We have entered a period in the American experiment that might best be characterized as the era of whiplash. We are being yanked to and fro by our president in a manner that is disorienting and disturbing all while we are being asked to ignore norms and laws including many provisions of our Constitution. This is not creative destruction, which is a healthy organic response to changing realities. This is not reform that revitalizes our institutions. Virtue-free blundering is not a strategy, it is destruction for the sake of destruction guided by ego, vengeance, and greed. This is not conservatism; it is nihilism saturated with corruption.

Thus far, our economy and state and local social and political structures have shown the strength of resilience. However, it is just a matter of time before they will be affected by chaos-induced risk descending from above. The violent spring storms of 2025 may be seeded by buckets of gnawed KFC chicken bones raining down from Air Force One. Congress will not restrain the executive branch, they are, regrettably, the president’s handmaid. And it is far from certain the judicial branch will be the bulwark it is supposed to be. Trump believes his Sharpie pen is the law and the Supreme Court, which granted presidents blanket immunity for official acts in 2024, may agree—either by its further rulings or by its silence.

While we are largely powerless to curb the manic dysfunction emanating from the Oval Office until the next election, our central responsibility remains: to care for ourselves and our communities—the “you and yours” of my last post. We need to be America’s anchored ballast to retain the character of the greatest nation in the modern era. We need to respond with quiet resolve rather than frantic hysteria. Matching the derangement of the beast will only empower it; it thrives on the lumens of attention. Individually, we need to move from GO! to flow.

Have you ever worked hard—really hard—to get somewhere and upon arrival realized that you had gone nowhere, or at least nowhere new? Nowhere never becomes somewhere unless it has what you’re aiming for. We live in a society where tremendous amounts of energy are used to go nowhere, but we always get there fast! The boorish among us even believe destroying everything in their path without regard to those harmed is a requisite of success. Psychiatrists call them sociopaths. Today, we call him president.

Upon arrival at nowhere, the emptiness in the outcome is then usually ignored in favor of racing somewhere else. Chase, chase, chase. Surely, a new destination will turn nowhere into somewhere. We hope the grass will be greener over the next hill, or after the next deal, or in the next new relationship. Many of us are careening meteors destined for catastrophic collisions in the empty space of nowhere. If we are lucky, we don’t harm anything or anyone else. We simply fall apart in the silence of darkness and, if we survive the humiliation of devastation, […]