Every day, Trump does or says something so nuts, so indecent, so opposed to the my understanding of America--to the open, tolerant, and free America in which I grew up, to the America I've been hopelessly devoted to all my life, the America whose political genius I've--

--proudly explained everywhere in the world--that I really don't know if we can return after this.

Before him, we were in the Garden of Eden. We had our political differences, but we didn't hate each other so much that we truly hoped the others would die.

But the bitterness and division are so deep now, so rancorous, that we've become like all the other countries, the ones we fled from.

We'll never trust ourselves the same way again.
Certainly, we'll never forget we were capable of coming to the verge of civil war--

--over what? Over a man so objectively useless and cynical that he insists daily that everything I believed in, with all my heart, is just "fake news" or "stuff for pussies" -- like our allies, for example. I bought the Kool Aid with that whole "American Exceptionalism" fantasy--

the belief that my country was unlike the others because it was based on an idea, and therefore welcomed anyone willing to accept this idea, and was thus a country so welcoming that everyone who came to America could enjoy life,and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It was an America where I could start by bagging cookies at Mrs. Fields and wind up selling the film rights to a novel I wrote in between my shifts.

An America full of happy, big-hearted people who encouraged others to pursue their dreams--

because they instinctively knew there was enough to go around, enough of everything, for everyone.

No one felt poor because the rich were rich; everyone felt rich, except for a minor financial embarrassment.

Opportunity was always just around the corner--

--and it really was. If you were successful, no one envied you because it would their her turn next.

This happy, confident, contented America of my childhood seems gone forever now, replaced by a bitter vision in which Trump screws everyone,

and we're all suckers and losers for falling for it.

Or enemies for refusing to fall for it.

There's violence in the air.

And misery, and poverty.

And it makes me so sad.
How much damage one man can do.