I see it in businesses all the time. A corporation or a person or a group of friends think they have the right obsessions, and they start a business: Man, do we know how to make gluten-free food! We have it nailed! Not a drop of gluten will get by the door! Do you see the problem? They have obsessions—that’s the problem. They have not mastered the moment; they are obsessing their way through the thing, focusing on bullshit small stuff instead seeing the very big picture.

They don’t know how to make French fries. A good home cook will fry them once at 325 degrees and, later, at 375 degrees, just before serving. The new gluten-free restaurant does not know this. They serve limp fries, coated with some powder that is intended to give them a nice color. It mostly does—give them a nice color—but they are limp. The gluten-free restaurant did not master the moment. They made gluten-free bullshit instead of great French fries to go with that hamburger, that is, admittedly, better than average, even if they didn’t ask me if I wanted that goopy cheddar cheese sauce added to the top of it. Then, they served it in a paper bag, along with those fries that come in a separate little paper pocket. I don’t want to eat that stuff: Don’t serve that to me.

A psychopath lacks a moral center. Donald Trump is a psychopath. He will never, ever, ever master the moment. He will obsess his way through, grasping at greatness, but he will never reach it. A normal person—I am rather normal, okay—hates watching that. We hate watching that! Can you stop putting that bullshit in front of me? Your burger is better than average. Your French fries are crap. You will never get it right. You get it right at the margins, but you don’t get it really right. Donald Trump is a wastrel, obsessive man. We are a Jeffersonian Democracy—Goddamn it—we are a Jeffersonian Democracy! We, this nation, mastered the moment a long time ago. Do not let it slip away. Let’s cook our French fries twice, always, and enjoy the meal. Let obsessive, stupid people wither away into a frazzled mess, as they always do.