“It is safer,” the philosopher Leo Strauss cautioned, “to try to understand the low in the light of the high than the high in the light of the low. In doing the latter one necessarily distorts the high, whereas in doing the former one does not deprive the low of the freedom to reveal itself as fully as what it is.” This week bids fair to be a low moment in American history, as Donald Trump chooses to reveal himself fully for what he is. First, the president used protests against his mass deportation policy as an excuse to deploy...