The state of the nation’s soul

If you’re an LGBTQ American, who is now enjoying your right to get married like any of your neighbors, you’re probably thinking much the same. Though the nation still has miles to go on such fundamental issues as access to the voting booth, wage equity, and equal protection under the law.

“I think people are hungry for a society and a government that reflects the fullness of the American experience,” said state Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, a Philadelphia Democrat who is Black and gay. “People also understand that our commonwealth is better when it is fairer, and [when] those blocking progress have less … [access to] reinforcements. Ask a random person, and they would assume that a lot of what we need to do on equality and police reform are already the law. People are ready, but unfortunately a majority of our politicians are not.”

The new Pew data, as The Washington Post notes, is practically a photo negative when it’s put alongside similar Pew data from four years ago, when equal shares of Americans said they expected the wealthy (64 percent), white people (51 percent), men (51 percent), and conservative Christians (52 percent) to wield more clout in the Trump White House.

There’s no doubt that the country changed in profound ways during Trump’s chaotic and calamitous four years in office. Some of that damage also has been catalogued by Pew’s researchers.

Biden has spent most of his first two weeks, through executive order and legislation, trying to undo the damage of Trumpism. Getting Americans to believe that they’re all rowing in the same direction may be the most towering of those challenges.

He also can’t do it alone.

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An award-winning political journalist, John L. Micek is Editor-in-Chief of The Pennsylvania Capital-Star in Harrisburg, Pa. Email him at jmicek@penncapital-star.com and follow him on Twitter @ByJohnLMicek.