The American people are lost in the Trumpocene – and soon DeSantis World – largely against their own will. But their own bad habits, obsolete thinking, denial and hard-headedness got them there.
These failures include a belief in the myth of American exceptionalism and that America's democracy and society are somehow immune from fascism, authoritarianism and other forms of illiberalism. Americans have also made the error of convincing themselves, contrary to the evidence, that "the institutions" and "the system" are strong, the country's leaders will save us, and that the Age of Trump is just a deviation from the norm – as opposed to a crisis that will last long past that moment when Donald Trump, the man, recedes from public life.
