One Nation After Trump ─ A Guide for the Perplexed, the Disillusioned, the Desperate, and the Not-yet Deported

With Donald Trump’s election we find ourselves at an existential moment in our republic's history. His campaign, victory, and first months in office, egregious in previously unimaginable ways, suggest a threat to the well-being of our country and the sustainability of our democracy. In One Nation After Trump, journalists and scholars E.J. Dionne, Thomas Mann, and Norman Ornstein describe the dangers of this presidency and lay out a path for restoring America’s values and reforming our political system.

Dionne, Mann, and Ornstein, who have studied our government for nearly five decades, point out that Donald Trump did not simply emerge from the swamp—his rise was the culmination of a breakdown in the norms of politics, governing, and the media, rooted in a transformation of the Republican Party that began decades ago. It is part of a global challenge to liberal democracy that friends of republican self-rule must meet with commitment, intelligence, sophistication, and sensitivity. While Trump poses particular dangers because of his personality and disposition, Trumpism—a mixture of authoritarianism, nationalism, racial backlash, and a tendency to delegitimize opposition—is an ideology with deeper roots and greater reach.

With historical context, One Nation After Trump provides a roadmap for understanding how Trumpism came to pass in 21st-century America, identifies the sources of systematic decay in our politics, and the actions necessary to prevent worldwide democratic erosion. And it reflects an optimism that we citizens are not “waifs amid forces”—that with commitment, organization, and continuing engagement in the public life of our democracy we can shape a better future for ourselves and those who follow.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., is a columnist for The Washington Post, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, and professor at Georgetown University. Thomas E. Mann is a resident scholar at the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley and a Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution. Norman J. Ornstein is Resident Scholar the American Enterprise Institute and a contributing editor and columnist for National Journal and The Atlantic. They are the authors of recent New York Times bestsellers, Dionne’s Why the Right Went Wrong and Mann and Ornstein’s It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.