I’ve been under the weather. This partly explains the loss of two days of posts. But another reason is the feeling of repetition. Everything I see in our politics now — or at least at the summit where Donald Trump dominates all the visuals and attention — has a sense of drift, spectacle, and fragmentation. The Trump Hall embodies this truth: crass, stupid, vulgar, unacceptable, but ultimately meaningless. It’s the full version that the Kennedy Center board, of which he chairs, renamed the institution after him. It was, I think, Wednesday, though the days run together. Then there’s the new Hall of Presidents, a storm of disturbing tweets pinned to the wall of what’s left of the White House. All of these have the feel of a man who is bored, taken advantage of, losing cohesion and energy, and whom others are trying to distract.