that support is critical, because what president trump has done, just like president putin, is he's got rid of the party. there isn't much of a republican party except for a personal cult around trump himself, and everyone has to appeal to him to actually still be in the political mix. that's exactly the same with putin in russia. and trump is appealing directly to people themselves. without the party, without any of the institutions, it's just exactly the same kind of play we see in russia. >> you also wrote something fascinating. you write in the book, and it's worrying, russia is america's ghost of christmas future. a harbinger of things to come if we can't adjust course and heal our political polarization. that's terrifying. >> it is terrifying. that's actually why i wrote it. i think we're looking now at the kind of scenario we saw in russia over the last 20 years where vladimir putin came in after a decade of chaos. he said i'm going to make russia great again. what he did instead is turn the clock back on democratization in russia and of course, we have seen the annexation of crimea, all kinds of escapades on the international stage, but the most important thing is the way he turned the clock back on the developments going on in russian