That time feels distant now.

Today, simply saying you support the president—any president—is enough to trigger anger, backlash, or assumptions about your entire belief system. And no, I’m not just talking about Trump. This has become a pattern. Obama faced it. Biden faces it. And if the next person has a pulse and a party affiliation, they’ll face it too.

We’ve entered a political climate where it’s not enough to disagree—we now have to destroy. Not enough to question—now we must dehumanize. Presidents are no longer seen as elected officials; they’ve become symbolic targets of everything people fear, love, or hate. Supporting the president doesn’t just mean you approve of a policy—it now gets interpreted as a signal of who you are at your core.

That’s dangerous.

Growing up, the government wasn’t the center of conversation in most households. Politics didn’t infiltrate your family dinners, your job, your friendships, or your social feed. The president wasn’t a daily topic of conversation—and certainly not a daily battle. There was still disagreement, but there was also distance. A buffer. And maybe even a little respect.

Some of that change is technological. The 24/7 news cycle, cable commentary, and social media have made political engagement a constant drumbeat. In the past, you might catch the president’s speech during the evening news once or twice a month. Now, you’re dissecting their tweets in real time. Everyone has a megaphone, and outrage pays the bills.
But it’s not just media. It’s also us.

Over the last few decades, trust in American institutions—including the presidency—has plummeted. In the 1960s, nearly three-quarters of Americans said they trusted the federal government most of the time. Today, it’s less than 20%. That loss of trust has turned many of us from citizens into cynics. We don’t just disagree with elected leaders—we expect the worst from them.

Maybe I was too young back then. Maybe I didn’t see the fractures that were already forming. But I can’t shake the feeling that something fundamental has shifted. We no longer assume good intentions. We assume battle lines. We’re no longer rooting for the person in office to succeed unless they wear our jersey.

That’s not patriotism. That’s tribalism.

We should be able to support a president—even with differences—without being branded as brainwashed, complicit, or evil. We should be able to critique a president without being seen as un-American. Supporting leadership, disagreeing respectfully, and still working toward a common good—that used to be possible. It needs to be possible again.
Because if we can’t even hope our leaders succeed, then we’ve already decided we want the country to fail.

And that’s not just political. That’s cultural. That’s spiritual. That’s a problem.