A mob of protesters howled, ‘Give Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure – you’re racist.’ UNC Trustees wilted. Howls won.

That night Bonfire of the Vanities was on television – to get himself elected Mayor a scheming New York district attorney indicted a Wall Street master-of-the-universe (played by Tom Hanks), claiming driving down a backstreet in the Bronx late at night Hanks crashed into a Black teenager then drove away leaving the maimed boy lying in the street. The trial started. A publicity hound Black preacher marched into a courtroom leading a mob of protestors howling for Hanks’ scalp.

Only, it turned out, Hanks didn’t run over the boy – his conniving red-haired mistress (driving Hanks’ car) did.

When the judge (Morgan Freeman) threw out the case, protestors rose in a wave howling, You’re racist – voice sharp, unflinching, Freeman glared back at the mob.

‘When a district attorney throws a man to the mob for political gain, and men of the cloth, men of God, take the prime cuts…is that justice? I’ll tell you what justice is…the law is man’s feeble attempt to set down the principles of decency. Decency. And decency isn’t a deal…a hustle. It’s what your grandmother taught you. It’s in your bones. Go home. And be decent people.’

Three days later Joe Biden, making a speech in Michigan, fumbled, stammered, a bewildered look stole across his face – social media erupted, howling, ‘Proof. Look. Biden’s mentally deranged.’

Politics, always brutal, has sailed out of the swamp into a wasteland, howls echoing across desert sands. How did we lose our decency?