Our political system has played this crisis the same way it played things before the crisis, paving the way for our unpreparedness medically and also our unpreparedness economically. The last thing we need is to go back to business as usual when this is over.

This forced pause is bringing up everything uncomfortable to look at, not only in ourselves but also in our politics. That’s why crisis is both danger and opportunity. We get to look at something and say “Do I really want to go forward with this, or is it time to drop it now?”

What I experienced as a presidential candidate is that the same system which led us into a ditch was very adamant that only they were qualified to let us out of it. Adamant to the point of viciousness towards anyone else, making it very difficult to introduce genuinely new ideas.

Serious q: how, then, do you explain trump? You’ve certainly explained McConnell.

Lack of education among too many. Economic crisis among too many. Selfishness among too many. Propaganda that worked among too many. Failure to vote among too many. (Plus Comey, electoral college, etc.) Do you see it differently?

I think you are right and would suggest there are 2 different forces at work, both with extraordinarily bad results.

Say more?

I'm a historian of 19th c England, not 20thc US, so I don't have the background to footnote all of this, but Trump is a really villainous version of the Populists, and both parties seem to be willing captives of the worst sort of neo-liberalism. (I'm a yellow-dog dem, btw).

Add to that the demographics--why is our political system cemented into place by people whose life experience doesn't reflect current issues and problems?--and we get politicos who promise a return to a mythic past and voters who aren't equipped to evaluate that myth.