The 2020 presidential election is over. But President Donald Trump´s baseless efforts to undermine it, and the consequences of those undemocratic actions, will linger in America for far longer. It is increasingly clear that there is no fact, no piece of evidence and no court ruling that will dissuade Trump from trying to mislead Americans about President-elect Joe Biden´s victory. And Trump has hardly been alone in that effort; numerous Republicans have stood with him or stood by silently, including 126 GOP members of the House who backed a bid to get the Supreme Court to invalidate Biden´s victory in four key states. The court emphatically rejected the case Friday night. Trump responded on Twitter late Friday, “The Supreme Court really let us down,” but he vowed to “fight on!” The actions of Trump and his allies have exposed a striking reality about America: Many lawmakers in one of the nation´s two major political parties are either willing to back efforts to overturn a free and fair election or unwilling to speak out against such a campaign. That lays the predicate for politicians to question the integrity of any election if the results don´t go a party or a candidate´s way, a dangerous notion that is likely to further erode Americans´ trust in government and test the durability of the nation’s democratic institutions. With the sitting president leading the way and friendly media outlets standing by to amplify his claims, the result is that millions of Americans will likely remain convinced Biden´s victory was illegitimate and the election was fraudulent. According to a Quinnipiac University poll out this week, 77% of Republicans believe there was widespread fraud in the November election and about 60% say they consider Biden’s victory illegitimate. In reality, Biden won 306 Electoral College votes, the same number Trump carried four years ago in a victory he deemed a landslide. Biden also outpaced Trump by more than 7 million votes nationwide.