In the vaudeville skit, “Slowly I Turned,” a seeming calm figure hears a trigger word and is instantly overtaken by uncontrollable rage.  Step by step, inch by inch, they lurch toward chaos, attacking anything in their path.  It’s mindless, repetitive and inevitable once set in motion.  This is a metaphor for Donald Trump’s America.

Trump’s presidency, and the political movement he leads, didn’t happen suddenly.  It was a slow, methodical unraveling.  Each grievance, each lie, each attack on our nation’s norms acted like the skit’s trigger word sending him into action. Step by step, inch by inch, our institutions have been weakened, facts distorted, civility abandoned and divisions deepened.

At each turn there has been an opportunity to stop. Instead, like the raging figure in the skit, Trump pushed further, each move more reckless than the previous. Not in one moment, but with relentless repetition, America’s foundations are being chipped away. The damage is real and it is cumulative.