It doesn’t seem as if this can go on.

For the better part of the last year – since noon ET on January 20 – the United States has been building toward a rolling boil. The temperature ratcheted up almost every day by some new outrage emanating from a desecrated White House.

Until we got to this point. A new year that starts with a divided – maybe hopelessly – country. Sectional bitterness. Different standards of morality. Disrespect for the humanity of people who aren’t your type.

It has to end in 2026. The problem is how.

Is there some way, any way, to take the temperature down? To lower the gas? To add some cold water to the mix?

Or are there enough people who want it to boil over that it can’t be stopped?

Is this the revolution that people on the right have craved since the 1960s? Is this how we end a representative republic, how we end democracy, how we end the fantasy of a melting pot or mosaic that embraces all who enter?

It can’t stay this way. This nation feels like I imagine Europe felt like in the years before World War I. And all it will take is a spark – an Archduke Ferdinand moment – to set off a cataclysmic conflagration.

Before you think I’m overly pessimistic, let me correct you.

I think we can pull it back. I think the year will see us step away from the turmoil and civil war that some seek with both hands.

But it’s going to take a few strong acts and a little luck. And it’s not going to be painless.

Part of it will be economic. The idiotic tariffs. The surging cost of healthcare thanks to the tax break bill for the wealthiest, The immigration policies that will lead to both higher unemployment and a labor shortage at the same time, which is really hard to do.

And, more importantly, part of it is in our hands.

First, we have to somehow show the MAGA cult why this path leads to American ruin.

In a way, what’s happening at the Kennedy Center – yes, the Kennedy Center – is example A. 

Trump wanted to put his imprimatur on American culture as a way of securing his hold on the public mindset. The problem is he doesn’t understand it – he has no concept of the arts.

Can you imagine him looking at a Hopper or Monet painting and reflecting on what’s portrayed? Can you imagine him watching “Severance” or “Pluribus” or “Hamnet” and having an intelligent discussion on the show or film’s message? Does he know who Charlie Parker or Aaron Copland or Richard Smallwood are, much less any of their work?

So when artists started boycotting the center because he insisted on putting his name on it, he couldn’t fathom that. Don’t they just want to get paid? Everybody has their price, right?

No. That’s not how art works. That’s why I am now the proud owner of digital music by Chuck Rudd, Kristy Lee and The Cookers – and will, in all likelihood, discover new artists whose work I enjoy.

And that’s why you should buy their music, too. Standing up on principle, damn the cost, is hard. Especially in a profession in which you either make a fortune with a hit record or barely make ends meet striving for excellence.

The other message by the other artist withdrawals from the Kennedy Center is that I hope MAGA types enjoy the mediocrity of artists who support Trump. Because they are no longer part of the world in which the best art is created.

They’ve probably felt that way for a while. But the non-MAGAs and the rest of the civilized world are about to create a society that excludes them, that doesn’t care if they buy tickets or not. 

For example, if Greg Gutfeld and Rob Schneider are what they’re left with in the world of comedy, MAGAs might never find anything funny again.

Second, there needs to be a zero-tolerance policy toward discriminatory hate.

Trump’s now on the rampage about Somali immigrants and Americans of Somali descent. He’s been fueled by the fraudulent effort to claim newfound fraud in Minnesota day care centers,  something Gov. Tim Walz already handled.

I’m sick of racial bigotry. I’m sick of gender bias. I’m sick of antisemitism. I’m sick of islamophobia. I’m sick of people claiming religious superiority. 

We all should take a no-tolerance policy toward it. No more winking, or claiming that Grandpa is confused, or our neighbors usually mean well.

Call it out. Don’t support businesses or organizations that demonstrate intolerance.

We’re always afraid to make waves. Make waves.

Finally, vote.

Not just on November 3 when the nation is scheduled to elect a new House, a third of the Senate and more than half of the nation’s governors.

Vote in school board and school budget elections. Vote in library and sanitary district elections. Vote in primaries. Vote in runoffs.

Vote every chance you have to vote.

One of the ways the right wing has ascended is taking seriously elections most Americans dismiss. Local government often seems parochial and contingent on a buddy system in which you’re on the outs if you don’t know the gang. 

Let’s end that. You pay taxes, too. You contribute to these communities in big and small ways. Act like you’re a stakeholder. Because you are – and if people claim it without a fight, they can go on to the next level and propose book bans and citizenship tests.

I don’t know if any of that can stop the boil that American society is headed to. I hope so. We were taught in school that the Civil War was a one-time thing, that no one would ever again seek to dissolve the union.

Donald Trump and the people who have backed him – from Vladimir Putin to Elon Musk to Stephen Miller – don’t care. We – and this republic – are collateral damage to getting what they want.

We don’t have to take it lying down.

Hope it’s a happy, healthy and free 2026 for you, your loved ones and the United States of America,