I think Trump is only one aspect of the politics of anger. Bernie Sanders seems to me to be hawking the same snake oil from the other side of the street: promising peace and plenty if we will only join him in his hostility to the malefactors of great wealth. College campuses seem overrun with pampered proletarians demanding the power to quash the rights of the ideologically unworthy. In some cities, vandalism and looting seem to be an accepted form of political expression. The trendy new construct of "White Privilege" seems to be used primarily by white people seeking to race-bait other white people. Inequality is decried all over, particularly in the most unequal precincts, which are generally run by the party demanding equality. Rural militias take arms over who has authority over the middle of nowhere. Eveyrone seems to have a favorite villain.

But are things really that bad? Are Lex Luthor and the Koch brothers cackling in their secret headquarters? Is Hillary Clinton drafting a lese majeste clauseto the first amendment? Has Goldman Sachs contracted with the NSA to outsource their credit rating function? Will the Obama administration gift us with a final series of Erastian executive orders to subdue the bitter clingers? Are we truly on the brink of chaos, strife and destitution?

Or are we simply in a period of hysterical political rhetoric that will simply fade into a rather embarrassing footnote to a fairly uninteresting period of history?