When Did Everything Get So Stupid?

I'm going to try to avert my attention from the political situation. Politics and policy in a big, sprawling, evolving democratic republic are going to be difficult even if most everyone is sane, reasonable and smart. There are tough questions and problems that would drive us nuts no matter what we did. But it's the unforced errors that make me crazy. The left going batshit crazy--that's an unforced error. Electing Trump--that's another. We didn't have to do either of those things. But we did. And now these errors occupy center stage. And each side is contributing to making the other crazier. Or so it seems to me, anyway.
What a damn mess.