Are We Americans Now? (PART II)
Approx. read time: 15 minutes
Publisher’s Note: The thought process and writing of this commentary was started prior to the August mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis and the killing of political commentator Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University in September. I have no desire to comment about either tragedies as many others have said plenty. While this piece is not a reaction to either event, it was also not an attempt to prophesize, either. I just continue to notice trends in our social discourse that I know in my heart can snowball into future catastrophes for this country.
When we were children, many of our parents did things to us, for us, and against us, that they ended with the phrase, “This is for your own good.”
We may have loved our parents dearly and blindly, and while at times hated whatever they did in those instances, we grew to believe that, ultimately, they had our best interest at heart regardless of the reward or punishment that was delivered.
Likewise, many of us have grown up in an era of American history where, in spite of some of our timely skepticism or ideological disagreements, we believed that the structure of government of the United States, from our city councils to our President, had our best interest in mind.
The American government hasn’t been flawless. As individuals, we don’t always agree with how the government intervenes in our lives or those lives abroad. But we believe in the social contract that a democratic government is trying to improve the lives of the governed in some way, shape or form. Government does not solve all problems but the raw opposite is simply a society of anarchy.
Lately, however, that social contract has been breached in ways none of us have seen and that probably hasn’t been witnessed in over 100 years. But the biggest violation is fully illustrated in the July 3 passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. [https://wapo.st/4pm1If3.com/business/2025/07/03/trump-tax-bill-house/]
This bill is not a piece of legislation that actively improves the lives of the governed. It is not something that has our best interest at heart. It is not something that is “for our own good.”
Now, I could break it down, line item by line item, the many reasons why this is a recklessly passed bill. And maybe someday I will. However, I only need to point out the simplest of conclusions about this act from the country’s legislative branch:
This bill actively hurts more Americans than it helps. And based on polling since then, Americans know it (check out survey numbers from Pew [https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/06/17/how-americans-view-the-gops-budget-and-tax-bill/], Quinnipiac [https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3924], CNN [https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/16/politics/trump-megabill-one-big-beautiful-bill]and FOX News [https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fox-news-poll-economic-pessimism-abates-slightly]).
If America is a metaphorical parent, he or she is throwing most of their children into the mud and pushing them down further with their boot. Yet should we be surprised by the hurtful nature of this budget bill based on what we have seen and heard from the top of our governmental pyramid for the last eight months? Cynically, I have to say probably not.
After this bill was forcibly passed before the Fourth of July (nothing screams “Have a crappy patriotic holiday” like a country-regressing piece of legislation), President Donald Trump doubled-down by giving a July 3 campaign rally-like speech in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fairgrounds to brag about the republican party passing the citizen-disapproved bill.
For starters, a sitting president – republican, democrat or whatever in between – in his second term should not need to hold rallies during the first six months of his taking office. He should be focused solely on running the country. That aside, the message President Trump delivered at the stop was both largely disturbing and painfully indicative of the political and civic climate of our country.
Amongst his diatribe and boasting of the victories he has accomplished in the previous months, one line stuck out the most regarding the meager passing (218 yeas to 214 nays) of the budget bill. It was an unnecessary and vitriolic shot at his opponents.
The President of the United States said publicly for all to hear, “But all of the things that we’ve given, and they (the Democrats) wouldn’t vote. Only because they hate Trump. But I hate them, too. You know that? I really do, I hate them. I cannot stand them, because I really believe they hate our country, you want to know the truth.” [https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5385217-trump-on-democrats-who-voted-against-gop-megabill-i-hate-them/]
(Fast-forward to 12:15 in the video of his rally below)
That’s right. We have a sitting president publicly admitting hatred toward the opposing party’s representatives, and essentially, half the population in our country.
This is where we are.
Sure, a president might say such a line behind closed doors to their advisors or other members of their party. I won’t be that naive to think otherwise. But to publicly exclaim it at a pointless rally that will be recorded and written about for all a citizenry to know? It should be one of the biggest political gaffes in history. Yet, somehow it is not because hating the other side of the political spectrum has become sickeningly popular since this president’s first term.
Which has me begging the question: Is this American now? Are we just hating people who could be our neighbors, family members, work acquaintances, and faith leaders because we disagree with them and don’t share the same political ideology?
Are we actively trying to hurt groups of people represented by the opposition or those who aren’t “on our side” simply because we have the power to? In America, has the biblical Golden Rule been reverted back to the cynical version of “He who has the gold makes the rules?”
None of this is rational to me. None of this makes a nation stronger or more prosperous.
However, from darkness there can be light. In the case of this Fourth of July hate speech, ironically, I’m reminded of a story from another lifetime of mine that contradicts these ugly trends and perhaps gives me a sliver of hope that we can change as citizens of a unified nation.
Almost 18 years ago, I was a fresh reporter working the West Central Tribune night beat in Willmar, Minn., and assigned to cover my first U.S. Senator Election Day rally. Sitting U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, a republican, was at the local golf club where he was swarmed by his supporters. For those who don’t know or remember Coleman, he is largely remembered for helping bring professional hockey back to Minnesota while he was Mayor of St. Paul, Minn., from 1994 to 2002 (and as a democrat during those years).
To my credit, I was confident to approach the senator and ask a couple direct questions because, coincidentally, I had some recent experience with this senate race. Earlier in the campaign, and while finishing my senior year in college, I was one of a couple reporters who interviewed soon-to-be-elected Sen. Al Franken (a democrat) for the Minnesota State University, Mankato Reporter newspaper when he announced his candidacy. Franken later visited our staff at the college newspaper while he campaigned in Mankato after the story was published. He wanted to meet the students he spoke with over the phone. Fast-forward to November 2008, and fortunately for me, my youthful naivete proved that the “lights of Election Night” weren’t too bright.
Back-patting aside, I had an important question for Sen. Coleman about bipartisanship. In 2008, the U.S. Senate was split at 49 republicans, 49 democrats and 2 independents. This breakdown made passing any substantial bills in Congress near-impossible. So, I asked him how he planned for any business to pass in the senate with similar party division possible in a second term. How could citizens expect any type of positive bipartisan action?
At that point, the senator grabbed my forearm and held it throughout the duration of his answer. I know he was trying to make a personal connection with me, but when I’ve told this story before, I’ve likened the interaction to getting a Snake Bite, Indian Burn or Chinese Burn on your arm like you experienced from another classmate in grade school. He held it that firmly for the entire remark.
With my arm in his palm, he started by telling me that he had become friends with numerous democrats during his first six-year term (Man, I wish I could remember their names without digging through old reporter notebooks of mine). When the senators would first fill the senate chambers for each day’s business, Coleman said he would walk to his democratic friends’ desks, shake their hands, and say “It is an honor to serve with you today.”
He continued to say that he knew how divided the senate, and ultimately, the country was at the time, but that he would work at bridging the gap because “America needs it.”
Now, this could have been a great line and a made-up story to win over a young, eager reporter. But I want to believe in this aspect of the tale: To his credit, Coleman saw the divisions and disagreements clearly, but he also saw the people.
He knew he worked with people that he may disagree with ideologically, but Coleman also saw a set of individuals he could respect and appreciate.
This mantra is exactly what America needs now to climb out of this nation-killing downward spiral.
Yet, such a story doesn’t exist in today’s Capitol Hill. The rhetoric has gotten too hostile. The political trenches have been dug too deep. When members of congress or senators look across the aisle toward the opposing party, they don’t see the faces of fellow representatives of the people. They just see the physical outline of an enemy.
And it is this way because the American people let it be so. We let those with ideological obsessions and hate in their hearts (both in Washington and in all forms of media) suck up too much of the air and fill up too much of the “marketplace of ideas” with irrational, unsensible and unpopular political garbage.
We have been persuaded, coerced, conned, and even categorized by social media algorithms, into thinking “our way” is the only way forward, that we don’t need to understand or empathize with “the other people,” and therefore, we should hate them for all of it.
It’s been a pretty ugly reality to live in.
But hold on. I’m not saying we throw in the towel and admit that American democracy is over with. What can be broken, can be fixed. What is knocked down, can be built up again. However, that building needs to start with us, the citizens of the United States. No politician or party is going to save us from our own demise.
Instead, the citizens need to get back to seeing each other as Americans again, not faceless enemies that we hate, dehumanize or vilify because we disagree on one topic or another. That’s what the fringes of politics have been pushing on us by their unrelenting shouting.
Conversely, we shouldn’t just bury our heads in the sand to avoid the root problem, but we should be concerned with political discourse, pay attention and participate if necessary. But our own political ideology and activism should not let hate seep into our hearts, leading us to stop talking to or befriending others we know are decent, well-intentioned people. Bad ideas can come from good people, too. They are just bad ideas.
Martin Luther King Jr. was known for saying “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
I’m not implying we need to love everyone, (even though “love thy neighbor” is cited twice in the Holy Bible) but we should have the human capacity to tolerate others we don’t see eye-to-eye with.
However, thus far, this second-term president and his followers want Americans to believe that hate is the only way to a better nation and better future.
I’m sorry to tell you, Mr. President, but hate isn’t for the good of America. It is only hurting us more.
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