Never again can we Americans look out over the globe at the petty dictators, the charismatic despots, the lying and corrupt kleptocracies that have plagued other nations, that have vined up their constitutions and choked out their democracies.

And wonder how ever they could have fallen for it. Never again can we presume these shores safe, or charmed, or somehow *other* than everyone else.

Never again can we shake our heads and marvel how things could go so far south. How so many could embrace smiling charlatans and stand by as atrocities are committed. How cowardice and self-interest could enable the megalomaniacal.

Never again can we believe the deep flaw in human nature that can kindle fascism, cage children, and shrug off atrocity is a flaw in *other* humans, or cultures, or places.

It is a flaw in every one of us, and we have seen it rear its naked uglines in our own house and our own selves. Let us hope we learn, finally, that othering this evil feeds, and does not slay it.

We got lucky, make no mistake. We stepped back from the brink before shit got irrevocable. Let's not pat ourselves on the back too smugly, or chalk it up to some glib line about charmed exceptionalism.

The United States *is* exceptional, but it is not bullet-proof or fated or incapable of sin. So far from it.

Let's look the ugly truth of this moment hard in the face. Let's commit it to memory while it's fresh and clear.

These things happened here, just like they have elsewhere around the world. Like they can anywhere that the circumstances are right. Let's be mindful of the fact that the election could have gone the other way. Our republic could have been lost.

The Americans who supported Trump are not monsters, though they aided and abetted monstrosity, and those of us who opposed him gain nothing by framing this in terms of a war, or tribes or teams, or a zero sum victory.

That's their narrative. That's their game, and it's one where we all lose in the end.

There is hard work ahead of us as a nation right now, and it's vital that we tackle it head-on, so that we are able to confront even greater global challenges that lie ahead.

We are all in this together. We are every one of us capable of great harm and great good, and we'd better start being damned honest with ourselves about that fact if we want to survive the century to come.