America is a victim of its own ( understandable) naivete.

[Atticus]

The Trump disaster has forced us to confront the fact that much of our Constitution, many of our laws and most of our customs assume that our leaders---those we select to govern us---will operate in good faith; will make decisions based upon what is best for our nation.

We have, until 2016, taken it for granted that even the most partisan politician would never be so brazen as to consistently choose to increase their personal fortune and power at the expense of our national welfare---sometimes even at the expense of American lives.

We never anticipated the possibility that our national judgment would be so impaired that we would select a genuinely amoral sociopath as our Chief Executive; our Commander in Chief; the "leader of the free world".

As we move on from this national nightmare, many of our laws will need to be reviewed and the question "How could a Trump evade or pervert this?" asked about each of them. We need to anticipate another unhinged shameless liar seeking the presidency and protect ourselves and future Americans from him or her.

[dubyadiprecession]

1. January 20th. can't arrive quickly enough!

[LSFL]

2. From your lips to God's ears, my friend. Nt

[Xipe Totec]

3. They also assume a well educated voting public

And since Reagan, the Republican Party has been systematically dismantling the public education system in our country.

As a result we have an easily manipulated mob of mouth breathing knuckle draggers voting against their own interests.

[3catwoman3]

6. Reagan is absolutely responsible for the dumbing...

...down of this country.

I will add drooling, slack-jawed, and vacant-eyed to your description of the easily manipulated mob.

When I was a kid, all the way from elementary school thru high school, education was respected, even revered, and science was particularly well regarded.

When I was in 3rd grade, I remember my mother lecturing me quite sternly when I got a “Needs to Improve” in Show and Tell because I seldom participated. She told me it was very important that I do better because, “You ARE going to go to college.” I also recall, even tho only 8 yrs old, that a college was probably not going to care about my 3rd grade report card. I was right.

[iemitsu]

4. And we have a system that too often awards the popular vote loser the office.

[The Roux Comes First]

5. You Say It So Well

And perhaps too kindly, although parsing your words you do say it straight.

Certainly laws will need to be reviewed and many "norms" must take the form of laws.

[Skittles]

7. the big problem isn't that an immoral sociopath became president

it's that he had the full support of a political party

[Pobeka]

8. +1 n/t

[ms liberty]

11. This. n/t

[tanyev]

12. Exactly. The Founding Fathers couldn't imagine that a large political party

would be fully complicit in the crimes of an immoral sociopath.

[Skittles]

15. and that they could convince a big portion of the voters to go along with it

it is sickening and disturbing

[radius777]

9. Yeah, there are too many guardrails that broke down,

luckily enough held, but it was just luck.

Repubs only win anything due to the minoritarian design of our system which they fully exploit, and care little for actual democracy.

The Trumpers especially are just brats who will do anything to get what they want.

[Crunchy Frog]

10. A large portion of the population living in an alternate reality.

Brainwashed cult members. That's a powerful tool in the hands of any other would be dictators.

[lame54]

13. It comes down to Mitch

[Yeehah]

14. The electoral college is a fundamental flaw in our democracy

It MUST be eliminated. There MUST be a constitutional amendment.

It is unacceptable for people to think, "that's just the way it is, it's too hard to change."