Any parting thoughts about Trump's reign as president?

[R.P. McM]

I'm glad it's over. Let's never do that again.

I’ve begun the hard work not only of identifying the key factors that led up to Trump’s election, and how to defend against such an incident from ever happening again. Trump and his ilk exploited several serious flaws in our political system, our cognitive faculties, and our frayed social fabric, and led this country into chaos.

This was a gigantic wake-up call, and Biden’s astute governance since the transition has been excellent. It underscores not only the perils of incompetent internal leadership, but what real, quality leadership looks like. Let’s rebuild our national institutions and create ones more amenable to securing our happiness.

Frankly, I think media reform should be the number one priority, and it's not even close. And when I say media, I'm not even talking about Fox. These monsters caused Trump's rise by breathlessly covering him when he first ran, and this contributed so much to the polarization in our country.

A world without a President Trump would be a world where Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Leonard Lance are still in the House Republican Conference, but Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert aren't.

You aren't wrong, but what's the solution? What does "media reform" even mean? To me, the nightmare scenario is one in which conspiratorial cultists force the rest of us to choose between their continued participation in the political system, or the 1A. Which, for me at least, is an easy decision. Yeah, considerable violence would result, but I'm not willing to sacrifice social/scientific progress in order to appease the subset of the population vulnerable to moronic propaganda. We like to pretend it isn't a personal failing, but quite honestly, it is.

[R.P. McM]

An awful man that sadly showed us how awful we’re also capable of being.

We are all capable of a lot of things, but that doesn't mean we act on our lower impulses. Trump was the King of doing that.

Are you basically sticking up for trump, or debasing humanity?

I’m saying that Trump brought out the worst of a lot of people. Sure, not everyone acted on their worst impulses, but I do feel like our society as a whole is less empathetic than it was before.

Less empathetic in the sense that those of us with actual empathy now recognize there are monsters in our midst. But I won't accept a single ounce of blame for Trump or his party, nor will I apologize for reluctantly coming to view them as dangerous, degenerate invertebrates. You notice how contrite the GOP is over Trump? Yeah — because they're exactly what I say they are. Sadly, empathy and civility have to fall by the wayside when the opposition is determined to subvert democracy and institute authoritarian minority rule. I'll gladly stand down once the threat has passed, but given recent developments, you're kidding yourself if you believe this is even remotely over.

[R.P. McM]

Why did something like Bridgegate hurt Chris Christie more than any of Trump’s scandals hurt him?

In what sense? Trump lost reelection, no? Were it not for his stolen/illegitimate SCOTUS appointments, Trump's biggest accomplishment would be elevating the COVID death toll by tens/hundreds of thousands. To the extent that Trump's scandals didn't bother most Republicans, the answer is pretty simple: he's a racist authoritarian. Which is exactly what they're looking for in a leader. As Liz Cheney can attest.