Last Thursday evening a companionable London dinner party was just wrapping up when our hostess returned to the table brandishing the New York Times headline on her phone: in giant letters for such a tiny device, ‘TRUMP GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS’. Three American Democrats and one British Democrat-by-marriage, my fellow diners were exhilarated. One guest declared, ‘We got him’ – soon a triumphant refrain in my home state of New York.

Democrats are so blinded by their own goodness that they fail to grasp how badly this strategy could backfire

Technically a Democrat, sometimes as a sly rhetorical convenience, I was more muted, mumbling quietly once the cheers died down: ‘But I’m not sure about how this will play out politically.’ Fortunately, my reservations were ignored. My intense dislike of Donald Trump constitutes the narrow strip of common ground that I share with my many progressive friends, and it was imprudent to cast doubt on my one political saving grace. The evening was late for a knockdown drag-out over the merits of Trump’s ‘hush-money trial’, and naysaying would have pooped the party’s buoyant mood.

Emotionally, I’m still sympathetic. On the face of it, the verdict seems a win for the self-perceived good guys, so obviously that company was festive. I appreciate the ferocity with which many Americans (not all of them Democrats) revile Trump and genuinely believe he represents an existential threat to our system of government. Yet the problem with deeming any matter ‘existential’ is that, implicitly, all the rules are therefore........

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