The age of Trump can be best characterized as a period of uncertainty for many Americans. However, if you are like me and believe in America while also understanding our history as a nation, then you too, would know and believe that we can overcome this period of division and strife as we have in the past.
Our history as a nation is filled with a collection of uncertain moments in time, but despite them all, including those that nearly destroyed our democracy, we have persevered and overcome the challenges our nation faced. It has not always been easy and often it required great sacrifice, but we eventually got there. I have hope and firmly believe that we will at some point recognize that we are far better together than divided.
{mosads}Like so many of you, I strongly believe in this great process known as democracy, and I know that our democracy will be no more or no less than what we allow it to be. No more or no less than what we’re willing to speak for that is good and right, or speak out against what is bad and wrong. The most unfortunate part of our current political system is that so many of our leaders are silent, saying absolutely nothing even though their own eyes have revealed to them so much that is wrong.
Some politicians have even opted for political and party gains over the gains of the country. Am I the only one who sees something wrong with that? How can any leader of good moral conscious be okay with political and party interest superseding the interest of the country? How can any leader turn a blind eye to the chaos and destruction that has spread across our country as a result of the lack of leadership coming from the White House?
Leaders are supposed to speak to us, for us, and on behalf of us. However, the calamity occurs when so many of our people feel that there is no one who speaks for them. That is not how government should work. That is not the type of leader’s people deserve, yet this is the space we find ourselves in.
The day that Donald Trump was sworn in, he was sworn in as our president whether you voted for him or not. He is our president because our process has spoken, but his voice should resonate so that I feel his voice speaks for me. It should also resonate so that my neighbor feels his voice speaks for him or her.
A president’s voice should not speak to just one-half of the country, not one-third, or one-fourth, but this great collective known as the United States of America. His voice should rise as a leader so that every man, every woman, and every boy and every girl feels that he speaks for them. His voice should be our voice because our democracy says that we have one president at a time, and that president should speak for the collective.
It is time for President Trump to speak for us, all of us, regardless of where we are on that great spectrum called politics. It’s time for him to speak for the Democrat, Independent, and Republican who didn’t vote for him as much as he speaks for those who did.
We cannot continue on this journey of division, chaos and strife hoping that someone — anyone — will step up to the mantle and lead. If the president is unwilling to unite us, we must take it upon ourselves to come together for the greater good of our country. We have an obligation to challenge what we believe is not right and not just, but we must also challenge ourselves to be a part of the solution.
I still have hope because I know that the government we have at the end of the day, is the government that we allow it to be. I hope that we come together and recognize that this is so much bigger than one man or one party. Like so many other instances in life, this is yet another moment in time when we can grow and become stronger and wiser as a nation from the lessons we’ve learned.
Shermichael Singleton is a CNN political commentator and a Republican political strategist who has worked on the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Ben Carson. Follow him on Twitter @Shermichael_.
The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.