George Washington notably declared American democracy to be “an experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people”.

The American people are now abandoning it as a failed experiment.

Voters cast their ballots at Precinct 3 in Berlin, New Hampshire.Credit: Getty Images

In word and in deed, Donald Trump for years has made plain that he does not respect the results of elections, unless he is winning.

Yet most American voters, in full knowledge, cast their ballots for him in Tuesday’s election.

In case anyone had forgotten his autocratic instinct, Trump issued a reminder just two days before election day.

He has never accepted the outcome of the 2020 election, fomented a riot to try to stay in the White House and on Sunday said that “I shouldn’t have left” it.

Seven in 10 Americans understood the risk, telling CNN pollsters last week that they didn’t expect Trump would concede defeat if he lost. Yet most voters willingly handed him power.

If Washington was the father of America’s democracy, Donald Trump has auditioned to be its undertaker and is now positioned to duly deliver.

He didn’t have to seize power. America, the modern world’s greatest champion of democracy for the past eight........

© The Age