KAROL MARKOWICZ: How the Trump presidency made me a better American.

Nearly two years after his inauguration, I have concluded that President Trump has made me a better person.

For starters, I’m more compassionate. After the election, I was as dazed and confused as anyone in the political-media bubble. To understand what happened, I devoured reporting about Trump voters and sought to understand them.

I wasn’t some liberal, mind you. I had worked for years in Republican politics. Yet I hadn’t known any Trump primary voters. I didn’t know his fans, his base.

Reading their concerns was eye-opening. They weren’t stupid, and they weren’t hateful. Mainstream politicians had ignored them for so long that they took a wild chance on the reality-TV star from Queens.

At the same time, because I wasn’t a Trump voter, I understood the pain of people frightened by his win. Caring about his voters didn’t preclude caring about his ­opponents, I found.

I talked down friends who thought America was over because of his presidency. I exulted in our institutions and checks and balances, and I defended them when they were attacked by Trump — or his adversaries.

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