Defend American Civic Values Against the Cult of Personality

What happened at Mar-a-Lago — an evangelical pastor blessing a golden statue of Donald Trump before a crowd of self-described devout Christians — should alarm every elected official who took an oath to the Constitution. The Founders didn't fear monarchy as a political inconvenience. They called it a spiritual disease. That scene was its symptom. David Foster Wallace warned in 2005 that everyone worships something, and that worshipping power or wealth "will eat you alive." He was describing individuals, but the same logic applies to nations. When a political movement replaces civic faith with personal devotion to one man, the republic doesn't just weaken — it loses the shared meaning that holds it together. Lincoln would have called what we saw monstrous. I think he'd be right. This country is not lost yet, but it is drifting. The people in that room aren't villains — they're searching for something real in a culture that stopped offering honest answers. That's a failure of leadership, and it's one you can help address. Speak plainly about what American democracy actually demands: accountability, shared purpose, and the refusal to place any individual above the institutions we all depend on. That's not partisan. That's the job.