The New American Civil War

Good morning again, Friends,

We are a nation divided and polarized. And our presidential politics illustrate just how deep and festering this division is.

Instead of bringing us closer together as a people, this presidential election is tearing the country apart.

The tenor of the election has become so divisive and nasty that whomever wins will have to contend with nearly half the population that is extremely upset to the point of acting upon it.

This is especially true of Donald Trump's 'Second Amendment' people  to whom he has already implicitly recommended assassination as a remedy to a Hillary Clinton victory.

This is chilling enough, but what is even more so is how Trump has singlehandedly destroyed the dignity of the most prestigious and important job in the world.

Even Donald Trump's stand-in from his reality show "The Apprentice" is
embarrassed by his former boss' lack of decorum.

What is wrong with this man? Why would he want to annihilate what took hundreds of millions of Americans 240 years to build?

No matter what Donald Trump says, America is great and has never been greater. That's a fact.

Take it from me.  Yesterday marked two years since I returned from living in Israel for three. That's another first-world democracy, but I'm counting my lucky stars that I'm back in Las Vegas...buhlieve me.

We have problems for sure, but our system gives us the mechanism to fix them. And, by and large, our country makes a genuine effort to be on the right side of history.

What makes America great, along with its enormous wealth and its resilient people, is its institutions. And implicit in those institutions is a set of protocols, which give the institutions integrity.

The country's chief executive is an institution that not only comes with a long list of protocols, but the protocols have traditionally extended to the process of getting the job.

Things like releasing your tax returns and your health records easily come to mind. And Donald Trump has thumbed his nose at those and most others.

Importantly, included in the protocols is an understood code of behavior. We want our President to be generally ethical and honest. The President is supposed to be, after all, a role model for our kids.

And we want our leader to be dignified.

Donald Trump is not.

He is vulgar and petty.

And he is adored for it by millions.

Half of the population is not only offended by him, but also increasingly by the 'basket of deplorables' who support him.

This polarization will only be exacerbated by the election's result, whichever way it goes. The nation is deeply split and is in dire need of a true leader.

Up until now, we've been embroiled in just a nasty war of words--a domestic cold war. History tells us it could escalate.