Sick societies produce sick leaders. Donald Trump's presidency and its aftermath offer perhaps the clearest examples of that fact in recent history. Trumpism, the contemporary Republican Party and "conservative" movement in America seem like a distillation of the worst aspects of human nature in general and American society in particular.
Yet despite an abundance of evidence, America's political elites remain largely in denial about the human, political, social and moral disaster of the Age of Trump and beyond. For the most part, they remain deeply invested in an obsolescent system that is teetering on collapse. Similarly, America's mainstream news media refuses to consistently report on or properly explain the many crises facing the country. As a class, its leading practitioners are also invested in a failing system and its fading myths about "normal" politics and inherent American goodness.
