One could say that Donald Trump’s presidency had been a four-year war on many people’s assumptions about what is and isn’t “America.” And which institutions really matter, whether power lies with elites or masses. And it has forced serious arguments about what information, and what version of our history, we can even agree on.
So what new insight has the Trump era given us about America? Well it’s obviously alarming to discover that our political institutions are more fragile than once thought and that our cultural elite have an overwhelming disconnect from the average citizen as well as an overwhelming advantage in manipulation.
Another phenomenon is how “patriotism” has become a blunt instrument that Americans wield against one another and that our national flag is used more for division than unity.