We were moving from a white-majority, male-dominated country and manufacturing base to a multicultural, multilateral, globalized, P.C., new energy, new technology world, without taking account of the confusion and anger of older Americans who felt like strangers in a strange land.

Among many, the allure of Barack Obama’s brainy nuance had given way to a longing for a more muscular certainty.

With the Russians sowing confusion, Trump surfed those free-floating anxieties, that fear of not knowing who we are, straight to Pennsylvania Avenue.

And now, thanks to our barmy president and his staff meltdown, we are finding out fast who we are and whom we don’t want to be.