdoing, even as he boasts that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue without losing the support of his base.

Trump apologists might argue that his success is a symptom, not the cause, of the country’s uncouth character. Alternatively, something about his public persona, forged in New York tabloids and reality TV, may make people exceptionally tolerant of his sins. After all, the same voters in North Carolina who delivered the state’s 16 Electoral College votes this week also rejected a Trump-aligned proposal. gubernatorial candidate who had been caught making vile anti-Semitic and racist comments on a porn site. To be sure, Trump has also been helped by Republican politicians who cowardly defend everything he does, misleading Democrats who have struggled to offer a compelling alternative, and a press corps still limited by his “bias towards coherence.”

In any case, the fact is that Trump’s impudence damages political culture. Every time you cross a new line, you make it that much easier for the next one to do so. Nearly a decade into the Trump era, too many Americans have internalized the idea that expecting our political leaders to be good people is strange and foolish. But this smarter-than-thou attitude only allows Trump and his imitators to act with impunity.

Is it possible to re-sensitize the electorate to scandal and cruelty? I don’t know. Maybe we start by trying to remember how we felt when all of this was still new.

In recent weeks, Gen Z voters have been sharing videos of themselves on TikTok listening to (for what they say is the first time) Trump’s infamous speech. Access Hollywood tape. When watching these videos and reading some of the opinions of the young people I found interviews in He Washington Postboth heartbreaking and hopeful. Brigid Quinn, a 15-year-old from Georgia who had never heard the former and future president say “grab them by the pussy,” told the newspaper that she “didn’t understand how people thought this was normal.” Kate Sullivan, a 21-year-old student from Ohio, was equally surprised when she first heard it. “I recently got into politics,” he said. “The fact that people knew about this and still won is pretty crazy to me.”

A less cynical era may emerge again.