Ron Brownstein, CNN: “Donald Trump ends his tumultuous presidency with the nation confronting the greatest strain to its fundamental cohesion since the Civil War. The January 6 assault on the US Capitol capped four years in which Trump relentlessly stoked the nation’s divisions and simultaneously provided oxygen for the growth of White nationalist extremism through his open embrace of racist language and conspiracy theories. In the process, Trump has not only shattered the barriers between the Republican Party and far-right extremists but also enormously intensified a trend that predated him: a growing willingness inside the GOP’s mainstream to employ anti-small-d-democratic means to maintain power in a country demographically evolving away from the party. The result has been to raise the stakes in the ideological polarization of the parties that has been reshaping American politics for decades.”

“Particularly since the 1990s, the parties have steadily pulled apart, with Republicans rallying the voters who are most uneasy with the way America is changing demographically, culturally and economically and Democrats mobilizing those most comfortable with the changes. The Trump presidency, especially its chaotic final months, has shown that both the leaders and rank-and-file voters of the parties are now divided not only by their policy preferences but also by their assessments of the nation’s underlying realities, and even their commitment to the traditional norms of democracy. In one sense, the two parties are moving away from each other in mirror image: Vast majorities of voters in each party now say in polls that they view the other side as a threat to the nation’s future. But that assessment is provoking a more extreme reaction inside the GOP than among Democrats, as different elements of the Republican coalition have embraced a succession of anti-democratic actions culminating in the widespread support among GOP elected officials for Trump’s efforts to subvert the November election and in last week’s unprecedented assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob.”