The Apostle Paul urged Christians living in Rome to “think with sober judgment” as they engaged in regular self-examination (Romans 12:3).
That is good advice for individuals, but also for us as a nation collectively.
Now that the end point of the first 100 very long days of Donald Trump’s presidency has passed, I believe we would do well to reflect with sober judgment on the state and direction of our nation.
From my perspective, it is a very discouraging and disturbing picture, not least because his presidency has cast a pall over us a people.
Beyond the anxiety and anger and frustration millions of us feel, the mood of the nation seems to be somber, almost sullied, as if our self-respect and reputation as a people have been tarnished by his brash words and adolescent behavior, and especially by his inability simply to tell the truth.
I think the reason for all of this is both simple and obvious: Donald Trump is not even close to being as good a person as the American people he is supposed to represent.
We are not a perfect nation, to be sure, but we are better than the man who is our president.
David Gergen, a veteran political advisor to several Republican and Democratic presidents, put his finger on it when he described his reaction to Trump’s “campaign” speech in Pennsylvania last weekend.
“This was the most divisive speech I’ve ever heard from a sitting American president” Gergen said, “a deeply disturbing speech.”
Why did he react that way? In his own words: “He [Trump] played to his base and he treated his other listeners, the rest of the people who have been disturbed about him or oppose him, he treated them basically as ‘I don’t care, I don’t give a damn what you think, because you’re frankly like the enemy,'”
That assessment, made with a level of sober judgment one would wish other commentators possessed, spoke volumes about why there is a pall over the country.
And as a nation, we deserve better. At its core that is what is wrong with the Trump presidency.
It’s the man that is the problem.
It is clear that he has no understanding of the job he has, how the legislative process works, or even the actual content of the bills his own administration has proposed, but it is his childishness, his pettiness, his vindictiveness that are embarrassing the country.
He is like an uncouth relative to whom we are forced to introduce to our friends.
I always considered Ronald Reagan’s “it’s morning in America” a great turn of phrase without much substance, but it was effective in expressing his desire to lift the spirits of the American people at a time when pessimism was widespread.
In spite of President Obama’s best efforts, the mood of the nation in 2016 was similar to what it was in 1980.
But Trump did not seize the moment and call on our better angels as a people. He chose, instead, to exacerbate our differences and tap into base desires and hatreds in order to use them to his political advantage.
Understanding how anyone can support this man or cheer the speech he gave last weekend is beyond my comprehension.
But this much I do know. We have never been here before.
It is true that liberals thought George W. Bush was a terrible president, and conservatives thought Barack Obama was, but Donald Trump is in a category all by himself, leaving thoughtful liberals and conservatives alike wondering how this could have ever happened to our country.
We need answers to that question, as well as ideas about what can be done to help the nation survive, all of which we will discuss next time.
But we must first underscore the critical fact that the situation our nation is facing is because we are a better people than Donald Trump is a man.
That is why he is a president who embarrasses the nation rather than making us proud, and nothing about him would suggest things are ever going to be different.
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