Hi, I’m back. Old and cranky just needed a vacation – and some extra vitamins. Didja miss me?

Figures. Oh well.

So, how are you liking the new Trump administration so far? Are you convinced Trump will fix everything or that Trump will destroy the world? Neither? EXCELLENT!

Don’t get me wrong, I voted for Trump all three times. Okay, I admit I held my nose the first time but the next two were because I am convinced Trump is the right man for the job.

That doesn’t make Trump either a saint or Superman. He’s a guy, like any other. Does some things really well, messes up other things completely and puts pants on one leg at a time like all the other humans. Presidents get a huge job with oodles of perks and massive amounts of responsibility. They do not get super powers or super intelligence in the package.

We really need to work on that. But as it stands, presidents are just humans with the world’s most insanely OP job. No matter how well intentioned, they will make mistakes. No matter how well thought out, they will have plans fail. No matter how powerful we allow presidents to be, they cannot do it alone.

Just as well, it’s not their job.

Those of you who think that politics ends once the election is over and the guy is in office seriously need to pay better attention. Politics is just humans making decisions in groups. It never ends. In the American democratic republic, it’s not ever supposed to end. The Founding Fathers meant that ‘government BY the People’ thing. American government doesn’t have an autopilot. It has the American People. That’s who’s really running the show.

That’s you, Sonny.

No, no, no backtalk now. When you keep skipping work and not even checking your email, you don’t get to complain that someone else is running the show. You’re still running it, just not very well.

Oh, don’t feel so bad. Everyone makes the mistake sometimes. It’s hard to know just how much of the homework you have to do yourself. The great thing is that all our homework is group projects. The bad thing is all our homework is group projects.

In other words, you have plenty of help but if you don’t take an active role your grade will be determined by whoever actually did the work. Sometimes you get lucky and it’s the class over achiever is everyone gets an A. Most of the time it’s just that mousy kid that gets stuck with everything and who may or may not have a clue in class.

Blaming the jerks who pull crap when your back is turned only works if you weren’t supposed to be looking, right?

America’s biggest problem is the same as every other nation state’s biggest problem. Just like people, a country is always its own biggest problem. Kind of a bummer but also kind of a good thing. We can always work on ourselves to become better people and we can always work on our country to make it a better home for the People.

Trump can only do the job of president. He can’t be the People. That’s our job.

How well Trump succeeds depends in large part on how well he does his job. But if we want him to accomplish great things, that will depend on how well we do our jobs.

It’s a new administration and a new opportunity. Let’s make the most of it.

Good morning, America!