How American optimism keeps getting punched in the face by its government

I’m optimistic about 2026.

Those were the words with which I had envisioned beginning my first post of the new year. And that’s saying something for a guy like me, wired as I am a bit the pessimist. But I’ve always tried to be very optimistic about America.

I grew up in Ronald Reagan’s optimism. I read of greatness – our first president willingly giving up power, another saving the Union and ending slavery, unfathomable bravery on the beaches of Normandy, and walking on the Moon. Regardless of large policy differences, I’ve celebrated our firsts – the Obama family walking out onto that stage, he as the President-elect of the United States, and Kamala Harris taking to the podium as Vice President-elect.

Do I wish their politics were different? I do. But still I loved those moments for us as a country.

I’m equally awed by those who write America well, devouring things written by greats such as the incomparable Peggy Noonan. I’m even drawn to and inspired by great fictional Americans. I’ve found great joy in the screenwriting of Aaron Sorkin with his fictional presidents Jed Bartlett and Andrew Shepherd. I’ve hoped beyond hope that the real-life staffers who walk the halls of the White House, be they Republican or Democrat, are as wisely weathered as his Leo McGarry, as wonderfully complex as his Toby Ziegler, as morally grounded and astute as his Claudia Jean Cregg, and as willing to speak truth to power as his Lewis Rothschild.

Perhaps this is my own idealism or naivete coming through. But I’m keeping it. I’m holding tight to my sense of America, the sense that comes from the amalgamation in my mind of giant acts from real-life leaders throughout our history, the fictional portrayals of leaders we can only aspire to have, my sense that divine providence surely has shined upon this nation, and my faith in a continued commitment to meet that big idea that all are created equal.

So for 2026, I saw reason for American optimism. Sure, a democratic socialist was just sworn in as mayor of New York City. Sure, we still have a chief executive who acts the dictator and then wonders why the media portrays him as one. But my optimism centers on my feeling we are about to turn the corner. Both the democratic socialist and the MAGA dictator will learn in 2026 where the true power lies in America, with the people. And the people are somewhere between those extremes.

A socialist mayor will learn that governing is harder than campaigning, because while one can campaign in idealism, one must govern in consensus. He will learn that businesses and citizens will bear only so much taxation, and idealism can cost a ton of money.

And a president will learn what a bridge too far looks like. More and more, even if by one or two, and even if also by flawed officials, Republicans are starting to find their backbone, beginning to be willing to cross a president of the same party. Perhaps too late and perhaps too calculated. I say that because in all matters of courage and conscience, whether it’s in a school yard or in public policy, when you step in matters. But the cracks have formed and water will begin rushing through. And an administration of all too unskilled operators will find they can’t stop it. And then the midterms. And then, as has happened to every other president, this one will learn the powerlessness that is lame duckery.

Both sides, the far too MAGA and the far too progressive will learn very quickly that the all-too-common-sense American won’t have either. That, anyway, was the basis of my 2026 optimism.

But then as too often happens, optimism got a punch in the face from the mundanity that is real life.

The real life of the last few weeks began when President Trump referred to blowing other human beings off the planet on Christmas Day – even if they were terrorists worthy of elimination – as a Christmas present, as if that is the appropriate way to mark the birth of the Prince of Peace.

Real life included the removal of a head of state and the ridiculous communications surrounding it. Nicolas Maduro was an illegitimate president and a narco-terrorist according to both the Biden and Trump administrations. He deserves what happens to him. And though Stephen Miller would have you believe Maduro was removed to keep our borders secure and Marco Rubio simply to prosecute an indictment, our President, in what must give his aids incessant heartburn, will not stay on any of those messages. Instead, it’s “Drill baby, drill.”

Never mind that our taking of Maduro gives the international community pause. Never mind it gives members of Congress on both sides pause, particularly because the administration failed to notify the Gang of Eight in advance. Apparently, that would compromise operational security, but a Signal chat with a reporter included was harmless. Never mind that oil prices are almost already too low to spur further exploration. Never mind that US oil companies don’t want any part of having to invest those dollars, knowing it’s the wrong time in the wrong place, a place that has burned them before. And never mind that “drill baby drill” is not worth one scratch on one member of our incredible military, nor the wasting of one taxpayer-funded munition. Nor is removing an illegitimate president unless, perhaps, it is defending citizens of a nation attempting to do so themselves. After all, we too threw off a dictator. It required France’s help, but we made the determination for ourselves.

There is also something a bit too on the nose about the Trump administration indicting a president in part because he and his family were profiting from their positions. Certainly, drugs are worse than crypto, but unethical profiting is still unethical profiting.

There is also something unseemly about a superpower appearing to flex its muscles without being very careful about expressing the why, and having that why be justifiable in the eyes of the world of nations. That’s why we have built coalitions in the past, not because we couldn’t do a thing alone but rather because the doing alone can scare others. It scares them as to what is next. And that is especially true when the acting nation is led by a man who muses about making Canada its 51^st state, displacing Gazans to turn Gaza into the new Riviera, taking back the Panama Canal, taking Ukraine’s natural resources in return for its help against an invader, and taking Greenland either the easy way or the hard way. There is something about regulating the crap out of one’s resources at home but seeking to coerce access to the resources of other nations abroad that isn’t particularly how a good and just nation should behave.

President Trump’s supporters call all of these simply negotiating tactics, while ignoring both the real and perceived implications of a super power going around eyeing every other kid’s lunch money. Even just the eyeing is destabilizing to the world order.

It throws away the hard-earned faith and credit of the United States and deals body blows to the international work that has framed the post World War decades. And if we aren’t careful, it takes the seat this administration has vacated at the table with our allies, the seat our allies were keeping warm for us until 2029, and threatens to permanently move it into storage.

And that is to say nothing of the implications to the UN, an already too feckless organization. And all the while, unrest in Iran, unrest that may require the US and its allies to be in lockstep, continues to grow.

Then, of course, real life brought us the shooting of Renee Good. The death of anyone is a tragedy. Equally tragic is that people seeing the same videos cannot agree on just what the tragedy is. Is it an overreaching executive branch, using heavy-handed tactics that instill more fear into a community than its benefits secure for that community, pitted against concerned citizens wanting to protect their neighbors from being swooped up in the same broad nets as the criminals? Or is it agitators putting themselves in positions that make it harder for legitimate law enforcement, setting up scenarios that can end in one losing a life and one not being able to recall bullets fired in an instant? Even the ICE masks, are they the device of a thug or a necessary tool to lessen the threat of doxing.

Like all else, so much is dependent on the channel you watch. And like all else, the truth is somewhere in the middle. There never is a middle ground anymore. We just question each other’s motives.

The first few weeks of 2026 has brought smallness, too. Secretary of Defense (this name will be back in a few years after wasting taxpayer money on new signs and stationery) Pete Hegseth has initiated a review of Senator Mark Kelly’s military retirement grade and pay in response to the Senator’s participation in a video with other lawmakers that advised military service members to refuse illegal orders. To be sure this was an ill-advised video. First, it made an assumption that our brave women and men in uniform needed to be reminded of their duties and oaths. I have more faith in them than that. Second, it was lawmakers saying, in essence, that servicemen needed to do the heavy lifting in this case, not legislators. I would rather have had a video of servicemen reminding Congressmen what their Constitutional role is to check the Executive. Be this as it may, Senator Kelly served his country for 25 years in uniform, commanded two space shuttle missions, endured with his wife the trauma and life-altering effects of the gun violence she suffered, and now serves as the senior senator from Arizona. This retaliation is small. And the resultant lawsuit just filed will needlessly cost taxpayers money. Besides, “seditious” isn’t a word this administration should use casually so close to January 6^th.

The official White House government website added a January 6^th anniversary page. It begins with an oversized picture of Nancy Pelosi above the members of the Select Committee to investigate January 6^th. Inexplicably, though the subliminal intent seems fairly clear to me, the photo itself shakes and the border repeatedly flashes with bright light. But sure, it’s the left that encourages political violence. The website goes on to list so many inaccuracies and lies, it’s frightening. But of course, the website won’t move the needle on how one feels about January 6^th and it has an intended audience of just one anyway. Your taxpayer dollars hard at work!

Against the backdrop of these events, another phrase keeps coming to my mind. It is the iconic words of the character Gordon Gekko from the movie Wall Street. He said, “Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.” And he was right. Up until a point, greed, at least the unselfish part of it, is good. Greed for life, for happiness, for success, for joy. All good. What isn’t good is when greed becomes voraciousness. What isn’t good is when it becomes a selfishness that robs others of their opportunity. What isn’t good is when it becomes an obsession, seeking something at the expense of all else. Then it destroys you and others. We, in our silos of political belief, have become greedy to be right. And President Trump has become voracious. And it is well past time for all to show restraint.

I’ve spoken often in this space of the proper role of government. The underlying premise of all of its roles is to provide stability. It should create a safe, predictable, and stable environment, so that its citizens and its businesses can do the rest. Stability requires restraint. Anway.

I spoke earlier of President Reagan and of Mark Kelly’s space shuttle service. The confluence of the two has reminded me that we are just two weeks away from the 40^th anniversary of the Challenger disaster. I was in eighth grade in New Hampshire and I still remember the look on my English teacher’s face when we learned that the crew, including another school teacher from New Hampshire named Christa McAuliffe, was gone. I reflect in this moment on Americans braver than I. And I am reminded of the words Ms. Noonan wrote for President Reagan’s address to the nation, words addressed directly to the schoolchildren who watched the disaster live.

“The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave.”

And if that doesn’t get you, how about some Jed Bartlett.

“Every time we think we’ve measured our capacity to meet a challenge, we look up and we’re reminded that that capacity may well be limitless. This is a time for American heroes. We will do what is hard. We will achieve what is great. This is a time for American heroes and we reach for the stars.”

Yea, I’m still optimistic.