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There is no doubt that the tenor of our nation has changed since the 2016 presidential election. Things that would have been unfathomable in other times have now become commonplace. There are proponents of this new order who desire to see the entire government dismantled, with no thought to what the long-term effects of this would be. The rank-and-file members of our social structure have seen their status as equal citizens in a functioning democracy erode into the framework of an oligarchy; these changes will not easily be reversed.

Our society has spent many decades in putting in place a set of regulations and restrictions that protect the environment, promote dignity for all, and ease the burdens of the lower economic or less educated members of our culture. It is true that these laws restrict the ability of some corporations to make the maximum profit, but this is the very class that can afford to assume this role. There used to be a concept of noblesse oblige in this country — a generosity of the wealthy toward the less fortunate. In those times, titans like Rockefeller and Carnegie took substantial portions of their fortunes and created massive projects for the public good. Yes, we do have some present-day billionaires, such as Bill Gates, who recognize the need to put their wealth towards resolutions to the huge problems of life in the 21st century, but the overwhelming ethic seems to be that if you can figure out a way to make grossly inflated profits from your ideas and off the labors of the less fortunate, then you have elevated yourself to a special podium of humanity, and those in the working classes will just have to figure out how to achieve a living wage on their own.

Seduced by the burgeoning stock market, many people of the middle and upper classes are lulled into a complacent view of the current climate, in that it has provided them a feeling of improved personal wealth. But as Rivarol noted, civilization is as close to barbarism as polished steel is to rust, and these classes fail to see the tinge of oxidation that is coloring our lives more broadly with each deviation from the time-proven norms. Wealth is moving steadily upward to the coffers of the obscenely rich, while the rest of us are on an increasingly swift slide into a world without safety nets or security.

It is an unwritten responsibility of a president to raise the cultural bar of the country; improving our image in the eyes of the world, and encouraging pride in our place among nations. The current administration has lowered that bar to unprecedented depths. A MAGA hat makes a farce of our national aspirations. Our country will no doubt survive the erratic tenure of Mr. Trump, but the national landscape, and indeed, even that of the world, has been changed forever. It is not an exaggeration to say that I cry for our beloved country each time that I think about the descent into crudeness and greed that we have embarked upon.

Rick Klepfer writes from Cambridge.