“It’s hard not to think sometimes that the center might not hold, that things might get worse. . .We must reject such despair.” President Barak Obama, from his memorial for slain officers in Dallas, Texas.
“These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” Thomas Paine, The American Crisis
It is has become the mantra that has defined one of the most charged moments in recent times: that this is a presidential election unlike any other, taking place during a chaotic time of roiling unrest, at home and abroad. A time when a cluster of explosive political issues, from terrorism to racism to climate change, has each taken on a demanding urgency—even as the country is divided along partisan and economic lines. Adding to the volatility, President Barack Obama is poised to make his final exit from the political stage—a president who, whether we agreed with his policies or not, has governed with statesmanship, whose family has been a model of grace under pressure, and whose election as the nation’s first black president represents a high point in our history.