One more week of Beltway Christmas parties, followed by a week of faith, and football, and then the nation’s capital reconvenes in a still-stunned state.

No less an American icon than Henry Winker — from “Happy Days” to “Arrested Development” to a sleigh full of fine films — tweeted a question last week: “Why does our political underpinning seem so ‘shifting sand unsettling’ at his moment?” A good question, that, and one we will discuss together on Monday’s program, but here’s a first whack.