We live in Los Angeles, a metropolitan area of 12.9M. But I spent my early years in Lisbon, N. Dakota, a town of 2200. We know people in Liberty, Indiana; Boerne, Texas; and Murphy, N. Carolina. Sometimes, when I feel homesick for America, I phone one of them and enjoy a quiet conversation. We talk about the weather and ordinary people, but not about street crime, the homeless mentally ill, or letting criminals out of jail and being shocked – shocked! – when the crime rate rises. We can talk about people who do business for 20 years on a handshake, but not about pathological liars in high offices.

Yes, their America – our America – is doing just fine. So we can either move there, or stay here and work harder to fix things before the divorce becomes final.