You may be right. I hope you aren’t, but I’m prepared to concede that you might be. Trump has given smarter men than himself a playbook. It was a dummy run with a preening narcissist in the driving seat. Next time the US might not get so lucky.

The divide in our opinion is how best to proceed with that information. You think the left should ready for war. I think punishing all republicans for falling for Trumpism will only serve to widen the gulf. You blame them for being stupid, I blame demagoguery on both sides and media algorithms for fueling equal but opposite echo chambers.

Your answer is to continue polarising, mine is to stop. We have no way of knowing who is right. But I believe that good Republicans can and do exist and that polarisation prevents McCain and others from emerging.