Andy: You are surely correct that Trumpism is an effect of the cultural rot that has been corroding our society for a generation. But as with other trends, like the tendency to concentrate power in the presidency, one person can make an enormous difference in speeding the destruction.

The steady leeching of power from the legislative to the executive branch had been ongoing for more than a generation when Obama took office. The press contributed by covering presidents like monarchs and lazily declining to report on the unsexy business of legislation, regulation, and so forth. Members of Congress contributed to the trend by failing to object as the executive grabbed more and more power. The public permitted it because they couldn’t be bothered to understand what was happening. When Obama arrived, those trends were puffing down the track, but he put afterburners on the train — flagrantly changing laws by fiat, unconstitutionally enacting policies through regulation, disguising treaties as executive agreements, and so forth.

Now we face a proto-fascist in Donald Trump who bids to destroy the constitutional system altogether — and a great many so-called Republicans haven’t the courage or the principles to oppose him.

The immigration extremists, who’ve put this issue above every other consideration, should look in the mirror now. Sen. Jeff Sessions is a disgrace and — perhaps there’s poetic justice in this — a dupe too. Just hours after conferring his prestige by endorsing this grotesque, bullying, anti-constitutional emotional cripple, he finds Trump offering “flexibility” on the matter of immigration. Who could have guessed that such a man as Trump would prove an unreliable partner?

It has long been clear that the Democratic Party gave up on character long ago when they accepted Bill Clinton. Now it seems the Republican Party is flirting with something even worse.

This is a test for every Republican. It’s a test of character. Yes, we know all about Trump’s character. I don’t need to rehearse his unfitness for any elected office again. No, this is a test of the rest of us. Anyone who doesn’t follow the lead of Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and others to oppose this bacillus in our party and country is a disgrace too.

Yes, the degraded culture helped give rise to this nightmare, but Trump can take it down further — much further.