Robert Litan for the Brookings Institution: Although I am not optimistic that our social, economic, and political divisions will heal any time soon, I do have hope the farther out I look, for three reasons:

First, millennials, who are the most educated generation in American history and have generally been raised to be tolerant of differences in race, ethnicity, and sexual orientation, will eventually run our country. Already, some young people in elected positions have proved to be highly pragmatic yet idealistic, and thus a source of hope that eventually our electorate and our leaders will be less divided than now.