I was just reading Atrios on the Orrin Hatch fiasco, the Al Arabiya closedown, and listening to the fulminations of the decent Americans who are going nuts trying to understand what has happened to their country and how to fix it.
I wrote this.
Maybe you've had the experience of a marriage going wrong. You sense that something is astray, maybe you try really hard to do something about it, maybe both of you do.
But one morning you wake up and you know that it, whatever it is that made a "marriage", has gone. You are quite clear about it, and fairly calm, although you know that from here on for a while it is going to be very hard, but the "marriage", that's gone.
You didn't see it leave, you can't put your finger on the moment when it happened, but now you know that it is over.
I have that feeling about America these days. That thing we knew that it was, that something that we looked up to and that we believed Americans believed they should aspire to, and, however much they failed, they still tried to find a way to the promise.
Some days they succeeded in spades, the end of McCarthy's reign of terror, the relentless dedication to democracy and the rule of law that was Watergate, the civil rights marches and the great society.
Other days they failed badly but they always looked and sounded, these Americans, as if they truly believed that they could, and should, do better.
All that. Its gone.