“There you go again.”

With those four words, along with a characteristic shake of his head and a twinkle in his eye, Ronald Reagan won a debate against Jimmy Carter in the 1980 presidential race. The phrase has since become a part of the political lexicon, directed at an opponent who has misrepresented the facts.

As we enter the summer of 2025, riots are exploding once again in Los Angeles and other cities, take-no-prisoners political warfare continues in the corridors of Congress, the media, and even at family gatherings, and the diatribes and actions of radicals making the news goes on and on as expected. “There you go again,” as Reagan would say.

The last decade has seen storm after storm darken our culture and the American spirit. As many have noted, the Covid pandemic, the 2020 George Floyd mayhem and violence, the last three presidential elections, the ongoing transgender upheavals, and other clashes have angered and divided Americans, leaving them exhausted from the barrage and counter barrage of hysteria, hyperbole, insults, lies, and threats.

For some Americans, however, these repeated radical acts and words have lost their power to inflame passions. They still stand up for their beliefs, but they are more interested in building than destroying.

One retired couple I know quite well, for example, despise Donald Trump, yet they spend their days gardening, loving on their grandchildren, reading, and exercising. These things matter more than the day’s headlines, and that sense of priorities has produced a beautiful yard alive with flowers and vegetables, intimacy with their offspring, and physical and mental fitness.

Their political opposites, whom I also know, also spend the bulk of their time and energy building up family and culture. In the last few weeks, for instance, I’ve had the good fortune to meet Jordan Langford, who operates Families of Character, and to speak by phone with Jackson TerKeurst, whose traumatic Liberian boyhood combined with his Christian faith has made him a builder of communities. Closer to home are the many couples I know and admire who are raising their families, working hard to earn a living, and practicing their faith.

All these people offer us lessons in how to live more fully, and how to improve the present and the future. Here are four commonalities they share.

First, they monitor the amount of time they spend listening or watching the media. They recognize that to spend hours a day sunken in bad news not only creates a false impression of the world, but is personally unhealthy. These folks remain aware of what’s happening on the political front, but balance negative news with the positives of a good book, time spent with their children, walks in the park, and other activities that generally don’t involve phones or televisions.

Many of them also believe that a power higher than a Supreme Court justice, a president, or some political guru rules the universe and is the fount of true freedom. They adhere to that scriptural message, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” and so offer civility to the world rather than obscenities and Molotov cocktails, bringing hope and kindness to their friends and neighbors rather than hatred and despair.

The best of these men and women also practice that often ignored and least understood of virtues, humility. Highly principled, they nevertheless understand that they don’t have all the answers to all the troubles plaguing our society. A defining mark of these people, I have observed, is that they hold themselves to a higher standard than that by which they judge others.

Finally, these builders from all walks of life and different political parties have one other characteristic in common: gratitude. The attorney, the construction worker, the homemaker with her four little ones, the nun, that retired couple mentioned above: these are just a few of the men and women familiar to me who appreciate the gift of life and who give thanks daily for whatever blessings come their way.

Keep up on national events without letting the news crush you, look to God rather than government for hope and inspiration, recognize your limitations, and take time to appreciate each day’s gifts: these are some of the antidotes to the toxins of our time.

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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal. 

Image Credit: Pixahive