One year til Election Day (give or take), and the presidential campaign season is in full swing. I expect candidates from both parties to heartily embrace demagoguery -- the use of popular prejudices and false claims and promises in order to gain power.

Trump says:

I alone can fix it.

For Trump "it" means everything.

Elizabeth Warren proclaims:

You’ve got things that are broken in your life? I’ll tell you exactly why. It’s because giant corporations, billionaires have seized our government.

The reality is much closer to Samuel Johnson's rhyme from more than 250 years ago:

How small of all that human hearts endure,
That part which laws or kings can cause or cure.

Hoping for civility is probably too much, so I'll hope for a bit of personal calm in what will likely be a ferocious storm.