What's all this Donald Trump business about, in the end?

It's not just about policy, is it - about tariffs, about insisting the Gulf of Mexico is the Gulf of America and annexing Canada? That's like saying banditry is just about deception or stealing.

And it's about more than politics and doing deals. While we all take sides and fight to win, we also develop laws and democracy that make for some balance, for keeping things roughly fair.

The political idea of 'His Majesty's Loyal Opposition' in the UK and of two competing but legitimate and loyal parties in the US was a key advance in government but appears under threat. Why?

It's normal for politicians to blame problems on political opponents, but Trump needs to suggest anyone with a different view is the enemy.

Not only the 'extreme right' agree. Many in the centre, left and right, accept populist alarms that 'they' have allowed things to go too far. Who are 'they'? Anyone not MAGA. What things? Everything. 

Perhaps we can have too much freedom, too much democracy, and then there's a swing back, a cycle. That's the usual answer.

But that History goes in cycles seems a superficial explanation. Why would History have cycles and what on earth are they? 

Much of the talk now is about how Trump will end. In the end, that must depend on us and our values.

On Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde? Mr Hyde has to come out sometime simply because he's there, tired of hiding? 

And now, after some time, so must Doctor Jekyll?