The coming pain will bear fruit: We're being reminded, harshly, that Things Matter.

Being honest matters. Caring about people matters. Curiosity and comprehension matter.

Trump's base are genuine chuds, they're the ineradicable evil and hate at the heart of America. It is what it is.

But Trump's marginal 2024 supporters exerted huge intellectual energy explaining away the clear fact that he is a venal, stupid, cheating liar. They built a belief structure that gave permission to ignore reality. They helped mislead low-information, non-base voters.

Now reality is exerting itself - the reality of our forefathers, the basic reality that we're all in this together, and that who we *are* matters.

This is the message we must push if we want to reverse the decline of America that Trump claims to be fighting, but of which he is in fact a symptom.

Being a good person *matters.*