Barack Obama was off vacationing on some island. He grew a nice beard, and Michelle Obama wrote her autobiography. Their symbolic significance quickly became the stuff of nostalgia. The Republican Party morphed into some monstrosity and became the Party of Trump, as if a recessive gene had been activated. All the while, 40 percent of America delighted in Trump’s presidency. They had told themselves the lie that black and brown people threatened their way of life, and now they were poised to make America white again.
