It’s been eight months since President Trump resumed his mission to “Make America Great Again.” While his administration trumpets daily about the unprecedented changes he’s wrought, looking around, I don’t feel like things are great. Or even good.

The air is smokier. Flash floods are everywhere all at once. Gas and electricity prices are stubbornly high. It would be great if groceries and restaurants weren’t so darned expensive. I think the economy is OK, but unfortunately its overseers keep getting demeaned or fired.

The tariffs confuse me — are they permanent (to encourage “made in America”) or are they bargaining chips (that we pay for)?

My new Mainer, trans and Jewish friends fear abduction by masked goons; concentration camps are hard to ignore. Visiting scientists, artists and scholars are heading to other countries, while neo-Nazis feel emboldened. A great nation shouldn’t have bold Nazis.

While our list of allies shrinks, Russia and China appear to like what’s going on. The Ukraine and Gaza invasions continue.

I’m worried about future elections and ever-increasing hyperpartisanship. I abandoned notions of the Supreme Court’s professed “objectivity” years ago. Lately, I have less faith in Congress to do the people’s work. I even have a nagging suspicion that the president himself, despite many protestations to the contrary, may have been up to more than real estate chats with his pal Jeffrey Epstein. (I can’t be sure — it’s my first conspiracy theory!)

All this, and more, have me thinking: America doesn’t feel great.

Nik Charov
South Portland