Donald Trump has won the presidency — easily.

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The Republican Party holds both houses of Congress.

The GOP holds a record number of governorships.

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Much will be said and written about last night, but a few things were clear:

* Identity politics carried the night. The identity: White male without a college education. Race and gender remain potent in America. Feminism was rejected again last night.

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* Political conventions — ground games, advertising — mean nothing against TV personality politics and grievance.

* The politicization of the FBI played a key role in the final outcome — both in the late decline in Hillary Clinton’s poll numbers and the accompanying cratering of Democratic hopes to pick up Senate seats. James Comey mattered.

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* The Clinton e-mail “scandal” was the most over-covered and misrepresented story of the campaign.

* Meddling in the election — and media acquiescence in it — through Julian Assange, Wikileaks and Russia was the most undercovered story of the campaign and the most ominous for the future.

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Finally: Has there ever been a more momentous and longer-lasting political decision than the Republican Senate’s decision to break with custom and moral government to deny President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to the U.S. Supreme Court? Preserving that appointment for President Donald Trump holds consequences that will unfold over many years and I don’t expect them to be good for those on the progressive side of the political aide.

Judge Wendell Griffen, in commenting on the election, recalls Rutherford B. Hayes election in the House in 1876 and the end of Reconstruction, rise of Jim Crow and the rest.

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In 2008, a voting coalition of moderate and progressive white men and women, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian-Americans, and white Millennials elected President Obama. In 2016, a coalition of white working class men and women, white senior citizens, and white religious conservatives elected President-Elect Donald Trump. Time will tell whether the 2016 election of Mr. Trump will have the same unjust consequences as the 1876 election of Mr. Hayes had for the nation. 

President Obama leaves office with high approval ratings, a solid record of achievement and a flawless effort to help Hillary Clinton continue his work. It is probably true that the racial animus he engendered remains at the root of Donald Trump’s victory.

What now? Good question.

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