I understand why Bernstein says what he says but I feel that the conflict is between the country at large and a tiny loud-mouthed media and a few radical leftist organizations.  The broad country - including Democrats outside of the Washington media bubble (in which Bernstein lives) know full well that Hillary lost because a huge majority of Americans dislike her and a majority of Americans want to blow-up the self-serving bankruptcy machine that is Washington.  Trump is a candidate for a reality TV culture - like or not, like him or not and he won with a significant mandate for draining the swamp - no matter how many millions of illegal aliens the Democrats got to the poles. There was broad consensus among Americans that the federal government is out of control and some mistook Obama for a positive change agent but voted for Trump as an outsider so he would disrupt business as usual. The war appears big to Berstein because he has a front row seat - step back and it's a nothing burger.