...Yet by the time the polls closed on Tuesday , tens of millions of Americans voted for a policy platform that included profiling Muslims, expelling millions of unauthorized immigrants, walling off the nation’s third-largest trading partner and starting a trade war with the world’s next superpower.

The intense illiberal passion that emerged in the liberal Obama era to propel Mr. Trump to victory paints a troubling portrait of American society. It is one dominated by racial hostility, which stands above any other consideration, undercutting the very notion that national problems merit a collective response...