This is not, it appears, a universal response. About half the nation, who voted the other way, seem quietly delighted at the rapid dismantling of institutions and practices we’ve long taken for granted. They seem less vocal than we – I get the sense they’re a little confused by its suddenness and waiting to see what’ll come of it – but now and then one or two of them will post on the internet mocking reactions to our liberal outrage. This reminds me of our old cross-country coach’s advice. As a highly successful team, we never had to practice being good losers. Instead, he counseled the greater difficulty of being good winners. Clearly, he was right.

The sudden flood of firings, freezes, and deportations has obviously been in the works for a while, certainly since before the election, which in effect handed the Republican Party a federal carte blanche with a note saying, “Here. You’ve accurately identified the things we’re most afraid of, and you’ve been saying you’re the guys to take care of them. Let’s see what you can do.” No human being, especially an elderly man already compromised, could accomplish in such a short time what’s already been decreed. All those executive orders were printed, mounted in presentation folders suitable for television, and handed to the president on cue, with brief descriptions of each’s contents and import, for his flamboyant signature and, if he wished, gratuitous comments.

The purchase of Greenland (which reportedly provoked a fiery and profane phone call with Denmark’s prime minister); the absorption of Canada (see former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien’s superb response); the seizing of the Panama Canal; and the renaming of the Gulf of Mexico are all attempts at gaslighting, a lamentably successful technique that should instead alert any intelligent observer that something nefarious, disputable, or illegal is going on simultaneously. We’re still finding out what that’s likely to be.

It’s not going to be military aircraft ferrying deportees back to Colombia. After brief resistance from that country’s president, the threat of 50% tariffs on Colombian products persuaded him to back down, and our coffee prices are safe. But others won’t give in so easily. Self-centered individuals and governments often ignore the fact that other people, in effect, have guns, too. The blusterous campaign promises to lower the price of eggs and gasoline are going to make frequent reappearances.

We read and hear (in the aforementioned news) of an existential threat to our democracy. I’m a bit less moved, though I do find some of the president’s minions loathsome. There’s no doubt, if history is any guide, that the United States will eventually go under, but I think not during the current president. As a kid in grade school I was introduced to Shelley’s “Ozymandias.” At the same time as that, the newspapers were full of the evil deeds of Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo. Later, Stalin, whose “atheism” drove the US Congress into quivering fits of religious pretension. Trump may be a menace, but he’s not disciplined enough to constitute a death threat.

Meanwhile, however, his bully boys are hard at it, keeping our borders secure and scaring the daylights out of a lot of people. A popular bakery in Boston apparently has fired its undocumented workers for fear of attracting ICE raids. Some of Bea’s proposals are held up by a freeze on the NIH. I have no way of verifying whether oranges are rotting in California orchards for want of frightened workers. Perhaps we’d best keep an eye on the price of fruits and vegetables, rather than of eggs.

Meanwhile in Vermont, little seems changed. We may be in for the California treatment one of these days, if we’re again in need of emergency aid. Or we may be too small to attract the ire of the avenger-in-chief. But as my friend Bea pointed out the other day, the sea still beats regularly upon the rocks in front of her house. This week we’ll celebrate a Vermont tradition, midwinter day; and the sound and fury from Washington will fade, like the drums of a distant parade, to where it belongs.