As we write this editorial America is entering what we like to call the lapse. It’s one of those moments when history has been decided but Americans don’t know what it is. We first began thinking about the lapse when, as a young reporter, we read of the great sea battles in the vast Pacific during World War II. There were hours or days in which the fate of the world had been decided in titanic naval engagements but Americans hadn’t yet heard about them.