Who Radicalized You

One frustrating thing during the Bush years was that too many people who knew better decided not to say so. I'm not sure if Beschloss was one of those people, but my general impression of him is of someone who goes on the teevee and reassures you that the system is working and the people in charge are good, and at worst a bit misguided.

“This is the only president in American history who incited an insurrection against Congress that could have resulted in assassinations and hostage-taking and, conceivably, the cancellation of a free presidential election and the fracturing of a democracy,” Michael Beschloss, the presidential historian, told me. “That’s a fact, and it won’t change in 50 years. It’s very hard to think of a scenario under which someone might imagine some wonderful thing that Donald Trump did that will outshine that. He did, literally, the worst thing that an American president could ever do.”