Donald Trump ends his tumultuous presidency with the nation confronting the greatest strain to its fundamental cohesion since the Civil War.
The January 6 assault on the US Capitol capped four years in which Trump relentlessly stoked the nation’s divisions and simultaneously provided oxygen for the growth of White nationalist extremism through his open embrace of racist language and conspiracy theories.
In the process, Trump has not only shattered the barriers between the Republican Party and far-right extremists but also enormously intensified a trend that predated him: a growing willingness inside the GOP’s mainstream to employ anti-small-d-democratic means to maintain power in a country demographically evolving away from the party.
Particularly since the 1990s, the parties have steadily pulled apart, with Republicans rallying the voters who are most uneasy with the way America is changing demographically, culturally and economically and Democrats mobilizing those most comfortable with the changes.
Trump leaves America at its most divided since Civil War (msn.com)