Reflecting without the pool
The past few years have felt like a roller coaster of despair, anger, frustration and, finally, a little hope.
One thing I no longer take for granted is our internal sense of wellbeing. We like to think or being told that our state of mind comes entirely from within, but I have realized how deeply it can be influenced by the world around us, particularly by politics, religion, entertainment, leadership and the direction we believe society is taking.
Trump’s victory in 2024 forced me to confront something I did not understand. Some people I knew, respected and considered good human beings supported a leader I could not support myself. Instead of judging they are bad people or assuming that I understood their choice, I became curious.
What were they seeing that I was not?
That question changed the way I watched politics. Instead of only listening to people I aligned with, I started paying closer attention to why certain messages connected with people.
Two lessons stood out to me.
Authenticity matters. Trump often presents himself as completely unfiltered. His words can be controversial, imprecise or offensive, but many people interpret that willingness to speak without a filter as authenticity. It made me realize that people do not necessarily expect leaders to appear perfect, they want to believe they are seeing the real person.
People want leaders who speak directly to their problems. Concerns about affordability, crime, corruption and the direction of the country are not abstract political topics to the people experiencing them. Trump understood how to speak directly to those anxieties. Whether I agreed with his answers or approach, was another question, but I began to understand why the connection itself mattered.
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I still could not support him. His conduct, history and many of his choices remained important factors in my own judgement. But understanding why someone supports a person is different from supporting that person yourself. That distinction helped me better understand friends whose political choices had once baffled me.
Then came the 2026 midterms. Nov 3rd 2026.
What fascinated me was that I began seeing some of those same ingredients again, but this time on the other side of American politics.
Candidates were speaking more directly, difficult issues that people felt were being ignored were becoming part of the conversation. Some voices were unapologetically outspoken. And once again, I saw how powerful it can be when people feel that someone is not simply talking at them, but actually understands what they are worried about.
Perhaps what I had been observing was never exclusively about Trump, Republicans or Democrats. Its about all of us, humans!
Perhaps it was something more fundamental about people: we respond to authenticity, we want our problems acknowledged, and we want to believe someone is willing to do something about them.
But I also realized that these may simply be the ingredients for getting elected. Earning people’s attention is one thing. Sustaining their trust is another.
Leadership cannot survive on authenticity and connection alone. Once elected, leaders have to make decisions, exercise power responsibly, deliver results and remain accountable to the people who placed their trust in them.
And that brings me to a different question:
What makes people choose a leader, and what makes that leader worthy of being followed once they hold the reins?
