My eternal optimism is being tested to its limits by the current mood of the nation I love with all my heart.
It troubles me in the extreme to see the major political parties so deeply divided. I hurt at the prospect of congressmen and women expressing fear of working with their colleagues. I long for the day when these officials could differ on policy but remain friends in private.
When in the world did it occur? When did we become so full of hatred for each other? I know the answer to those rhetorical questions.
It occurred when Donald J. Trump rode down the escalator at Trump Tower and declared in 2015 that if he was elected president, he would ban Muslims from entering the country and would curb what he described as the tide of criminals streaming here from Mexico, accusing our hemispheric neighbors of being “rapists, murderers and drug dealers.”
It went downhill from there in a big hurry.
Then he declared that the media are the “enemy of the people.” He chastised gay Americans. He vowed to “make America great again.” He pitted Americans against each other.
He denigrated those who wanted to wear the uniform of the country in a time of war … a jab many of us took personally, if you get my drift.
The list is long. He left a nation damaged from his time in office. I am not going to believe the damage is permanent. That optimism in me wants to believe we can heal ourselves. I won’t let that belief go.
He is gone from public office. My sincerest hope of all is that he doesn’t ever return to public life, that the crimes I believe he committed will bring him down.
Meanwhile, my sincerest hope of all is that we can restore some semblance of collegiality and rid our public discourse of the extreme bitterness that infects it.