Can our democracy survive an unfit President? Compassion, not secession

Is the greatest system of government ever invented great enough to be reinvented after it is burned down? Sub -question – was Trump elected in spite of Trump, to say we must have a do-over of our government, by people terrified by the new economy who have experienced that government is not effectively on their side? People whose worst instincts were in some instances preyed upon by the demagogue but who fundamentally just want change?

Or even if he was really elected in part because of bigotry and sexism rather than in spite of it, can we choose to take away a different message – that the real majority of people are just sick of paying so much for government and getting their hopes up that it will provide a real safety net,a real education, real statutory protections – and being constantly let down? When Trump and his sycophants fail at governing – as they will, since they know only how to burn, and not how to build (other than towering monuments to their own names) – can we step into the void and save our inclusive America with a new vision? We must not forget that we are the ones who serve the diverse working class of America, not the sham billionaire bankruptcy artist who can’t be bothered to pay livable minimum wages or his fair share of taxes.

We win in the end because we are right on justice and fairness. And we lose if we come out as defenders of an indisputably flawed and too-often inequitable system.

Is there the kernel of a path forward here? I hope so because as much as I despise Trump and his idiocy I cannot despise America, even though many here voted for him. America gave us the opportunity to do what good we do so passionately. Can we find a way in our anger to have compassion for Trump’s victims, or some of them, who themselves struggle to make ends meet and cannot see any hope with the current system, other than through a false prophet? We are the compassionate. We are the compassionate. We are the compassionate. Does repeating this give us any chance of internalizing it?

We must fight by all available means against the hatefulness that Trump espoused throughout his campaign. But can we do it without secession from America?