Washington Post: How would we repair the damage in a post-Trump America?
THE MAN WHO SOLD AMERICA: Trump and the Unraveling of the American Story - By Joy-Ann Reid. William Morrow. 304 pp. $27.99
THE DEATH OF POLITICS: How to Heal Our Frayed Republic After TrumpBy Peter Wehner. Harper One. 264 pp. $25.99
I fear for the post-Trump era. That is when the irresistibly polarizing feelings this president elicits — Are you for Trump or against him? Where do you stand? — will intersect with the fight over how to repair the harm he has inflicted. The task is essential. But the diagnoses are so divergent, the stakes so consequential and the emotions so raw that meaningful agreement on how to move forward (and what “forward” even means) is hard to imagine.
Two books by high-profile political commentators, a Trump critic on the left and one on the right, preview this standoff. Individually, they read like standard Trump-era books emanating from the #resistance and #NeverTrump worlds: Both are passionate, well-intentioned and certain to draw approving nods from their respective audiences. Read together, however, they reveal that the divisions after President Trump — not just between critics and supporters but within the wide range of the opposition — will multiply. The path from “where do we stand” to “what do we do” is arduous; it’s the difference between words and work, between being righteous and being right.