James Fallows, a veteran political analyst and former correspondent in China for The Atlantic, says that through all this time, he has been personally and professionally, and increasingly, an American optimist. However, he views Trump’s election as the most grievous blow that the American idea has suffered in my lifetime:

"The Kennedy and King assassinations and the 9/11 attacks were crimes and tragedies. The wars in Vietnam and Iraq were disastrous mistakes. But the country recovered. For a democratic process to elevate a man expressing total disregard for democratic norms and institutions is worse", he writes in The Atlantic magazine this week. 

How could this have happened? Fallows agrees there is no single explanation, but disagrees with two elements of instant analysis: that this was a sweeping “change” election, and that it reflected a pent-up desperation and fury that would have been evident if anyone had bothered to check with Americans “out there,” away from the coasts.

Read the whole Opinion column by James Fallows in The Atlantic.