The author Yascha Mounk wrote recently that while politicians have always lied and exaggerated, what’s happening now is something new.

“The construction of an alternate reality that obviates the very possibility of conducting politics on the basis of truth is a novelty in this country,” he said in a New York Times op-ed. “And it is increasingly becoming obvious that it will serve a clear purpose: to prepare the ground for egregious violations of basic democratic norms.”

I’m afraid he’s right. And everyone who cares about American democracy should be on guard.