Count me as one of millions of Americans who is concerned about the state of politics, policy and public discourse in this great country of ours.
Do not count me as one who fears for its survival. We’re going to survive and perhaps even prosper once we get past what is happening at this moment.
The president of the United States appears to be in trouble. Investigators appear to be closing in on some serious misdeeds; they might include criminal charges leveled against Donald Trump and his immediate family.
The president is lashing out, blasting and smashing at his foes. He disparages our intelligence community, our laws enforcers, our duly elected representatives who happen to disagree with the manner in which he governs.
There might be an impeachment on our horizon. Or not.
The United States has endured many more difficult circumstances than what we’re enduring now. We’ve been through two world wars, a Great Depression, the Civil War, political corruption of all stripes and types. We have impeached two presidents already and damn near impeached a third, who then quit the presidency just as the impeachment was about to occur.
I remain an eternal optimist in the beauty of the government our founders created in the late 18th century. It contains some marvelous self-correcting mechanisms. We have elections every couple of years. We get to vote on House membership every other year; we vote on a third of the Senate at that time. We vote for president every four years and we limit a single president to two elected terms.
Congress can block a president’s impulses. The federal court system is empowered to rule on the constitutionality of congressional or presidential actions.
The system works.
Are we in dire peril over what may transpire in the coming year, or perhaps in the coming weeks? I don’t believe we are. I believe instead that the system will hold up. It will rattle and clank at times. Ultimately it will protect all Americans.
I am keeping the faith in the wisdom of those founders. They knew what they were doing.