As an undergraduate, a wise professor once told me that what happens between elections matters just as much as the elections themselves. It’s in town halls, neighborhood associations, labor unions, PTA meetings, and volunteer drives where the habits of self-government are formed—and where a culture of pluralism, empathy, and shared responsibility is cultivated. That culture has been eroding for decades. Now, into the vacuum steps Donald Trump.

Trump’s rise didn’t happen in a vacuum. His grievance-fueled politics found fertile ground in a country where trust has collapsed, civic institutions have hollowed out, and too many Americans feel unheard, unseen, and unmoored. When people stop showing up for each other, someone like Trump—offering identity without responsibility and loyalty without civic duty—becomes not just possible but inevitable.