I've been trying to take the long view of the damage the current administration has done/is doing to our national being. What is the greatest harm done? And then the natural follow-up question, Can it be repaired?

I think the greatest harm has been done by the savaging of the rule of law. Hundreds of presidential Signing Statements have made it clear that the rule of law no longer applies if those in power desire it otherwise. It is most obvious at the Executive level but it is prevalent in the way corporations treat employees, the way HMOs deal with sick people, the way the laws are ignored when so many of us seek their protection.

Will the damage be repaired? I don't know. The rule of law not only depends on a body of laws and a tribe of lawyers to beat the drums; it also depends on the contract between ruler and ruled to acknowledge the law as supreme over both. We still have the former, but not the latter. The gulf between the obscenely rich and the desperately poor grows wider; the middle class shrinks. The powerful excercise their power at will; the powerless bend under the assault. The rules are ignored.

I don't know. A leader to save us from ourselves could so easily become a tyrant (think of Caesar, among others).