Political Division

What makes The United States so impressive is that our head of state defends the right to speech with which he disagrees, or at least he is supposed to if he does the only job to which the founders asked him to swear an oath – “to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

A thoughtful reflection on American optimism in the face of political extremism, government overreach, and global instability. Drawing from history, leadership, and culture, this blog explores how restraint, civic courage, and faith in democratic balance remain essential to preserving America’s ideals—especially when optimism feels hardest to hold.

Happy Thanksgiving. This year, like all years, the same unwritten rule will apply around the Thanksgiving table. Don’t talk politics or religion! This year, just maybe, that rule will be even more important.

Perhaps no lyric ever written so succinctly sums up my belief in the idea of America more than these words from that song. Those words cut through me harder than they normally do. We’re losing who we are. The list of things we’ll do is getting longer and the list of things we won’t, shorter. This week, 42 million Americans are facing their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits running dry because of the shutdown.

Once the customer, the American citizen in this case, has grown accustomed to a government service, it is hard, and in many cases unfair, to take it away. And it doesn’t matter if that service provided or right granted is Social Security, Trump-era tax cuts, Affordable Care Act subsidies, or reproductive rights. No one likes having something and then having it taken away.

I am reminded daily that real life, done well, can be instructive for our politics and that real life, done poorly, mirrors our politics.

I started this piece eight hours before Charlie Kirk was murdered and I finish it now while the manhunt for his killer is still underway. We do not yet know the motive. We do not yet know the shooter’s mental condition. We do not yet know the shooter’s political affiliation. And while we soon will, I fear the truth will not stop some from advancing theories of their own.