I love America, and one reason is that I’ve never been afraid of it until a few weeks ago when everyone—red and blue—found themselves trapped in a political Horror story.

For the first time in my life,  I was getting worried about the fate of this fantastic, complex, and troubled country. I’ll sleep a lot easier tonight.

Here we were, after 300 years of mostly peaceful Democracy, one that changed power peacefully and without question, facing two choices: an old man who is frail and an old man who is nuts. How did we ever get to such an awful place?

For months, the bile – that’s the right name for it – coming out of Donald Trump’s mouth was frightening – concentration camps for immigrants, arrests for opponents,  openly promising to stack the Supreme Courts, kissing the butts of people who promise a national abortion plan while denying his part in it.

The stuff coming out of Joe Biden’s mouth was frightening in a different way.

After his disastrous debate, he seemed to mutate into an American King Lear, the mythological Shakespearean, aging King of Britain.

In preparation for his aging and dying, King Lear divided his power and land between his daughters Goneril and Regan, who, like the hypocrites and cowards of the Republican Party, stood behind their weakening father and pretended to love him.

What will the Democrats make of Trump’s “supporters” and presidential appointments, every one of which openly labeled Donald Trump as someone who should never be allowed in the White House? A lot, I think. Great videos for the opposition.

I never doubted that Biden would have to step down; he was falling apart, and there was no way his party would go down the slide with him. Politicians are transactional people; loyalty matters, but only as a matter of the moment.

It’s essential to have some calming perspective in the next few months. The media is already in full-blown hysteria and delusion.

Here is what is essential to remember. You can take or leave it, but I won’t argue with you on the Internet about it.

Tonight, the dynamic and awful reality changed profoundly. Our political world has been turned upside down once more.

Trump was and will be a loser with awful judgment and sociopathic instincts. He is the worst candidate for public office I have ever seen, and I am heading for age 77.

I don’t care how loudly people chair for him in stadiums and fixed environments. He is scared at least half the country to death, sounding more and more like Mussolini than an American president.

We don’t promise to lock our political opponents up when we win; it isn’t what Americans like to hear. To win, Trump will have to win over a lot of people he insists on frightening and insulting. His new sharp handlers can’t shut him up, at least not for more than a few minutes.

Trump’s political addiction  is that he can’t help revealing who he is, even when given a golden opportunity—the debate—to widen his base and the number of followers.

So far, his only campaign goals are revenge and lament. He’s now signed up with and is evoking God after the assassination attempt in Pennsylvania.

God must be sobbing up in the skies. I wouldn’t push it, Mr. Trump.

After Biden stepped down, Trump could have pretended for five minutes that he wished him well and thanked him for his service.

Could he be civil and polite even for a second? I guess so, and that is Trump’s Achilles heel. He can’t turn his craziness off.

No, he was calling Biden a thief and a liar and gloating over his demise. Trump’s newest congressional puppy, the Republican Speaker of the House, demanded Biden quit the presidency right now, as he was admitting his stepping down from the race was in the country’s best interests. Of course,

Biden should have done this earlier, but he is the President and deserves some empathy and respect, even just an hour ago. It was a tough decision for Biden, and he couldn’t do it gracefully.

But on the other side, the fangs were already out and ready to snarl. Does anyone want another four years of this cruelty and hatred?

America is sick of this relentless anger, grievance, and dishonesty. I believe that and hear it all the time.

This week, a grand national sigh will be heard, millions of dollars will pour into Democratic coffers from all kinds of people, and if Kamala Harris has her wits or anyone’s wits about them, she will present a platform of unity, economic reform, and border solutions.

The billionaires funding Trump have once again bet on the wrong horse. Voters still rank supreme.

Don’t believe the latest media BS that the Democratic nomination is up for grabs. It is not. Kamala Harris will be the candidate.

She will have the full support of the party, undoubtedly additional support from women, and the enthusiastic backing of the African-American community, one of the most important supporters of the Democratic Party. Some were drifting towards Trump. They will drift back in great numbers.

Yes, the fix is in, but it is a great fix, eliminating many of Trump’s expectations and plans. Someone young, someone different, someone who can utter a coherent sentence, and someone who will bring a vast political apparatus (already set up) in with her.

African Americans know all too well where Donald Trump’s heart lies when it comes to their well-being. Wait until those Virginia, Nazi videos are posted all over social media.

Trump will lose his exclusive and free ride from the media. He is not the big story now; depending on what Harris does, he will have difficulty getting that critical publicity back. Like her or not, she is the big story now, and she has been getting ready for some time. All she has to do is not to be Donald Trump; he will set himself on fire.

He won’t like the publicity he will get, but he will get a much closer and more challenged look at the stream of lies he can’t stop offering. It’s like there’s an evil spirit stuck in his mouth and out of anyone’s control.

He can’t win that way.

Fortunately, the bullet missed him, but he is his own deadly and worst enemy.

Harris’s expectations are low at the moment. I have yet to see much of her.

She is known to be intelligent and determined. She will perform well above expectations. Next to her boss, Biden, and Donald Trump, she will look to many as a superhero and a refreshing move to the future, away from the Potty Mouth President Trump. Anyone who can speak a complete sentence without lying, stumbling, forgetting, hating someone,  or ranting will look great to many, including me.

Women, already shaken by the endless abortion disaster, will be fascinated by the chance to vote for a woman who has already promised to protect their abortion rights – something Trump can never do or want to do – and become the first female President of the United States. It’s time.

The media is suggesting the country might be too racist and sexist to vote for an African American/Indian woman; I don’t believe that. Americans are also transactional. They want what is best for them and their children, regardless of color. Barack Obama demonstrated that.

This mess was inevitable since Joe Biden left the battlefield months ago, long before the famous debate, and Trump has been left alone to run his mouth, stir up his base, and bully the people in his party who have never liked him or want him to lead the Republican Party. Watch them run and hide if and when things turn ugly.

Trump’s performance at the debate was slightly more coherent than Biden’s, but he, too, is aging visibly and rapidly, God’s intervention notwithstanding. God is not going to save him now.

More than half of the country was terrified by a new Trump presidency, and finally, they can have an articulate, healthy, and alert candidate and an aroused party and nation. “All I want is sanity and peace,” said a neighbor, “I don’t care who does it.” Four years ago, he had a giant Trump Flag flowing on his front lawn.

I don’t write as a Democrat or Republican but as a former political writer trained to step back and look at the big picture. I loved politics and am sorry to see the cesspool it has become. That can change. It had to change, just like Biden had to go. Trump will have a rough few months, even rougher than the last.

For me, the big picture has changed overnight. It is silly to say there isn’t time for Harris to establish herself as a better option than the very mentally disturbed Republican candidate. Four months will seem as long as it is before it’s over.

And one thing going for the Democrats is that Trump, challenged by strong women, always goes to pieces. It will turn out well for the country. I am always willing and able to be wrong; that does not work to shut me up. I believe she will chew Trump up like a hamburger when they debate each other.

People who are afraid to be wrong are afraid to think.

So far, so good. I will sleep easier tonight, and not because I’m pushing for one candidate or the other. Donald Trump’s campaign just lost the chance to redefine itself and reach the many people who are desperate for the vicious fighting and paralysis to end.

He indeed poses a significant threat to our freedom and democracy.

The irony is that, like Joe Biden and the Democratic Party, Trump has lost touch with the country’s mood and the electorate’s strong desires. Harris has yet to campaign, but her polling was already tied with Trump at the outset and better than his in several states. That polling, I am told, was a significant factor in Biden’s decision to step down.

It’s the Democrat’s turn to blow it now or win. They are finally free to do what they should have been doing.

Donald  Trump will do everything possible to help them. He always does.