WASHINGTON — It is very disorienting when those who are supposed to be our highest moral exemplars have no morals — not even of the alley-cat variety.

During the sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, it was stunning to see wide swaths of clergymen, responsible for teaching children right from wrong, perverting right and wrong.

Now it is shocking to see an American president with a twisted sense of right and wrong. In yet another Nureyev leap into the absurd, Donald Trump went from no-collusion to pro-collusion, as Susan Glasser put it in The New Yorker, saying that he would welcome foreign governments’ peddling dirt on his political rivals. Why bother to alert the F.B.I. if you are getting good oppo?

I have seen a lot of politicians lie — even ones I swore never would. I have watched other Republican leaders play on white fears and choke off checks and balances. It’s tough to match Dick Cheney for putting yourself above the law.