Thank you for your continued optimism that our democracy will triumph and endure. I am always hopeful but fearful.  – Paul

I never supported Trump, but I don’t support the idea that everything will be ok now, either. It won’t be.   Jennifer

Expect a Global Emergency Broadcast Sunday or Monday. – Melinda

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In this post tonight, I answered all three messages, they all dealt with hope in different ways.

I was touched by them, and the range of them,  I told Jennifer I never once in my life woke up expecting everything to be OK. I always knew better.

That is not what life is about.

Optimism is the expectation that things-the weather, life, politics – will get better.

Hope is the trust that life will fulfill its promise to us and lead us to true freedom. We were never promised paradise.

Every great spiritual leader in history was a person of hope, this is why they all ultimately succeeded against overwhelming odds. The people who drag people downstairs and beat them have no hope, only rage.

I am proud that my blog draws such a wide range of opinions.

Lately, some people thank me for being hopeful; others are pessimistic; others are bleak about the future of our democracy, even hopeless.

Some have lost the ability to see light or promise.

The Trump defenders, who e-mailed me daily and faithfully all through the election, have disappeared, given up, gone to the ground, or retreating into secret chat rooms.

Most of them are not plotting to overtake the country, they are also struggling to keep hope alive.

Once again, I thank Donald Trump and his Cyber Goons And Trolls, they have shown me the alternative to democracy.

Some of them are claiming a great victory from the cruelty and fear they brought to the capitol, they have no idea just how badly they failed.

To do what they did last week speaks of cowardice and a sickness of the mind and soul. We will not see this much of them again for a long time, if ever.

Last week, they got lucky.

They will never be so lucky again.

Unlike many of the people e-mailing me, I believe most people are eager to get on with their lives and are ready to move on. They will get the chance.

They just want things to get better. It will get better.

Clearly, the people who make the most noise get the most attention, even if they say nothing true or real. Our President has proven that for four years.

But that is only one reality, not the whole reality. Be careful what you read and see, and how often you read and see it.

In my case, I believe Paul is correct. I have faith in democracy.

Our democracy is strong, much stronger, it turns out than Trump. He has been defeated and will always be defeated. He is the worst enemy he could ever possibly have.

Trump came, promising to make America great again. He leaves a country in crisis, himself in disgrace, his legacy in shambles, and shame.

I have faith in democracy for all of its many difficulties and weaknesses.

I guess one part of that is being Jewish. Nobody needs to tell me or my family that things aren’t always okay.

Jews understand, as many other peoples do,  that bad things can happen to good people and that dictators sometimes triumph and actually do the horrible things they say they will do.

Life is difficult, people have always looked to people who claim to be strong to save them.

My people know the damage lies can do and how easy it is to get ordinary people to do awful things. Hannah Arendt called it the banality of evil. We see it every day on the news. We saw it at the capitol on January 6.

People are always eager and willing to worship power, good or bad. Some people know good from evil and do good, most people do what they are told.

I see the bad, but I also see the good. It was necessary for me, and then became a faith.

The awful things humans do to one another does not make me cynical or hopeless about democracy.

America needs to work, the whole world needs America to work, our country is one of the great experiments in human history.

And I need America to work.

I have moved far from the understandably stern and ritualistic faith of Judaism in my life, edging oddly closer to the love and caring visions of Christ and the early Christian theologians, who dreamed of a kinder world.

These were the better angels of our world, even if so many of the people who call themselves Christians have betrayed Christ and his memory.

I will probably never quite land anywhere. But I do have faith in my country, the past few months and weeks have only enforced that.

I feel like I’ve lived through one of those Superhero movies where the monsters come pouring towards the gate, but never quite make it all the way through.

They were not strong enough in the end. They were beaten back. The world survives.

I have faith in our democracy. The other day, Joe Biden said he wanted a $1.9 trillion relief package, which includes a 15 dollars an hour minimum wage and billions of dollars in aid to states struggling to contain the pandemic.

I smiled when I read about it.  Democracy at work, it is just like making sausage.

Some people loved his proposals; some hated it; soon, the bargaining, trading, and posturing will begin. The thing about democracy, when it works, is that everybody gets a piece of what they want, nobody gets everything they want.

Isn’t that a powerful lesson for life?

(I’d be amazed if this Senate passed the minimum wage proposal. Freedom in a capitalist society wrote Lenin, always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”)

It should be a surprise to no one in our country that billionaires, politicians, and lobbyists hate socialism, it might mean giving money to the poor and the hard-working people.

It’s just too expensive for them. Robbing the people is how they get rich, the oldest story in the world is the rich screwing the poor.

Why, then,  do I have faith in democracy? Because it is the best system I know, not a perfect system.  Like spirituality itself, it is about where we want to go and who we want to be, even if we are not yet there.

America is democracy at its best and worst. Right now we are seeing the worst. And some of the best.

In America, countless people over time have carved good lives for themselves, and there is, surely, a great deal of freedom for some of the people, not yet all of the people.

We keep trying to get it right, and sometimes we succeed, which is more than we can say for most places on the earth. We keep failing and struggling because it is hard.

Because it is hard, it is worthwhile and meaningful.

The struggle of Blacks and women and gay people and poor people for equal rights are among the most stirring stories in human history. Freedom is a cherished thing; it is worth fighting for.

We are still a country where Stacey Abrams can rise up as one and spend a decade transforming one of the most bigoted and repressive places in America.

For me, life without struggle is empty. The struggle is how I learn and grow. The struggle is how I figure out how to be strong and to work long and hard for a spiritual life that will ground and sustain me.

The death of democracy is not likely to be from an insurrection or mob violence. It will come – and nearly came – from a slow extinction, from apathy, ignorance, and lack of honor, and the loss of spiritual or real nourishment.

The economy cannot be the only thing that stirs us. There has to be something more.

We are missing the glue of religion in our lives, and need something to replace it.

I’m not blind, I saw the horrific attack on our capitol. I saw the outraged and very deep response. Our democracy is very much alive. It will take time. It won’t be easy.

Everything will never be 100 percent okay.

But apart from the ugliness and lies and hatred, I’ve seen the most extraordinary awakening, inspired by the most hateful of Presidents. Right now, we are so very much alive and so deeply aware of what democracy means.

Our democracy might yet die, but not now, not yet. Some people think me too hopeful, but there is a lot of reason for hope. I am not prone to cheery outlooks and baseless good cheer.

I follow the data, I follow the news.

Our real crisis is not the insurrection of Stupid White Boys playing patriot, but information. Democracies are built on information; when there is honest information, there is enlightenment and common purpose.

When there is debate, there are solutions.

When information is corrupted, when there is no sharing of information, and power or accountability, then there is abuse, corruption, outrage, and subjugation.

It can be done; it can still be done.

Democracy, said H.L. Mencken, is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.  That is happening. Democracy is a mess, and it is hard; it’s never easy, said, Robert Kennedy.

When we take it for granted, we get in trouble, when we leave democracy in the hands of dishonest and ignorant people, we risk everything. Propaganda is to a democracy what violence is to a dictatorship.

Democracy, I am learning, is not about elections; it is about how we live our daily lives, how committed we are to the truth, how much we care about one another and the world we live in.

The true patriot, said Paine, smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress and grows brave by reflection. That is my inspiration now.

I answered Paul, Jennifer, and Melina.

I thanked Paul for spotting what drives me. Thanks, Paul, I do have faith in democracy. I see millions and millions of people and a real Army of  great power rising up to protect it and defend it.

I see the millions of people rising up to destroy it. I would have to be blind not to see it. But that fires me up, it doesn’t make me despair.

As Thomas Paine said, the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph.

Is anything precious in life easy?

I see the danger, Melinda, believe me, but what I expect on Sunday morning is for the struggle to be continuing, loudly, angrily, and for the most part, peacefully.

I will be here, you will be here, Maria and the animals, and my life will be here. No, there will not be a Global Emergency Broadcast, if there is any such thing. And there are many people in the world with greater problems than ours.

That is what hope is, that is what faith is, and without both, there is not much of a life at all.

As for Jennifer’s message, I wrote her also and told her that I have never once in my life supported the idea that everything is ok, not when I was 10, not when I was 50,  not now.

I am not aware of any God in any faith who promised that everything is going to be okay all the time.

He or she would be a fraud.

Everything is never all okay. That is what it means to be a human.

That is what it means to love democracy. That is what it means to fight for freedom and decency. That is what it means to be a patriot.

My wish for you and everybody else is that you accept the reality of life and adjust your expectations, or you will never be happy or fulfilled.