Political Kintsugi: Picking Up the Pieces and Starting Again

This isn’t about pretending everything is fine. It’s about choosing to rebuild with clarity, courage, and purpose.

Have you ever heard of Kintsugi? I’d never heard of it until I watched Ted Lasso.

It’s a Japanese art form where broken pottery is repaired with gold, not hidden away or discarded. The cracks are filled with metallic powder, highlighted rather than hidden. It literally means “joining with gold.”

I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately. It’s what’s helping me move forward through all of this.

I keep coming back to this idea of political Kintsugi.

What if we could rebuild this country the same way, by acknowledging the damage, not pretending it didn’t happen, and choosing to piece it back together with intention?

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying things are going to be all happy from now on.

I don’t believe everything will be fine just because we want it to be. Things will likely get worse before they get better.

But as Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo said this week:

“He’s doubling down on things people don’t like. He’s fomenting a growing political backlash. The more signs we see of the limits of Trump’s power, the more people show signs of bucking that power.

We can build new things in their place, with time. But the scale of the destruction is vast and it will increase.”

He’s not the only one thinking this way. Dahlia Lithwick wrote in Slate:

“After 100 days of chaos, I think we can finally declare that America realizes what is happening—and cares enough to stop it.

[W]hat really matters—what is measurable and knowable now in a way that was not a few weeks ago—is that standing up to Trump is going to be worth it. Propping up the law and the courts and the Constitution is suddenly proving to be a good bet.”

And Robert Hubbell, in his newsletter earlier this week, said:

It is true “that protests won’t change Trump,” but that’s not the point. We need to pry loose only four or five Republicans in each chamber of Congress and we can stop the horrific reconciliation package that the House and Senate are working on as I write.

A tipping point exists. As Trump’s favorability ratings continue to plummet, some Republicans will eventually fear losing their seats to a Democrat more than they fear being primaried by a Trump-supported candidate. Sadly, as the damage and pain from Trump’s policies increase each day, we are getting closer to the tipping point.

The elections in Canada serve as a barometer for the pressure in the US, and the mercury is falling fast for Trump, predicting stormy weather for the GOP. Trump’s doubling down on performative cruelty is the opposite message that he should take from his poll numbers. His narcissism will destroy the Republican Party, sooner rather than later.

Personally, what keeps me going is the belief that once we get through this, we can create something better. Not perfect. But stronger, more honest, more inclusive.

Another metaphor I’ve been thinking about: those college days when I’d lose all my work because I forgot to hit save. Whether it was an essay or a long piece of software, I’d have to start from scratch. And every single time, the second version was better.

As an engineer, I can’t help but see problems as opportunities. I think that’s just how my brain copes with hard things.

So maybe that’s where we are right now. Staring at the broken pieces of what used to be. Or jotting down everything we remember from that lost essay so we can try again.

This is our moment to notice what needs fixing and start imagining how we’re going to do it.

We all have different strengths.

In my case, I’ll keep doing what I do best: breaking things down so people understand them, connecting the dots to our everyday lives, and helping others see that their voice matters. Because it does.

Right now, we’re seeing protests absolutely everywhere. Even if the mainstream media isn’t covering them, they are happening.

People who’ve never been involved before are stepping up, because what’s happening to this country is too dangerous to ignore.

Yes, it’s frustrating that it took a second term from this monster to wake some folks up. But we can’t change that. What we can do is focus on what happens next and how we stop it from happening again.

These last 100 days have been exhausting. And we’ve got many more ahead before this nightmare ends. But here’s the truth:

He’s a lame-duck President.

And we can make his job harder, every single day, between now and the midterms, and all the way through the next general election.

We can do this.