While Trump Tweets

“I am a very stable genius,”’is an odd comment by any man.
But when it’s made by the President of the United States on one of the most popular social media sites in the world it’s unbelievable and embarrassing.
It can cause one to be discouraged about what our country has become.
Because here’s the thing.
We elected him!

For years, the movement of this country has been away from the ideal John Kennedy set out when he said, “ Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,”
The movement has been away from “we’re all in this together” to “look out for yourself.”
It has been fueled by people at the top of the social economic structure.
They have things the way they like them and they’d like to see things remain that way.
They have succeeded by spreading division and dispute.
They have pitted us one against the other by using hot topic issues like gun control and abortion. Issues they care not about except as a tool to divide the masses.
They have spread fear of anyone who might be different from us.
They’ve spread distrust of the government and the media.
They have corrupted what started as a great social experiment of a government “of the people” into a people controlled by “the government,” by convincing us that we cannot self govern but that, rather, the “government” is some evil third party.
And Trump’s tweets become a distraction while they change policy, appoint judges, and pass bills that further their cause.

I worry.

But I do not despair.

I see hope in the young and not so young of the Bernie movement, who still believe in a government not only of the people, but for the people.
I see hope in their activism.
I see hope in the Alabama and Virginia elections.
I see hope in Wisconsin where Randy Bryce, a union iron worker, is challenging the Speaker of the House.
I see hope in Connecticut, where progressive wings are making changes in Democratic Town Committees and winning seats on town councils and boards.
I see hope at the negotiations table of my union, where Backus Nurses are strongly advocating for themselves, their families and their patients. Where they sit as equals with a management that only 6 years ago spent more than a million dollars in an effort to derail our unionizing efforts.
I see hope in the “me too” movement, where women are standing up for themselves and each other.

Yes, we elected Trump.
But I see hope that we have rekindled the fire upon which this country was founded.

And we must not let the tweets of a “stable genius” distract us.