Only a small minority of people would do quite what he did and break laws for the boss or benefactor to whom they’d hitched themselves. Cohen’s compass was unusually faulty from the get-go, and the short cut that he sought to the glamorous life — or at least what the glamorous life looks like to someone with a style and sensibility like Trump’s — wasn’t one that most people would travel.

But what Trump represented to the country was what he offered Cohen: a comet ride, with all the blinding light and burning heat that goes along with that.

And what he required of America was what he required of Cohen. We had to bury values that should never be buried. In our case that meant condoning Trump’s racism; indulging his corrosive conspiracy theories and self-preserving lies; permitting his demonization of institutions and people and whole countries; interpreting cruelty as candor and provocation as strength. Too many of us assented.