The dimensions of our national disaster: How we got here, and where "here" is

How did we get here? How did we come to this? And what, exactly have we come to in Donald Trump's America?

I'm a big fan of Charlie Sykes and The Bulwark.  That website has become my go-to source for commentary by reasonable, responsible representatives not only of the Republican Party of Lincoln and Ike and Reagan and Ford and the Bushes- the party I once belonged to- but also from rational, centrist Democrats on the political affairs of a nation which has lost its way and its mind. It's a rare island of dialog and reason in an ocean of extremist partisan raving that our political discourse has become. It's one of the few remaining places where one can encounter civil, reasoned dialog on issues of public policy these days.

In this interview for PBS's  Frontline, Sykes lays it all out: how America has been turned upside down since 2008, and how there's no turning back. My Trump-supporting conservative friends just don't get what Sykes articulates so clearly: that the damage Donald Trump has done to the Republican Party, to our national unity, to our sense of who we are, to our ability to make reasoned choices on political matters, to our common ethics- and, yes, to our ability to govern ourselves- is permanent. It will not heal itself once Donald Trump is gone from the scene, whether that be next January or in 2025 (though may God help us if it's the latter, and a grownup-free Trump administration led by a child president no longer restrained by competent and experienced advisors and no longer accountable to the electorate is left free to run amuck). It will probably never heal. The damage Donald Trump has done to us, both political and moral is permanent.

What are we going to do about it? What can we do about it? Well, first, we can understand what has happened. We can admit to ourselves what has happened. Then, and only then, will we be able to apply ourselves to a task which will have to involve Republicans, Democrats, independents, liberals, conservatives, and Americans of every political description: the job of undoing the damage and saving our country. Only then will we be able to address the issue of what to do about it; of puzzling out where we go from here.

But first, we need to clearly understand where "here" is. I commend Sykes's analysis to you. It's about the most accurate, perceptive, and clear-eyed vision of the state of America's politics I've seen in many a day. It's an ugly picture, and a daunting one. But it's a picture whose accuracy we need to face if we're going to be able to even mitigate the damage which brought about the coming of the Great American Demagogue, and the damage he continues to inflict on our country and our souls.