In a sane period in American history, before the ascendancy of Donald Trump, we didnt give much thought to who was in power. We went about our daily lives comfortable in the knowledge that Congress, the Supreme Court, and the president (whomever he might be) would keep our democracy humming along.

We only thought of the president during times of national emergency: in the advent of a national emergency, the declaration of a war or when he was delivering a speech of consequence, like a State of the Union address.

Then came Donald Trump. The president of the reality TV era is a malignant presence, he permeates every aspect of our culture from social media to the cable news outlets to late night TV.

He is a suffocating presence in American life, his white evangelical base meditates on him day and night with religious intensity, and his critics spend all their waking hours planning and scheming how they can impeach or by any other means get rid of the bastard.

Trump is always on TV, berating the political opposition, summarily firing members of his administration, and uttering lies.

Trump has caused millions of Americans to doubt in the existence of God, and millions of others to doubt the supremacy of democracy. If there`s a God in heaven why doesn`t he smite the moral degenerate? If democracy is the ideal form of governance, how in the name of God did we end up with Trump in the White House?

I must confess that I spend an inordinate amount of time thinking of Trump, as is evident in the hundreds of essays I`ve written about him in the last three years.

How can we preserve our sanity in the age of Trump? Assassination is morally repressible and illegal, and we mustn`t give it a moment`s consideration.

We must find solace in the truism that “this too shall pass,” but at the same time we must actively fight to end the Trump administration as soon as possible through legal and democratic means.