No, Donald Trump’s campaign ends when a parade of women allege that he not only sees all women as sexual objects, but also believes that his status — or if you prefer, his privilege — allows him to violate their bodies whenever it pleases him, to grope them and kiss them and walk in on them when they’re dressing, whether they want him to or not.

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This is how, 240 years after America’s founding, we finally get our first woman president: with the fall of the most boorish, misogynistic bully our political system could produce.

And make no mistake, there will be a backlash.

There’s a certain kind of poetic justice at work, even if we acknowledge that the growing stack of allegations of assault and harassment are less directly relevant to Trump’s potential performance as president than some of this other many character flaws, like his impulsiveness, his need to attack anyone who criticizes him, or his insane belief that he’s smarter than everybody and knows more than everybody.

But Trump is running against Hillary Clinton, the target of more sexist vitriol than any single person in contemporary history. He was always her mirror image, the opposite of everything she is and ever was. He revels in his ignorance; she’s diligent and wonky. He’s impulsive and improvisational; she’s cautious and controlled. He works to see how many different kinds of people he can offend; she carefully assembles a diverse coalition.

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And to finally become president, this candidate who has traversed the last half-century of social, economic, and cultural progress — or lack thereof — for women, has to overcome Trump, looming like the “boss” in a video game, the powerful last enemy you have to fight to finish the game. An enemy who, in a last vulgar gasp, believes that he can save himself by blaming her for her husband’s sins. Because after all, whose fault is it if a man strays? Surely blame can only lie with the woman who wasn’t attractive enough to hold his interest. Trump, who cheated on — then discarded — two previous wives when they hit their forties, ought to know.

The fact that the issue of Trump’s predatory behavior is what brings him down will only fuel the anti-feminist backlash that will mark the Clinton presidency, just as a racial backlash marked the Obama presidency. Clinton’s election will be a profound symbol of the slow decline of white men’s unquestioned place atop our societal hierarchy, leaving more and more of them feeling that they’ve lost something, that they aren’t afforded the deference they deserve and were once granted.

This idea, that an evolving society has left certain people behind and robbed them of their prior status, has been a profoundly important engine behind Trump’s campaign. He has promised restoration and revanchism, that we’ll take our country back from those who have contaminated and diminished it, and Make America Great Again. His primary opponents may have hinted at something similar, but as in all things, Trump look the implied and made it literal, and base Republicans cheered.

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So what will Trump’s most ardent supporters do when he loses to her, this castrating harpy, this screeching, hectoring mother-in-law who won’t smile, this woman who is coming not only to grab their guns but to grab some other things as well?

We’ve seen a hint of what’s to come at Trump’s rallies, where chants of “Lock her up!” reverberate and the most popular t-shirt reads “Trump That Bitch” in huge letters (and that’s not to mention some less printable slogans that pop up as well). If Barack Obama’s term provides a model, a Clinton presidency would likely see political and policy disagreements transmogrified into claims of discrimination against oppressed males. Just as certain conservative media figures proclaimed that every Obama policy from the stimulus to the Affordable Care Act was “reparations” — i.e., Obama stealing money from innocent whites to give it to undeserving blacks — you can bet that they’ll characterize Clinton’s policy choices as a scorched-earth campaign of feminist vengeance inflicted upon defenseless men.

There’s widespread agreement that race relations have deteriorated in some ways since Obama was elected, even if we don’t agree on the cause. Could the same happen to progress toward gender equality? In practical ways, perhaps not. But Trump has given millions of people a whole new perspective on what kind of ideas are appropriate to express in public. Under the guise of rejecting “political correctness,” he has encouraged his supporters to let their ugliest feelings out for all to see, and more than a few people have been convinced that being loudly, proudly racist and sexist isn’t just jerkishness, it’s a noble act of rebellion.

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