Our Opinion: After Trump's first year, where do we go from here?

During the past year, President Trump has caused the stock market to boom, unemployment to shrink, brought jobs back to the country, cut taxes and generally strengthened the flagging economy. He's cracked down on illegal aliens, gotten a conservative on the U.S. Supreme Court, and rolled back regulations. He's dealt major blows to ISIS, declared Jerusalem the capital of Israel and withdrawn from the bad deal known as the Paris climate agreement.

During the past year, Trump has proven himself a serial liar and egomaniac whose daily Tweets divide the nation. He has failed us on health care, added to the national debt, lowered our standing in the world, and brought us closer to a nuclear war through his rhetoric aimed at North Korea. His racist, xenophobic banter has emboldened those types, and his crudeness and lack of morality has lowered the bar for presidential behavior.

Which reflects your reality? Which is bogus? Unfortunately, in our increasingly partisan and divided society, many of us would believe one of the above paragraphs is absolute truth and the other is fake news.

This weekend, as dueling Mid-Missouri rallies (one for, one against) mark Trump's first year, we propose this: The truth is in the middle.

Is Trump a statesman to be held with high regard along with our Founding Fathers? No. Should Trump be removed from office because he's mentally unhinged. No.

What do Americans think? Two polls released Thursday show he has a 37 percent approval rating. In our conservative-leaning city, we suspect his numbers would poll better here.

We commend Trump on his accomplishments. He's doing - or working toward - many of the things he promised. At the same time, we fault the president for his moral failings and divisiveness. A president should act presidential, and we as a nation should expect better.

Mr. President, if we could ask you one thing, it would be this: Set a tone of respect and compassion that will unite our nation.

In basketball, when two members of the same team are fighting for the ball, other team members yell "same" so they'll stop competing against each other and avoid a turnover.

To our readers, we also call "same." At the end of the day, we're all on the same team. We're all Americans - and in the case of most of our readers - we live in the same community. We're neighbors and friends, despite our different skin colors, beliefs and backgrounds.

We should hold firm to our beliefs and passionately push for what we believe is right. But we can and should do so with kindness and respect.

We ask our readers: How can we work to unite our nation? We invite letters to the editor (400 words or fewer) on this topic and others. Send them to [email protected] or Jefferson City News Tribune, letter to the editor, 210 Monroe St., Jefferson City, Mo. 65101.