Hard to watch

It was an allegory, playing out in real time: Male Aggression was represented by a hulking man in a suit, yelling incoherently, threatening to lock up the woman in front of him, throwing her marital issues in her face, and seething menacingly behind her as she spoke.

Female Ambition was a composed but ultimately tired woman in a pantsuit, rattled in this arena with no predecessor to serve as guide, and being forced to confront every piece of her soul that she'd sacrificed to get there, punished both for her husband's transgressions and for playing by the rules (which in politics are crooked).

But when Trump said he admired Clinton because she won't give up, that was Donald Trump speaking, not the demon that has overtaken him to feed off the hatred of change. And that was Hillary Clinton who quietly listened to him say it, not the earthly warrior on a do-or-die quest to break the final glass ceiling. The last few minutes were the only redeeming factor...and it wasn't enough.

Something died in America last night, and all of us watching turned off our televisions worse off for having seen it happen.