Americans observations from travels across states

If you listen to pollsters and politicians, or consume heavy doses of social media and cable-TV news, you might come away thinking the nation is in a collective bad mood. We’re said to be irritable, even hostile.

I’ve just come off a 18day road trip that took me from New Hampshire to Florida, spending time in nine states.

My sense is that folks are frustrated with pretty much everything over which they have no control: the economy, politics and global conflict, to name just three biggies. But it’s a mistake to conclude that they’re taking it out on each other.