For five years, I have written in these pages under the heading of “Down the middle.” Before getting to the meat of today’s column, let me briefly discuss what I take that to mean.

“Down the middle” does not mean I take a centrist approach to every question. Nor does it mean that my views are milquetoast or without conviction.

Rather, what this banner implies is that I try to take a balanced approach. That I do not have a fixed rooting interest in our partisan warfare. That I lean left on some issues; to the right on others. That I do not try to pass off political spin as analysis. That I do my best to hold both sides to account. That I put a premium on civility and talking across the divide. That I understand compromise is at the root of a functional political system.

Judging by the number of liberals who view me as way to the right and the many conservatives who allege that I am some closet leftie, I take satisfaction in being somewhere in the vicinity of the sweet middle ground.

That said, with the election now three weeks in the rearview mirror, except in California where they are still inexplicably counting votes, a whole lot is clearer. Whether that clarity is for better or for worse is in the eye of the beholder.

When Friedrich Nietzsche observed, “That which does not kill me makes me stronger,” he must have had Donald Trump in mind.

From impeachments to indictments, convictions and even an assassin’s bullet, to go along with no shortage of self-inflicted wounds along the way, all seemed to redound to Trump’s benefit. The sheer volume of takedowns, no matter their individual merit, provided an untold level of political immunity.

In the process, Trump has transformed from political circus act and shock victor eight years ago to undisputed king of the jungle.

On the flip side, Democrats are left with compounding problems to contemplate. For years, their biggest fear has been a withering of their iron grip on minority voters as well as the young. 2024 will go down as the year when small nicks and troublesome warning signs turned into gaping holes.

The very real risk is that once freed of historic patterns and expectations, such voters could be hard to reclaim. Put “tipping point” into your favorite search engine.

Democrats might also ponder the wisdom of running a campaign of “joy” in an era of widespread anger. When you get beyond the party’s core base of second-act women and elite professionals, a vibe of exultation and warm fuzziness was stunningly off-key.

At a deeper level, this election was a referendum on America’s institutions. Trump is arguably the most anti-institutional candidate ever to seek the presidency, much less to gain it a second time. His Cabinet appointments, one after another over the last couple of weeks, underscore his contempt.

That battle will be a central theme of the coming years. Absent a lot of the guardrails and counter-balances of Trump’s first term, will these institutions serve to constrain him or will Trump bend them to his will? We will see an early test of one such institution, namely the U.S. Senate.

American politics are in a state of flux and high volatility. Nearly every election, voters are expressing their discontent by throwing out one set of bums in favor of a new set. Then one or two cycles later, that new set of bums are sent packing.

In that context, the central challenge of the coming years will be to impose norms where Trump and his enablers see none. The largest bloc of Trump voters rejected what the Democrats were selling and favored his promised return to better times. However, they did not endorse chaos or steps beyond the Constitution.

Make no mistake: Stocking one’s Cabinet with the likes of Matt Gaetz, Tulsi Gabbard and other assorted provocateurs is beyond the pale. As a country, we must guard against normalizing the abnormal.

Per my assertion at the top, a centrist orientation does not equate to wussy, namby-pamby opinions.

History indicates that a presidential reelection almost invariably constitutes a high-water mark with second terms then taking a downward trajectory. This was pronounced for Richard Nixon and George W. Bush; less dramatic but still the case for Reagan, Clinton and Obama.

The centerpiece of Trump’s coming term is likely to be some issue or development we can but dimly imagine at this moment. Joe Biden hardly envisioned his presidency being consumed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine or the Middle Eastern firestorm emanating from October 7th.

Mark my words: Tariffs and border enforcement will not turn out to be the defining news of these years ahead.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for ColoradoPolitics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann