A fractured nation, hobbled by massive corruption in the White House. Bitter attacks on intelligence agencies, the media, and other major institutions. And a crowd of Democrats lining up to become the next president, each promising to fix the damage.

We've been here before. In the mid-1970s, America was reeling from Watergate and the downfall of Richard Nixon. And the Democrats nominated Jimmy Carter, who is precisely the kind of gentle, upright leader that we need in the wake of Donald J. Trump.

 A little-known governor from a southern state, Carter came out of nowhere — Plains, Georgia, to be exact — to capture the presidency. Unlike most of his Democratic rivals, he was untainted by the stench of Washington, D.C. And he spoke in a clear moral language, pledging to unite the country around a few simple virtues: honesty, dignity, and trust.