Trump does not respect constitutionalism. He traffics in falsehood, including about his own business success. He has tolerated white supremacists as allies. Few of us would want our children to watch him on TV, where he has the power to shape the nation’s soul.

In Homer’s tale of the Trojan War, Patroclus cannot, it turns out, fight alone. He dies, and Achilles goes raging back to battle, single-handedly achieving victory for the Greeks. But that isn’t going to happen this time. If the Republican Party breaks, and needs another candidate, I suppose people might turn to you, but it seems pretty unlikely. And anyway, there is just too much saviorism out and about these days. It’s past time for us all to figure out how to do things together again — through shared efforts, works undertaken collaboratively, humble acts of democratic partnership. None of us can meet the economic, social and security challenges we face in our own person.