1. As I'm sure many of you have, I often wonder about Post-Trump America. Obviously, there will be the arduous, and likely, long task of repairing policies, foreign relationships and treaties. But, what of our culture?
2. Will this careening journey through the gutter permanently lower the bar? Are our institutions permanently damaged? Our sense of truth permanently broken in a portion of our citizenry? Will class, honor, honesty and respect find their way back as pillars of our offices?
3. Yes, we were never perfect, but there were expectations of behavior. Norms that supported respectful checks and balances. Norms that have been shattered to the extent that we are no longer even shocked by extreme behavior from this administration - a cultural numbing.
4. I'd like to think we will come back from this. And, at the risk of seeming flippant, I think the best analogy is to think of this era as America's 'bender'. Not all, but most people, will be able to relate to the experience of waking up after a night of severe intoxication.
5. Waking up in pain and foggy, made worse with each fuzzy, snippet your memory serves up of your behavior the night before. Then, filled out by conversations with friends, who will sympathetically, yet gleefully, fill in the gaps of each humiliating moment.
6. Do you just go into hiding? Not for long. Do you decide this is how you will permanently behave socially (or worse, with co-workers)? Of course not. You get it together. You make amends where necessary and repair damage to your reputation.
7. I believe America's experience with this administration is going to require much of the same prescriptions - we will have to own what has happened and the historical memory of this era will always be an embarrassment. But, I think we will emerge with our class in tact.
