High trust social systems work better than low trust ones. A key tactic in the attacks on western democracies is the attacks on trust, attacks on institutions, dragging down trust.
This happens from both left and right. It happens (often) with good justification, making it all the more effective.
It’s still devastating and we need to work to preserve trust, including assuming good intentions when we disagree.
When you’re outraged look for outrage at the facts and behavior, not the people.
I get that, but it's hard when faced with a far-right populist movement that revels in their own awful behavior, corrupt authoritarianism, and promises of future atrocities. I suppose I do trust them... in the sense that I believe them when they express their intent to develop the presidency into a quasi-dictatorship, purge the civil service, declare martial law, and herd immigrants and other undesirables into concentration camps. I trust them when they reveal who they are, but that's different than trusting them as people of good intentions or trusting them with the levers of power.
I don't want to feel this kind of contempt for other Americans. It feels like carrying around poison. I want to forgive them and have them reconciled back into our community. But I don't think that we get to where we need to be by accepting that the essence of Trumpism and the people who support it are acting with good intentions.
I'd love to see some sort of trust and reconciliation commission at the end of all of this, where the evils of Trumpism are exhaustively documented and confronted, and the people that supported it acknowledge their mistakes and pledge to do better. However, I worry that we'll rush past it out of a misplaced need to reunite, just like we did with Reconstruction.
Adam Shostack 
Dave Wilburn