For decades, Bill, who died last week at the age of 91, was a prominent, relatively mainstream voice like almost no other, warning of the growing gap between America's rich and poor, the increasing political pow

er of a handful of American oligarchs, and the ever-more-distorted information environment. His hard-hitting dispatches on the concerning state of our reality aired in documentaries and broadcast interviews, often introduced matter-of-factly, following his signature, Cronkite-esque greeting " "Good evening, I'm Bill Moyers," delivered with an East Texas accent from another era.

They continued through both terms of the Bush administration, both terms of the Obama administration, and into the dawn of the first Trump administration. He warned about voter suppression, advancing climate change, and the inability of everyday Americans to achieve the dream of entering, and staying in, the middle class.

Finally, he warned that it was all leading us toward a crisis of faith in American institutions that would shake the foundation of our democracy. Ultimately, Donald Trump, he would suggest, was symptom, not cause.