It is virtually impossible to read a newspaper or a blog analyzing the politics of America in 2017 without thinking "disaster." Since Donald Trump became president not just the United States, but the world, has become unstable and liberal democracies in general are under assault by antidemocratic authoritarian forces. In fact, a growing number of heretofore optimistic writers are worrying out loud about not only the end of America but the entire product of the Enlightenment: western civilization as a whole.

This dire commentary cannot be the result of one man. And, in fact, there is an accompanying system of organizations, individuals, traditions and practices over a long period that have worked together to bring us to this point. This "administrative state" is what is often referred to as the Deep State: all the permanent institutions of government, once augmented but now in most cases captured (or at least powerfully influenced) by private, for-profit corporations, from defense to intelligence to science.

Still the chief executive, or president, has historically been our symbol of national unity, and Americans have been accustomed for over two hundred years to placing enormous trust in his judgment.

It was not always so, particularly at the founding of our nation.

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