Following the economic collapse of 2008, the Iraq war fiasco, a debt-saturated economy, the outsourcing of jobs in exchange for cheap products - in other words, the complete failure of the mainstream of both parties to govern America for the good of its citizens - we got Trump.

There were really two possible reactions. The first - to recognize and apologize for these failures. To accept responsibility for betraying the trust of Americans. To promise to change course, govern for the benefit of ordinary people. To clean house.

Or - to blame everyone but themselves. Point to the FBI memo. The Russians. Manipulation of social media. Voting shenanigans. You name it. Basically, to declare: Everything is fine! Once we get rid of this guy, Business as Usual!

One imagines where we might be today if the mainstream of the Democratic and Republican parties had done the latter. Understood Trump to be an effect of their bad governance, not the cause of our troubles. I believe we would be capable of a kind of national reconciliation.

But instead, the response was that of an increasingly illegitimate oligarchy: protect our status and our power. The consequence: the descent into an accelerating and deepening political division, that will worsen in coming months and which the election will not resolve.