Continental Rift V

In a recent essay, I posed a question to readers that I’ve been asking myself for the past year. It’s a question that every American should be asking themselves, regardless of where we get our news. Whether you’re team Hannity or team Maddow, whether your politics align with Clay Travis and Buck Sexton or the ladies of The View. Whether you see the president as Captain America or Adolph incarnate; this simple question can serve as a check on the powerful pull of emotional reactivity, herd mentality, and the algorithmic echo chamber. It goes like this:

Am I wrong about Donald Trump?

My goal is to view this administration and its policies with clear eyes, unaffected by the peripheral noise coming from the left or the right. Not an easy endeavor with such a polarizing figure in the center of the storm. But at the 100-day mile marker of this second Trump term, I think I’ve arrived at an answer. Let me provide some backstory first . . .

A little over eight years ago I wrote an essay about Barack Obama leaving office after two terms and how he was going to be a hard act to follow (“A Shining Example,” Jan. 2017). Full disclosure: I am an Obama acolyte. I started paying attention to politics during his historic 2008 White House run when I was just a couple years into this 20-year prison sentence. I was inspired by his message of hope and change. As a young man who had lost his way, listening to this longshot senator from Illinois riff on everything from kindness to mastery to constitutional law filled me with energy and optimism. He was easily the most gifted orator I had ever heard speak. But it wasn’t just his magisterial flow. It was action too. I won’t list every triumph in this essay, but one undeniable slam-dunk was his eight straight years of economic growth after inheriting the 2008 crash—an event that cost the world 40% of its wealth. Then, of course, there was the celebrated termination of Public Enemy Number One, Osama Bin Laden. Not that he pulled it off by himself, but still . . . Pretty big deal. On a lighter note, almost 15 years ago, during the birther conspiracy era (when Trump was haranguing him for being an immigrant and demanding he present his birth certificate), President Obama entered a press correspondents’ dinner pumping his fist and smiling while the band struck up “Born in the USA.” A good father, a good husband, a good dude, and—like the title of that 2017 essay proclaims—A Shining Example. At least in the opinion of this humble incarcerated scribe. How good of a dude? How shining of an example? Well, in 2016 I sent a letter and a couple of my books to the White House from a Florida Panhandle prison and was shocked to receive a response. The president of the United States wrote me back.

In the aforementioned essay I also express hope for the incoming President Trump. Specifically, his business acumen and how it might benefit America. However, I am embarrassed to admit that a couple of days later, in light of a flurry of post-inauguration news stories, I clumsily banged out a somewhat inaccurate and emotionally reactive article called “The Honeymoon Is Over” and went on to hammer the president on every corner for the next four years. Many of you who have been reading these posts since the beginning probably remember. Especially those of you who lean Republican and were annoyed by my rants. God bless y’all for sticking around 🙂

So . . . long story longer, when Trump was reelected this time, I was committed to not being such a hack, to not making up my mind first and then finding the facts to support my predetermined opinion; but instead listening to both sides, reading everything I could get my hands on, and resisting the temptation to jump to apocalyptic conclusions. For the most part, I have done what I set out to do. Mission accomplished. Kinda.

When I began this essay, my intention was to assess President Trump on all the big issues and his campaign promises at the 100-day mark—the economy, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Iran, immigration, the courts, D.E.I., DOGE, tariffs, Greenland, Canada, China, the culture war stuff . . . But after careful deliberation, I have decided to not issue this report card. There are plenty of smart people that are far more articulate than me with internet access and college degrees and rolodexes full of sources to break down these stories. The good and the bad and the head-scratchers.

You don’t need me for that.

Kindness is my domain. Human connection. Warmth, empathy, redemption, music, books, love, football, family, friendship, laughter, nature, forgiveness . . . Hope. I need to get back to this. It’s what I want to be writing about.

Am I wrong about Trump? I don’t know. Maybe. His demand that America is getting a raw deal and that the world needs to pay its fair share might benefit the longevity of the empire. But at what cost? Babies dying of HIV in Africa when it could have been prevented for a few extra pennies a day? The evaporation of due process? Copycat authoritarians popping up across the globe? Impoverished immigrants being labeled as murderers and rapists? The fear, the division, the hard-heartedness . . .

Not my thing. And I can’t pretend it is.

There’s been a lot of talk over the last quarter century about the ballooning national debt. Especially in GOP circles. “What type of legacy are we leaving our children?” my conservative friends ask. The liberal outcry has more of an environmental bent. “What type of planet are we leaving our children?” Both of these questions have merit. But while we are examining the long-term effects of current policies, we need to take an honest look at the vitriolic rhetoric of our elected leaders as well. All this hate-speak and intolerance. All this vilification of “other.’’ What type of world will our children inherit from us? Regardless of our political preferences, we need to find a way to bring back decency and decorum.

There is no them, only us.

—May 5, 2025

[This essay is the fifth and final part in the Continental Rift series first posted on March 24, 2025…]