Trump has long understood that he is unlikely to win the election outright. That the majority of Americans don’t back him — they didn’t the first time around, remember. That’s no mere coincidence: it is the culmination of a trend. The same happened with George W Bush, and it was an ominous sign of things to come. America’s ranked as a flawed democracy precisely because it’s obscure “electoral college” system at this point, a remnant of slavery and segregation, designed to empower wealthy landowners, stands against the wishes of the majority — who want a society more like Canada or Europe than the failed state of Texas.