When has it ever been otherwise?

By Tom Cordaro
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Written February 28, 2026

A note from Tom: This article took shape weeks before the start of the latest war in the Middle East. Any semblance between what I wrote, and current events is purely coincidental and completely predictable.

The shock, anger, and profound sadness we feel at the unending horror show emanating from the federal government under President Trump is usually described in the progressive media with phrases like “unprecedented in our history” or “not who we are.” I remember early in Trump’s first term seeing a photo of an elderly woman at a demonstration holding a sign that read, “I can’t believe I am still protesting this sh*t!” 

Under the Trump regime, many of the progressive gains of my lifetime have been disassembled: voting rights, fair housing, the right to food, healthcare, and education. White progressives like me have lived with the illusion that support for these basic rights was baked into the system and was now settled law (if not uniformly and justly applied).

In some progressive circles, there exists a belief that our current existential crisis represents a break with the “normal” progression of ever-expanding freedom and equality embodied in the “American ideal.” If this is our starting point, I am not sure we will ever find a way out of our current predicament. This overly optimistic belief about ourselves may make it more difficult and perilous for us to respond to the signs of our times. If we want to respond faithfully to our current crisis, we need to face the truth about our past.

I was born one year after the armistice was signed that ended combat operations in Korea (though there is no formal peace treaty.) The way this conflict ended (did not end) set the tone for US foreign policy going forward. I am 71 years old, and I can remember less than 10 years of my life when the United States was not at war (declared and undeclared) somewhere around the world. I also cannot remember a time when our nation was not at war with itself. (Members of the Gen X, Millennial, and Gen Z cohorts – anyone born after 1965 – have never known a time when the United States has not been at war overseas and at home.)

As of this writing, the United States is involved in seven publicly known military engagements across five different wars. For the US, war is not a break or a fracture of the normal order; it is our standard operating procedure. The Trump administration is just the most extreme example of what the US has been engaged in since its founding. From the genocide of native peoples to slave auctions and slave patrols, to Japanese internment camps, to mass deportations of Mexican in Operation Wetback, to extrajudicial killings of brown and black people by the state, violence and oppression have always been a part of our nation’s DNA.

Trump and MAGA do not represent a break from the past; they represent the counterrevolutionary forces that want the US to return to the good old days of white supremacy and privilege – especially for the corporate oligarchy — a time when women and communities of color were kept in their place. They may have a more realistic understanding of US history than many progressives and liberals. 

This year we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the day when the British North American colonies declared their independence from the Empire. Maybe this would be a good time to re-examine our understanding of our national narrative. Let’s begin with the basics: What does it mean to be a citizen of this country?

To answer this question, we may need to discard the notion of an “American ideal.” There is much to commend the notion of a perfect state or endgame that we strive for. However, this belief often glosses over an important truth: The United States has always been and always will be a work in progress. 

What it means to be an American is always changing (check out Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance – as he pointed out, America stretches from Chile to Cuba to Canada.) What the MAGA crowd fears is change. What they fear is being left behind in the shifting terrain of our national identity. MAGA wants to stop change and turn back the clock, but change is the lifeblood of this nation, giving it vitality, ingenuity, and resiliency. 

Our challenge is to create an ever-expanding circle of concern that insists that no one be left behind. Expanding our circle of concern also means embracing the idea that our national identity is not fixed, but evolving, adapting, and ever renewing. To be a citizen of this country means always changing and adapting while holding fast to the civic principles and values that allow us to continue to “form a more perfect union.”

Maybe, in place of the notion of an “American ideal,” we can embrace the notion of “America the Great Crucible.” I am not talking about a melting pot where every European immigrant community is stripped of its uniqueness to create a white superman. A crucible is a place of severe testing: a place or situation in which concentrated forces interact to cause or influence change or development.

It is in that crucible that we are made. The United States is not a prize to be won. It is not a birthright to treasure. Being a citizen of this country is not a privilege or entitlement; it is the greatest challenge and adventure that anyone can embrace.

In his 2015 address to Congress, Pope Francis spoke of four US Americans who embodied the fundamental values and enduring spirit of the people of this country: President Abraham Lincoln, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, and Thomas Merton. It should be noted that two of these people were assassinated by fellow citizens, and Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. spent time in US prisons for “disturbing the peace.” The hermit monk Thomas Merton found ways to resist the racism, poverty, and wars of our nation. 

I believe that only in the crucible of this country could such heroes be formed. They became heroes by taking up the challenge of living authentically and with integrity in this crucible. I believe that only this crucible, with its contradictions, dismal betrayal of its values, and its addictions to violence and greed, could produce resisters like Phil and Dan Berrigan, Malcolm X and Fanny Lou Hamer, Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, and a host of women and men who took up the challenge and adventure of being a US American.

Social progress requires tireless effort, not passive waiting. As Dr. King reminds us, “Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle.” This is what it means to embrace the challenge of the crucible of this country.

I have no clue what we should do next. I only know that we will never figure it out until we begin to let go of some of our cherished ideas and long-held assumptions. We might need to leave the certitudes of our comforting ideologies and theologies and enter the wilderness, a liminal space with few signposts or roadmaps.

But, as Thomas Merton reminds us, “You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.”

Welcome to the crucible!