Right after Mitt Romney lost the presidential election in 2012, Donald Trump copyrighted the slogan "Make America great again" and began plotting his run for the White House. He had flirted with the idea for years, going all the way back to the 1980s. In 2000 he did a little barnstorming before he decided to take a pass. And most of us recall the ill-fated "birther" campaign that was supposed to launch him into the 2012 race but ended in humiliation at the hands of then President Barack Obama at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Each time he talked about running, the theme was restoring the United States to its former glory.

Trump may not know much, but he has known for decades that America is going to hellin a handbasket. Back in the 1980s it was wily Japan that was relegating us to Third World status and today it's China and Mexico. He has also always known that America is riddled with out-of-control crime committed by black and brown "bad guys," and that we must "bring back the death penalty" and "bring back the police" so we can have law and order once again. He's always believed that America must have the biggest, strongest military on earth, although he's wavered minute by minute on when and how it ought to be used.

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As I wrote during the 2016 campaign, Trump's image of America is the New York City mean streets of the 1970s and '80s and he has not evolved at all since then. I mention