On a Saturday night in April, the rhetoric of our historical era reached a culminating, symbolic moment.<\/p>\n
In Washington \u2014 at the White House Correspondents\u2019 Association dinner \u2014 comedian Michelle Wolf mocked the physical appearance of a Trump administration official, joked about feticide and compared the president\u2019s daughter to \u201can empty box of tampons<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In Washington, Mich., President Trump gave an 80-minute speech <\/a>in a stream-of-semiconsciousness style that mixed narcissism, nativism, ignorance, mendacity and malice. He attacked the FBI, intelligence agencies, the Justice Department and his presidential predecessors. \u201cAny Hispanics in the room?<\/a> \u201d he asked at one point, producing some boos. Of the press: \u201cThese people, they hate your guts. <\/a>\u201d Of his political opponents: \u201cA vote for a Democrat in November, is a vote for open borders and crime. It\u2019s very simple. <\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n In both Washingtons, political discourse was dominated by the values and practices of reality television and social media: nasty, shallow, personal, vile, vindictive, graceless, classless, bullying, ugly, crass and simplistic. This is not merely change; it is digression. It is the triumph of the boors. It is a discourse unworthy of a great country, and a sign that greatness of purpose and character is slipping way.<\/p>\n