Few signs indicate the strange place to which President Donald Trump has taken our country more than the things that he says that just aren’t true.

For example, during the run-up to the 2018 midterms, Trump asserted that a distant caravan of hungry, tired and desperate people posed such a threat to our southern border that regular army troops were needed to keep us safe.

He also promised that very soon the middle class would be enjoying a 10 percent tax cut.

Which of these two do you think will arrive first?

Lies such as these serve a political purpose, but they also do damage. They subvert our appreciation for the idea that we can actually know things based on the evidence that we see. Trump says, “There’s no proof of anything.” Of course there is.

Further, Trump encourages incivility, crudeness and violence. He disrespects women and values tough-guy responses — to protestors at his rallies and to our allies and adversaries — over tolerance and diplomacy.

America looks very different to the world than it did a couple of years ago, and if we look closely at ourselves, we can see the change, as well. How we got to this strange place isn’t as important as how we get back on track. How do we recover from the damage that Trump has done?

We made a start in the Nov. 6 midterm elections, when a majority of American voters expressed their misgivings about where Trump has taken the nation.

But when Democrats assume majority leadership in the House in January, they should move slowly. They should not unleash a scattershot barrage of investigations. If the I-word is mentioned at all it should be in reference to infrastructure; impeachment must be reserved for when there is absolutely no other choice.

The first move should be to choose Nancy Pelosi as speaker. I can appreciate Democrats who feel the time has come for new leadership. But to reject Pelosi is to give credence to assertions that Trump and the Republicans have made about her that simply aren’t true. She has two qualities that make her a tempting target, and Republicans have exploited them: She’s a woman and she’s 78 years old. Neither of these qualities garners much respect in our culture, and thus she’s easy to attack, demonize and dismiss.

And like the “invasion” approaching our border and the imaginary middle-class tax cut, a great deal of what is said about Pelosi is simply mischaracterization for political purposes. But Democrats should play their own game. The road back to normalcy begins with taking normal steps.

In fact, Pelosi was an effective speaker. She fended off the inadvisable privatization of Social Security and marshaled the votes that enabled the passage of the Affordable Care Act, including its protections for pre-existing conditions. She knows how to organize the caucus and count votes. She’s smarter, more experienced and certainly more politically savvy than Trump.

Voters who are willing to believe that Trump is interested in a middle-class tax cut or that he doesn’t know Matthew Whitaker may be willing to believe that Pelosi is the embodiment of evil that Republicans have made her out to be. But Democrats should not let that gullibility affect whom they choose to lead the House.

Trump said that he would support Pelosi as speaker. But he also called the midterms a “great victory.” He shouldn’t be taken seriously. This is a move for the Democrats.

In fact, choosing Pelosi for speaker would be a good way of refuting some of Trump’s corrosive rhetoric, a fine victory for the truth over political calculation and a reminder to Trump of the emerging force that he has had the most trouble accepting his whole life: the idea of a woman with power.

John M. Crisp is a columnist for Tribune News Service.