More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
The most sacred piece of Democratic orthodoxy was that government could improve people’s lives. The most sacred piece of Republican orthodoxy was that it could not.
We were experiencing less violence than almost any generation in human history. But we were witnessing more violence than ever before.
“Faced with impossible odds, people who love this country can change it.”
Some accomplishments, in other words, are impossible to undo. Millions of people found jobs thanks to Obama’s decisions. Soldiers who spent Christmas 2008 in Iraq and Afghanistan spent Christmas 2016 at home. Bin Laden was on the loose eight years ago. Now he isn’t. Even Trump can’t change that.
Choose service instead. Not because The World Needs You. It probably doesn’t. The world will be fine, and if it won’t be fine, you alone can’t fix it. Choose service because there is nothing more insufferable than a talented, driven person who is also completely self-obsessed. Those people are awful. They spend their lives trying to fill a hole and digging it deeper instead. Anyone can be successful. Only service can make you realize how insignificant—and yet how meaningful—your time on earth really is.
Barack Obama’s election was a triumph of hope. But his presidency was a triumph of persistence.
