The strange gift of the Trump years is that we got an advance copy of our autopsy as a democratic republic.

Trump stress-tested every institution -- from Congress to the police to the courts to the media -- and now we know where the weaknesses are.

The implication going forward is that we must understand the conditions in our country that made the autocratic attempt possible, and fix them.

Fixing the specific institutions Trump sabotaged is vital.

But so is fixing the meta-institutions that enabled his rise.

An economy for the few.

The hijacking of politics by business.

For-profit disinformation.

A failure to help men and white people make peace with equality.

And rebuilding democracy will require remembering that there were people all along warning us of what was to come -- and listening to and centering them.

Black Lives Matter was telling us that many of our fellow citizens already felt as though they lived in an autocracy long before that term was on the nightly news.

Too many didn't listen to those who experienced democratic erosion before it went mainstream and touched everyone.

The folks drawn to Bernie Sanders' movement were telling us that they were living in a Paul Manafort kleptocracy long before anyone knew who Paul Manafort was.

So to look forward, we must look back. Who was warning us? Who knew?

Listen to the sages. Listen to the people who warned us. And listen less to the encrusted old guard who got us into this mess and didn't guard us.