There are times when an election lifts the spirit. Power passes to the victor whom we, the people, have chosen and we rejoice that democracy has worked again.
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It is not a perfect system but better than the alternatives.
But this is not one of those hopeful transitions of power. It is tinged with foreboding. It's a bit like a recovery from a near-death experience. There is immediate relief that we survived but a gnawing fear that we might not be so lucky next time.
If Mr Trump had been a little more competent and a little more able to restrain his own behaviour - if he had been just a little bit more intelligent - he might well have won.
The forces which backed him in their tens of millions are still there, ready for him in 2024 or for a slightly more savvy contender with similarly noxious views.
Our great process of democracy is in danger if citizens believe it is broken. Democrats believed it was broken in 2016 when Mr Trump won with fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. Republicans believe they were defrauded this time.
Recent polling by the Morning Consult organisation indicates that most Republicans believe power was stolen from them in the presidential election.
"A majority of Republicans believe there was widespread fraud," the polling organisation concluded.
If millions of voters will not accept facts, how can democracy work?
"Those voters were most likely to cite information from Trump and Fox News as the basis for that view: 55 per cent of Republicans who believe there was widespread fraud say Trump is one of the sources that lead them to that conclusion, and 45 per cent say the same about Fox News - more than any of the other 15 sources tested."
If millions of voters will not accept facts, how can democracy work?
The American historian Tim Snyder (whose great study is of Nazism and the Soviet Union) said: "Post-truth is pre-fascism, and Trump has been our post-truth president."
The Financial Times commentator, Martin Wolf, added: "If truth is subjective, force must decide. There can then be no true democracy, only gangs of rival thugs or the boss's dominant gang."
The erosion of democracy in the United States has not been through gangs (or it wasn't until the riot at the Capitol). It has been by the drawing of electoral boundaries to devalue the votes of black people. It has been in the stacking of the system in favour of money, including the money of those who own the media, very much including Rupert Murdoch.
Mr Biden can't transform that situation easily.
Much depends on the Republicans.
Have enough of them looked into the abyss and seen the devil? Have enough of them seen where they were going and decided to turn back?
One of the signs of hope is that the Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, did accuse Mr Trump of provoking the riot at the Capitol.
Mr McConnell was an arch Trump loyalist. He backed the President through all the lies and distortions of truth. Will he turn and lead a Republican vote in the impeachment hearings to disqualify the former president from standing again?
Before Mr Trump gracelessly left the White House, he indicated he might be back.
"I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning," he said.
The return of Trump whether in its original form or as a new, smoother version, would take democracy beyond breaking point.
It may yet happen.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
