I don't know how to understand the United States in this era. No historical lens feels adequate or relevant. No other nation on Earth feels like a proper analog. I feel like I'm in a forest, where I can see above the treeline smoke from fires, but no understanding of scale.

Are fires in all directions? Are these worse than fires of the past? Better? I can't trust my instinct because my instincts here raise alarms that indicate a situation that is much worse than those with greater knowledge than I have indicated they believe exists.

If Trump and the GOP are not so soundly defeated in November that the movement shatters into destructive infighting I don't see a restoration ahead that doesn't first go through a very deep, dark, and lengthy valley of trials.