There’s something at once fitting and ironic about the fact that October, the month most famously associated with surprises in our politics, began with a vice presidential debate—an event that might, in a past lifetime, have had a chance of producing various cascading electoral consequences. In an older, normal political era (or a less surreal and debased timeline than the one we’re now trapped in), J.D. Vance’s refusal to acknowledge the indisputable reality that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election would, at a minimum, have ignited a series of chaotic news cycles, and quite likely led any number of Republicans to call for his removal from their party’s ticket.