The arena hushed and lifting his right arm, finger pointing upwards, eyes narrowing, lips forming into a circle Trump said, He’s a loser – and it was more than the words it was the disdain in his voice that gave the words power. A master of ridicule, Donald Trump has used mockery as a weapon to turn foes into Sloppy Steve, Psycho Joe, or Pocahontas. During his campaign for President, no one had seen anything like it: His taunts – Little Marco, Lying Ted, Crooked Hillary – sounded juvenile at first but now, looking back, after three years of insults, it’s clear something intangible has changed.

Our country has always been divided: Republican versus Democrat, Liberal versus Conservative, Establishment versus Anti-Establishment. But, at the same time, people on both sides shared common values: Bragging was frowned on, name-calling was discouraged, telling lies was taboo.

Maybe the change started because tribes of people on both sides – Trump Republicans on one side and Bernie-crats on the other – were angry at the rottenness they saw in Washington or, maybe, the catalyst was a more ephemeral power like a temptation. But, even though we didn’t know it three years ago, an old era was passing and a new age was being born right in front of our eyes and though Trump wasn’t the only ‘insulter’ more than anyone else he embraced and became the face of the new era. And, after the election, the insults continued with Trump mocking enemies as a Slime ball, a Whack Job, and Dumb as a Rock.

But at least, for a while after the election, you could tune out the invective by clicking off the television and thinking, It’s just Trump. It’ll pass – but then you couldn’t even do that. Because the problem wasn’t Trump or just Trump – it was an infection. And it was spreading.

Now at night on Fox News you can watch Tucker Carlson and Mark Steyn, voices laced with scorn, sounding like Trump and, with a click, on CNN you can watch a panel of outraged Democrats sounding like Trump as they deride Trump.