Reality checks

The last couple of years I fell into a kind of denial state about current events and the Democratic Party, where things seemed too grim to face and I had this sort of vague idea that if I just went along with the Power of Positive Thinking I could…manifest a reality where we weren’t losing. It went like this: Joe Biden wasn’t showing signs of age-related decline, he simply has “a stutter”. War crimes aren’t really war crimes if they’re supported and advanced by a Democratic administration. Closing public schools for covid didn’t damage 50 million children. All polls and newspapers are wrong. People saying over and over they couldn’t afford housing or food really just hated Democrats and/or are sexist, racist and homophobic and should be ignored or actively shunned. You get the general picture.

I’m not a particularly good cheerleader. It was never natural to me and it became like a straitjacket I could no longer wear. When I “snapped out of” whatever spell I was under and looked around at the wreckage of the liberal order I told myself I would never play cheerleader again.

So. While I am as thrilled as all of you that giant douchebag Donald Trump is tanking in the polls, the reality is that he still outpolls Democrats. We need to grapple with this problem. Trump’s losses aren’t turning into Dem gains. That’s where we are.

Open thread to tell me how wrong I am (feel free)