Stars and Stripe

It’s right there on Old Glory. A symbol of defiance. A path to common ground.

Our nation’s colors are red, white and blue. Two have been claimed by rival tribes, one red, the other blue. Red wants us to go back to the good old days, as if those days were purely good, as if it’s even possible to reanimate what’s dead and gone. Blue wants us to stay put, hold on to what we’ve got. Neither is thinking much of tomorrow, imagining where we could go next, what we could become.

A vacuum has formed, our future’s floating in it. And there’s an unclaimed color on our flag that could serve as an emblem of disapproval of the noxious tribalism that’s left our future hanging.

The disapproval is in no way hypothetical. The White House’s current occupant has historically low public approval. Presidents normally have the support of well over half and sometimes close to two-thirds of Americans during the honeymoon phase of their terms in office. Not this one. More disapproved than approved of him in the e…