. This is the moment.

. No political thriller, no science-fiction novel could ever have been seen as plausible if it had a plot line featuring a President of the United States causing a mob to attack the Congress in order to overturn an election in which he had been defeated. Yet that is precisely what has happened.

. Ever since Donald Trump was elected president, he has set out to destroy the political structure and the national culture of the United States. In a sense, whether or not Trump acted as he did as an agent of Russia was truly irrelevant. What was relevant was his conduct.