Anyone unaware of our nation’s government failures hasn’t been paying attention. Like the former White House East Wing, much of our federal government has been destroyed, dismantled or knocked into submission by the Trump presidency. Meanwhile, Americans are helping one another, pursuing dreams and planting seeds that could lead to an American Renaissance.
As President Trump destroyed the White House, federal agencies and the lives of low-level drug smugglers this year, there were many Americans who did helpful, constructive things. I witnessed them and know the people who are rebuilding America, even as Trump destroys the federal system.
In Cumberland, Md., an entrepreneurial, upbeat man did something more radical than the Republican and Democratic parties’ scorched-earth policies could ever expect to do. Aaron, an American veteran and son of immigrants, built a business from the ground up through toil and persistence. As federal politics seek to raze our democracy through cynicism, corruption, ineptitude and Trump’s egomaniacal impulses, Americans are seeking to rebuild, repurpose and renovate American dreams.
Aaron and his wife’s Mad Hatter Boba Emporium is a cafe that opened in downtown Cumberland. Cumberland, like much of small-town America, is a struggling community persevering to reinvent itself amid fierce headwinds. Mad Hatter’s was supposed to open a year ago, but it turns out reworking an 1840s office space into a cozy cafe with a cool vibe and good food takes a lot of toil, patience and sweat equity.
They persevered and are on their journey into Wonderland. The federal government has persevered in bringing us all into WTF?-land, shutting down the government, ballooning the national debt, raising healthcare and everyday prices for millions of us, destroying the elevated reputation of the American military, and making itself submissive to nearly every impetuous impulse of the vain, corrupt, old snake-oil salesman we have hired as our president until 2028.
The prime-time line-up of American politics, that usual gang of idiots — the Republicans and Democrats — are not getting the job done. It’s time for a change. We need a new lineup, new blood, new ideas and the timeless virtue to turn the country into the place of opportunity that communities like Cumberland are working to make themselves.
I have persevered in finding a new political home for the moment. Last year, I supported the failed efforts of former Maryland governor Larry Hogan’s Senate campaign, the No Labels movement, Better Angels and Principles First — all high-minded efforts that talked the talk, but didn’t walk the walk.
I was a center-right Republican before the party gave up its identity and integrity to the drama and trauma of Trump’s impulsive, erratic leadership. Today, I am a Solidarity Party member, a happy place where I can share my center-right conservative values among civil and kind collaborators.
The American Solidarity Party is small, but serious, with a political umbrella that supports a left wing and a right wing. The leadership and membership are a work in progress, with national reach, but short on resources and experience. Inspired by Catholic social teaching, we sometimes are hemmed in by that same teaching and the inertia of obstructionist internal politics. Solidarity is nonetheless mostly made up of Americans who want to build a better America, not just destroy the present one.
There are many folks like that in America. And there still will be in 2026, even as the menacing federal politicians continue to disrupt, destroy and put our nation into disrepair.
Recently, I stopped at a gas station. I absent-mindedly left my cellphone in the gas station, and was preparing to pull out.
Miraculously, the cashier came all the way out of the station with my phone to flag me down before I was gone. If anything makes America great, that is it — selflessness, kindness, caring for our neighbors. With it, we will plant seeds for a better tomorrow in 2026, even as the weeds of politics spread their power into the new year. In their perseverance to prevail, our better angels will ultimately win the day, always.