There’s no getting around the facts of matter —the President garnered over 70 million votes, the second highest total in history, Republicans gained in the House, are likely to retain the Senate, and held on to crucial statehouses that will determine redistricting. This is the country we live in, one far more conservative (a kind way of putting), more racist (a more accurate judgment), and more ignorant than I imagined even in my darkest moods.

A new president may mitigate some of the effects of our deeply unsalutary national disposition, but not many. Divided government coupled with the constitutional advantages that favor rural populations (the laughable inequities of the Electoral College; by 2040 two thirds of Americans will be represented by 30 percent of the Senate) will prove difficult if not impossible to change. They, too, are the facts of the matter.

If the boil is soon gone from our face—its scar forever marring—the infection has migrated throughout the body.