Relational

Lincoln is the most popular choice as the greatest president in history. He kept the country together through a period of polarization that dwarfs the current one. He chose to forgive and welcome back white supremacists who betrayed their country and often fought against their own family. Trump is in many ways Lincoln's mirror image, a man who can't forgive anything. More importantly, though, the people in my political neighborhood who are ready to give up on Trump supporters really have no excuse. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was in a similar situation: his opponents were exponentially worse than anyone I find opposing me today. He didn't give up on them because giving up was simply not an option. The current eruption is the reemergence into the open of the same ideas and forces that we thought the civil rights movement had wiped out. The work that faces us is the work of very slowly, patiently, showing up each day and coexisting with the neighbors we don't understand and don't respect. Giving up on one anothe