The dismay being expressed over Trump isn't rooted first and foremost in specific policy issues, as Nichols tries to recast it.  It is rooted in the completely unprecedented entrusting of the country's future to a man not merely not qualified for his office, but of abundantly and repeatedly demonstrated unfitness for it.  It is, if you want, first and foremost a character issue.  Anybody's character is debatable at the margins; everybody in public life has cut some corners.  But that is not what we face here.  We face a man who has repeatedly shown an inability to deal with palpable, provable facts if he deems them inconvenient.  A man who has lied repeatedly--and learned he can get away with it.  A demagogue who has learned that nearly half the country will accept his blowing up minor issues into pivots on which truly major policy questions are then made to turn.  It is precisely the success that Trump has had with his mendacious ways that makes the threat so grave.