The minute Ronald Reagan won the 1980 election, I panicked and saw a dim future ahead. I initially thought the damage he introduced was so egregious that the pendulum of public energy would swing back towards trying to positively tweak our democracy, most people thought I was “crying wolf” and didn’t want to hear it, and so I waited, and waited as the destruction and distortion of American identity and values continued. When Bush stole the 2000 election and promulgated two reckless wars, I kept waiting for our collective consciousness to awaken and move back towards the values and ideals that I had always associated with being American, only to watch lies and deception sully the reputation of John Kerry, and continue the destruction of our solidarity and integrity that Bush engaged in. Foolishly, once Obama was elected, I breathed a temporary sigh of relief, but by then the national narrative and the “opposition” had been coopted. Instead of social justice and equal opportunity, narcissism and greed had infected the national consciousness. I agree with you that Trump is the symptom of a much larger illness that has been festering for at least 50 years. The country will continue to struggle with an epistemological and ontological bipolarity between tribalism and pluralism, and between ego and community whether he’s around or not.