In the wake of Donald Trump’s first federal criminal indictment last summer, there was quite a bit of commentary about “tests.” Americans are seeing a test of our political system. A test of our judicial system. A test for the rule of law. A test of the courts. A test of the integrity of our democracy. A test of the nation itself.

Now that the former Republican president has been convicted of several felonies, the focus on “tests” is back. The New York Times reported overnight:

There’s a dimension to this that’s easy to overlook amidst the commentary: This is a test we already know how to pass.

Revisiting our earlier coverage, Trump is a scandal-plagued politician who’s now been convicted of many crimes. But in the United States, we have all kinds of experience with scandal-plagued politicians getting convicted of many crimes.

It happens all the time. It doesn’t tear at the fabric of our civic lives. It does not open the door to political violence. It is, for lack of a better word, normal.

This is not to say that the former president’s conviction is unimportant. On the contrary, it’s extraordinary, in part because of our history, in part because the Republican has gone so long evading serious legal consequences, and in part because it might affect the outcome of the 2024 election.

But it’s not as if Americans are unfamiliar with the broader dynamic at the intersection of politics and the criminal justice system. The fact that it involves a former president is unusual, but we’ve seen convictions of governors, senators, House members, state legislators, Cabinet secretaries, mayors, and city officials. Spiro Agnew, during his tenure as vice president, even pleaded guilty to a felony and resigned in disgrace.

None of these cases threatened our republic. The suspects were charged, and their cases were adjudicated. The United States endured without any trouble at all.

Our political system, in other words, should be able to handle Trump’s conviction without breaking a sweat.

What would put our political system in jeopardy, however, would be for the former president and/or his allies to reject our system of justice, and to insist that Trump must remain above the law — because they say so.

House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, for example, responded to the jury’s verdict by telling the public that “the American justice system” has become “corrupt and rigged.” The condemnation wasn’t rooted in fact, but the former president himself, among many others, has used nearly identical language.

Note, Trump and his sycophants aren’t just targeting the relevant players in the underlying case — the local prosecutors, the judge, members of the jury, et al. — they’re also telling Americans not trust the “justice system” itself.

The Republicans’ motivations are obvious: They want to delegitimize a core American institution — not because it’s failed, but because it’s holding their leader accountable. If the justice system is holding Trump liable for his crimes, then as far as the GOP is concerned, the justice system must become a target.

But the logic behind the unhinged attacks on a pillar of our system doesn’t make this any less dangerous.

Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior fellow in the Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the Times, “This was a conviction by a jury of Americans who listened to the evidence and made their decision. When you undermine courts the way that elections have already been undermined, there is no peaceful way to settle differences.”

The presumptive GOP nominee’s conviction is historic, but it’s not a crisis — unless Republicans decide to turn it into one.

This post updates our related earlier coverage.

This article was originally published on MSNBC.com