I have no idea what to expect in years to come as we deal with the depravity which Trump has turned into the new normal.
I hate the term "new normal" because of the implication that this is in any way "normal". Trump's behavior is dangerously abnormal, as is the behavior of his acolytes and sycophants. I saw the bizarre press event where he polled his staff to affirm in public that he was calm during his previous temper tantrum, and their Skinnerian, dutiful responses. This, I think, exemplifies
Craig's concern that prompted this thread.
Trump is a social corrosive. We've all experienced people like this in our lives, but never so publicly and with such power. My grandmother-in-law was one of these who was so narcissistic she drew out the worst in everyone. Trump does the same. But, I submit, he is as much symptom as catalyst.
There is always a strain of dishonesty and power obsession in politics (the source of "they all do it" memes, itself a corrosive). Some individuals are more prone to it than others, but it is generally held in check by decorum and process - the "norms" so often discussed of late. In Richard Nixon we got a real taste of the dangers of succumbing to those twin urges, but Nixon behaved that way in private, behaving, more or less, in public like a rational leader, and was "exposed" (and resigned) because of Watergate. As a result, the polity took a purgative, and passed a number of laws to try to prevent such abuses in the future.
But we, as a society, have short memories and don't keep our lessons well. Ronald Reagan brought us the "government is the problem" nostrum, and "we" accepted it, as if it had meaning. (He always struck me as a snake oil salesman.) That mild deception, though, was weaponized by Newt Gingrich and his spiritual successor, Karl Rove. Their excesses and
designed deceptions became the "new way of doing business,"
and we let them get away with it.
Trump and McConnell are the predictable results of that pattern, utterly without moral compass, and brazen in their abuses.
