Great essay Ben. But you forget that the great society ended in the Viet Nam War. And with the rise of Neofeudal Economics, the Libs decided they could out Thatcher the Thatchers of the world. As Gore Vidal said "in American there is really only one party, The Property Party". Clinton did away with the last vestiges of the New Deal and Obama proved his commitments to Bankers Uber Alles. Civility can be a great smoke screen for financial skullbuggery. Now we have the GOP becoming the Gestapo Operatives Party, but long before that we had "inverted" fascism via Sheldon Wolin's corporatist take over. It is not as simple as a tradeoff of between politics and warfare, when politics becomes terrorism. A democracy should never let it get that far. But here we are facing full frontal fascism and open warfare. Won't Trump's followers be surprised when they realize he has no intention in going after the Rentier Class.