Trump blew an opportunity last night.

I found the first 15 to 20 minutes of his speech fairly riveting.

A man who came within inches of losing his life talking about the experience.

I was hoping he would turn that into a call for better discussion and less heat. Unfortunately, after that time he went into his campaign speech mode. He called for Democrats to stop their demonizing without admitting that this is a bipartisan problem.

Had he made a genuine call for less hostility in our rhetoric, I probably would still not vote for him but I would have warmed to him more and felt better about the fact that he is likely to win. I do think that such an appeal to unity would have won him more votes from independents who are tired of the polarization in our society. A near-death experience is just the kind of turning point that Trump could have used to make that sort of appeal but I turned the speech off after about half an hour as it degenerated into his stump speech.

This is a moment where we can back away from the polarization in our society. Unfortunately, I think that neither of our major political parties is up to the task and only wants to disarm their political opponent.