You can see yourself looking at images of crowds invading the United States Capitol. And you can see yourself watching other citizens beat up police in the name of an unfounded conspiracy, and you can see yourself seeing those beautiful corridors of our democracy being destroyed. And you may ask yourself, how did we get here?
The last four turbulent years have divided us in two. Americans now live on two completely different political planets, with two seemingly irreconcilable views. If you’re a Trump supporter, you’ve seen your presidency as an impressive four years of owning the libs, defeating the Deep State and watching the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln make America great again. Otherwise, you just lived four horrible years observing norms, laws, the country’s position in the world – even the foundations of democracy itself – being devastated by an amoral narcissist who did not care how much damage he left at his wake.
Editing POLITICO’s Cartoon Carousel, a weekly compilation of cartoons from across the political spectrum, I saw these divisions harden in real time. While liberal cartoonists outlined Trump’s presidency as a growing series of horrors, his colleagues on the right turned the famous businessman into a kind of popular crossover hero. The differences have never been more extreme than last Wednesday, when a band of pro-Trump rioters invaded the U.S. Capitol to try to stop Congress from certifying election results.