We might have to confront that the distress over the incuriosity and maliciousness of our so-called best and brightest is little more than a sideshow, as is the question of which encryption apps they do or don’t use on their phones. We might have to reckon with the fact that our present moment is a grotesque but legible fulfillment of four years of pretending that Joe Biden was sharper and more in charge than ever. We might have to consider that partisans have spent at least two decades-plus pretending that his predecessors were each, in their own turn, figures who by virtue of their individual personality and will would and could change everything. The new boss will be entirely different from the old boss, and whether that means he will fix what the previous one broke and or finish what the other started, now—finally—legitimacy, presidentiality, and even America itself will be great because it’s good. One more effort, one more president, and what has been smashed will be put right. We might have to acknowledge how, differences in rhetoric and variations in policy in other domains notwithstanding, the United States has spent a quarter century—at the least—doubling down on the centralization of lethal power in the executive branch alongside granting ever greater legal license, funding, and deference to the military and security apparatus. And we might have to confront not just that last week’s biggest story isn’t much of a story at all, but that the only thing holding our empire together is the collective fantasy that somebody, anybody is dynamic, cogent, and, above all, in charge enough to lead and make sense of the machine. But some things, it seems, must remain taboo.