Conservatives feel betrayed by the present because it doesn’t fit their imagined memory of a false perfect past.

Liberals feel betrayed by the present because it doesn’t fit their imagined dream of a false perfect future.

Too many then concluded that democracy has failed because it doesn’t give them the results they want and somehow deserve—and that a dictatorship of the “right” people is the only solution.

Most of the people throughout history or around the world today would love to be alive in the U.S. today.

Yes, we have serious problems. Yes, there are many left behind.

But the solutions lie in civic action today by engaged citizens working together, not in the destruction of democracy.