What does Donald Trump’s indictment say about US democracy?

‘The law cannot allow for exceptions; in both democracy and according to the rule of law, we are meant to be equals.’ Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

So it finally happened. Trump has been indicted. For Democrats and scattered anti-Trumpers on the right, it will probably feel not nearly as satisfying or generate as much schadenfreude as they imagined. In fact, it might seem positively anticlimactic.

After all, Trump did not get indicted for his political crimes and misdemeanors. Other investigations may still catch up with him. But the fact that there is no choreographed political theater is precisely how democracies tend to work: messy, piecemeal, ensuring that there is no impunity.