Trump reminded us today that every day he remains in office he will compound the damage he has already done, further weaken our nation, add to the rolls of the dead and unemployed, the suffering & disenfranchised. But the fever-dream quality of this era also reached a new level.
For five years I have written that Donald Trump was the greatest threat this country has faced since the end of the Cold War. I have listed his crimes and have even written a book comparing his betrayal of the country to every other traitor in American history.
I have known that he was unfit. But I have to admit, this was one of those days when, yet again, I thought, "I had no idea it could get this bad." But it was also one that underscored that the worst of our problems is not Trump--though we must be rid of him.
Nor is it his enablers in the GOP leadership--though we must be rid of them. It is that the 40% who celebrate this lunatic, this criminal, this racist, this tool of foreign enemies, seem to be as unshakably committed to rejecting reason as they are science, history & decency.
Trump's time is coming to an end. He will not be missed. But we have learned that our system super-empowers his backers and that if they have alighted on him for now, they will find another vehicle and that we have no reason to assume that he or she will be better than Trump.
Worse could very well lie ahead. Can a new Administration show them that a different approach can actually serve their interests? Can a new president show that how Trump and the GOP have used and taken advantage of them? That must be our hope and our plan.
But it is almost midnight after a long, disturbing day full of images that will not leave our minds for years to come. And I think we can be forgiven if we also see the possibility that a happy resolution of our disturbing, once unthinkable circumstances, may long elude us.
You can follow @djrothkopf.
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