Heart of Darkness is an allegorical novel by Joseph Conrad often interpreted as a journey into the darkness of the human heart. Donald Trump is a unique figure in American history and we can only hope there will never be another like him. As a nonpariel demagogue, he took America on a journey into darkness. Now, as his rampage comes to an end,
“President Donald Trump is leaving America in a vortex of violence, sickness and death and more internally estranged than it has been for 150 years.
“The disorientating end to his shocking term has the nation reeling from a Washington insurrection. The FBI warned Monday of armed protests by pro-Trump thugs in 50 states, which raise the awful prospect of a domestic insurgency.
“Health officials fear 5,000 Americans could soon be dying every day from the pandemic Trump ignored. Hospitals are swamped, medical workers are shattered amid a faltering rollout of the vaccine supposed to end the crisis. …
“Millions of Americans have bought into the delusional, poisoned fiction that an election Trump lost was stolen …. It is becoming ever more obvious that the horrific scenes on Capitol Hill on Wednesday were not a one-off. Instead, they now look part of a pattern including the White supremacist marches in Charlottesville that Trump refused to condemn, and the gassing of peaceful anti-racist protesters in the square outside the White House so he could hold an inflammatory photo-op. …
“The current atmosphere of fear and … insurrection are a lesson in what happens when … a President deliberately tears at America’s deep racial and social fault lines as a tool of his own power. Trump’s presidency revealed … the character of the person in the Oval Office chair really matters.”
So, too, matters the character of a political party, and of voters. Trump, the Republican Party, his supporters — all failed us. And failed America.
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This is the end, but is it?
Why did this begin?
Opportunity?
Power mad?
Russian agent?
All of the above?