America is coming to see the damage that can be done when a demagogue seizes the reins of power in a country too dependent on custom.

America naïvely believed that the presidency was for honorable men (women, shamefully, still haven’t been given a shot), that the president of us would always in some form be the best of us. Few could conceive that a character who lacks character would get the chance to sit in that seat. And now that he’s there, it has been painfully underscored that removal is nearly impossible and that power can go nearly unchecked.

Yes, we may as well say the eulogy for the enigma we assumed was modern America and quickly turn to the truth: No one is coming to save us. No one is coming to restore this country and it won’t self-resurrect.

This is all up to us.

The members of the Democratic leadership, petrified that they might somehow damage the party’s prospects in 2020, are dragging their feet on impeachment like they’re wearing cement shoes.

Republicans lawmakers are all in as Trump’s paladins.

Trump has chosen the most extreme confrontational posture toward congressional oversight, virtually guaranteeing that the executive and legislative branches of government will be tied up in court for months, or even years.

All voters can do now is to look toward the raft of candidates seeking to unseat Trump and think first about who is likely to be able to do that, but also about what we want the new America that rises from these ashes to look like.

Whereas the blue wave of the midterms filled Democrats with confidence and swagger, fear of placing a single foot wrong in the 2020 run against Trump has left too many diffident and mousy.