A friend my age says, “I am having an increasingly difficult time understanding society.” I cynically suggested to him we no longer have a society, but various age, race, gender, socio-economic, political, cyber or media tribes to which we adhere and with whom we war against other tribes.

Still, he’s right. Something is wrong when it becomes normal to sum up our country’s condition with the words: “This is not normal.” That means it must be abnormal, as in abnormal psychology. Is there such a thing as abnormal sociology? Abnormal political science? Abnormal democracy? Apparently so. We’re living it.

For a long time, it was unthinkable that a divorced man could be nominated for, let alone win, the presidency. Nelson Rockefeller was deemed unacceptable on those grounds in 1968, but by 1980 remarried Ronald Reagan was just fine. Now, of course, we are living with the thrice-married Trump, not to mention the porn queens, playmates and molestees. Is this now normal?

It certainly looks like maltreatment of women is the norm. This used to be regarded as the purview of blue collar guys in wife-beater underwear, the Stanley Kowalski’s of the world. But probably it was always going on, just wasn’t discussed. Just as the word cancer was only whispered. One suspects that for alpha males at the top of the food chain, a feeling of entitled machismo has always gone with the territory.

Now, in addition to the molester-in-chief, we’ve got movie moguls, TV heavyweights, film stars, comedians, politicians, bankers, journalists, sports figures, chefs, symphony conductors, venture capitalists, judges and even the head of the Humane Society revealed to have been “ungentlemanly”, shall we say.

This may be the least surprising collapse of social norms. As far as I can tell the world has always been divided into beta males, pathetically grateful for the hint of a smile from a female, and what the ladies. I believe, refer to as pigs, when they aren’t trying to get them to the altar.

I suspect the pigs haven’t gotten more brazen in our time, though perhaps more blatant because they learn their manners from reality TV or from social media, to quote Cary Grant in a different context, “the most dubious inventions since itching powder.” Rather, women have finally decided they’re mad as hell and aren’t going to take it anymore. Perhaps society is bifurcating into Wonder Woman’s Themyscira and a pig sty.

Perhaps the Amazons or the Parkland teens can save our society. The rest of us are slouching toward dystopia, where ”the best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Fraud and propaganda pose as news. Those unfit for office win, and go about corrupting the government, lowering norms, and serving themselves at the trough.
This isn’t new, and if it gets bad enough the crooks are eventually thrown out, a backlash leads to a cleaning of the Augean Stables. The Progressive Era followed the Gilded Age, Wall Street excesses were curbed by reforms after 1929 and 2008, political guardrails were erected after Watergate.

Now, however, pedophile judges removed from the bench run for Senate and almost win. A racist Sheriff convicted of disobeying a court order is pardoned by a reality TV president and seeks a Senate seat. A mine owner jailed after ignoring safety requirements that killed 29 miners, and a congressman sent to the slammer for felony tax fraud, also believe there’s a revolving door between prison and Capitol Hill.

Why should they be ashamed in an era where billionaires are empowered by the Supreme Court to buy elections, purchase gerrymandering, and legislate voter suppression, all in order to secure a government friendly to their needs and inimical to those of the majority of their fellow Americans?
A presidential race was tampered with by a foreign adversary and the President, Vice President and majority in Congress, beneficiaries of this unprecedented crime against the state, say there’s no need for further investigation.

An Israeli black ops company, Black Cube, that was hired to intimidate accusers of Harvey Weinstein in order to pervert the course of justice, is now also accused of conniving to discredit Obama administration functionaries involved in the Iran nuclear deal. The goal? To justify Trump’s renunciation of the pact. It is rumored the administration hired the spooks, or his backers, but it may have been friends of Israel.

After the Russian hack of our election, it wouldn’t be a surprise to find governments from around the world emboldened to tamper with the government of the United States of America. What worked for Putin might work for them.

And it is now revealed that the personal attorney of the President, when not paying hush money to a porn star, was raking in corporate millions from the likes of ATT, Novartis and Korean Aero. No doubt he was inspired by cabinet secretaries Zinke and Pruitt, as well as Ivanka, Don Jr. and Jared, all cheerfully cashing in on their proximity to power. Or perhaps Cohen, like them, was merely another front man for the head of the family business.

Is anything off limits in this gaudy era of Abnormal Democracy? It is hard to imagine what’s still beyond the pale, though the president, unlike his benefactor in Moscow and his new best friend in Pyongyang, has not yet resorted to sending out goons to eliminate his political enemies with neurotoxins.
So far as we know. If I was Bob Mueller, however, I’ve be watching with great care my back, my food and drink.