Again I have to turn outside of the US bubble to actually get some sense.

Personally I read with mouth agape this intelligence defying piece by Paul Krugman that was heralded by many as a deep insight and was surprised that many on the left did not give it the ridicule it deserved.

And the corruption won’t be limited to the very top: The new administration seems set to bring blatant self-dealing into the center of our political system. Abraham Lincoln may have led a team of rivals; Donald Trump seems to be assembling a team of cronies, choosing billionaires with obvious, deep conflicts of interest for many key positions in his administration.
In short, America is rapidly turning into a stan.

He only just bloody noticed? Trump is the end game of the last half century; he is the logical conclusion. Nothing he is doing is new, just more obvious. I'm glad someone else replied:

America was a 'stan' long before Trump

He starts:

Apparently, for a host of "progressive" writers, American history began on November 8, 2016.

I know right, the same old looking forward is much more comforting than looking at our nation's sordid past.

Then he takes out a hammer.

Look, Trump is an unabashed reflection of what America is and will continue to be - whether Krugman and company are prepared to admit it or not. America was a "stan" long before the Manhattan megalomaniac was elected president by more than 62 million Americans chomping to install their "stan"-like version of a tin-pot "dictator" into the White House.
Still, I don't recall any of the other "stans" invading and subsequently destroying a sovereign nation and its people based on cooked-up "intelligence".
I don't recall the other "stans" setting up "black sites" across the globe where countless people were shipped like pieces of baggage to be tortured out of the Red Cross's sight or those pesky, irrelevant human rights conventions.
I don't recall the other "stans" secretly hauling Muslim and Arab men - many of them innocent - to a gulag at Guantanamo Bay without charge to rot, to be tortured, go mad or commit suicide.
I don't recall the other "stans" unilaterally ordering extrajudicial killings by way of remote drones and having to apologise repeatedly and pay compensation for massacring children, women and men who thought they were attending a wedding, not their summary executions.
I don't recall the other "stans" engineering the near collapse of the global financial system because of the insatiable avarice of mostly middle-aged, pinstripe suit-wearing con men on Wall Street.
I could go on, but you and, perhaps, Krugman get the point.

Funny how the actually bombing clearly marked and well known hospital murdering both patients and medical staff is forgotten by nearly everyone, eh?

Concluding:

Employing McCarthy-like innuendo and fantastical, thread-thin connections, writers for so-called "elite" news organisations are seriously claiming that Trump has been "groomed" for decades by Vladimir Putin, who has waited patiently to elevate his orange-haired poodle into the Oval Office.
~ snip
Move over Joe and blathering Alex Jones, you've got conspiratorial company, not on the lunatic fringes of the web, but in mainstream media.
Progressives, it seems, aren't immune to Trump's penchant for hyperbolic smears, wacky conspiracy theories and contagious stupidity.

I suggest reading the whole thing it's painfully close to a bullseye, but misses one important point that I will go into at the end of the essay.

In the opinion piece above another was referenced:

America's flawed democracy: There is nothing in the constitution that grants American voters the right to choose their president.

One of the basic principles of democracy is "one person, one vote". Other criteria for an efficient and robust model of democracy include an informed and critically inclined citizenry and the presence of a political culture catering to the "common good" instead of the self-centred whims and boundless greed of the rich and powerful

Noting the choice put forward.

For starters, the contest for the White House was between a megalomaniac billionaire with no experience whatsoever in the "art of the possible" (but competent with entanglements with foreign governments and leaders, and an uncanny ability in twisting the tax law to his advantage) and a lifelong politician, widely regarded as a darling of Wall Street as well as a warmonger.

The conclusion, nothing new but a logical continuation of the past:

Indeed, looked at from various perspectives, it would seem that the 2016 US presidential election has brought to the surface all of the ills of America's flawed democracy.
What happens next is hard to predict, but it is likely that very interesting times lie ahead both for "the land of the free and the home of the brave" as well as for the rest of the world.

In both articles the conclusion would appear to be that:- We did not arrive at this point by accident but by design.

One point both have forgotten to mention [or missed entirely] is the reason why history does not apparently matter in the US.

The over-riding myth/principle/propaganda of American Exceptionalism, a principle so deeply ingrained from top to bottom that it can be used to pardon every misadventure and crime of the past without raising many home grown eyebrows in disbelief.

Good grief, I'm actually about to quote from the American Press

Obama’s New American Exceptionalism - At the Democratic convention, the president framed America as a shining city on a hill—under constant construction

First used with respect to the United States by Alexis de Tocqueville, the concept of American exceptionalism is that this country differs qualitatively from other developed nations because of its national credo, ethnic diversity, and revolution-sprung history. It is often expressed as superiority: The United States is the biggest, most powerful, smartest, richest, and most-deserving country on Earth.

American exceptionalism is a recurring character in the nation's narrative. We, the people. Manifest Destiny. Conceived in liberty. Fear itself. Ask not. Morning in America. United we stand. Yes, we can. In times of great change and tumult, presidents seek to inspire beleaguered Americans by reminding them of their national identity.

Which basically means that history and actions of the past are irrelevant, look forward and we can forgive ourselves at any time we chose, others must pay however. Our war crimes, torture, roll-back and regime change are irrelevant, why do they hate us?

That’s why we can attract strivers and entrepreneurs from around the globe to build new factories and create new industries here. That’s why our military can look the way it does, every shade of humanity, forged into common service. That’s why anyone who threatens our values, whether fascists or communists or jihadists or homegrown demagogues, will always fail in the end.”
That’s America. Those bonds of affection; that common creed. We don’t fear the future; we shape it, embrace it, as one people, stronger together than we are on our own.

The bolded section: This core belief is a fundamental weakness.

God help the rest of you; should have been the sign off.

This great denial of both history and reality has given us and the rest of humanity:-

Trump

Nothing at all to do with: Putin!Russia!

Agree with me or not but at least think about it.