For the past year the nation’s klieg lights have focused on Donald Trump’s dismantling of the norms of civility and integrity, and for good reason. Most Americans, including many who support him politically, reject his constant assault on empathy and reason, and on our basic democratic institutions.
Still, the question arises: Is Trump sui generis, a true moral outlier randomly imposed by the fates on a virtuous society? Or does he represent a sort of avatar of an ethically troubled culture, a natural outgrowth of a morally suspect country?  Continue reading “Are We a Nation of Cheaters?”
and the traditional Republican Party “establishment” sharply denounced Trump for almost everything: his (lack of) credentials, his extravagant lying, his crudeness (if less so his misogyny), his violation of longstanding political norms. No one, they asserted, was less prepared or less fit for the presidency. The party’s most recent standard-bearer, Mitt Romney, urged during the 2016 primaries that “Donald Trump is a phony, a fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.” 