I Guess We're Just Going to Have to Get Used to Feeling Good About Politics Again

And While You're At It, Better Prepare Yourself for Winning

You would think Democrats had lost the winning touch. But we haven’t. Democrats have won the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. Since Trump took office we have regularly outperformed expectations. We have a Democratic president. Democrats control the majority in the Senate and the GOP edge in the House is very narrow. We have great candidates. Most Americans support the Democratic agenda on most issues.

So why has American politics felt so yuck for so long? Why aren’t we celebrating our recent record?

Two reasons. One even living in the same era as Donald Trump makes you want to take a shower. He has such an ick factor he has transferred it to our entire era. Historians will look back at this era in which he was a dominant force in our politics and deem it the Age of Ick or maybe the Slime-o-zoic era. The second reason is related to the first: as bad as Trump has been, as big a convicted felon, traitor, rapist, insurrectionist, racist, misogynist, dictator-loving, democracy-hating, lying, thieving, fascist pig as we all know him to be, he just won’t go away. He escapes accountability time after time. He has defied every law of politics known to man or woman. As recently as, well, as now, he still has a chance to be returned to power. So it diminishes all our victories because it is still possible he may triumph in the end.

Which would suck. Which is why so often we read the news or watch it online or on TV and we think, boy this sucks. And doubt enters our mind. Maybe it is not just that he is the Tyrannosaurus Wrecks of the Slime-o-zoic Era, but that he is surviving because we’re just not up to defeating him.

After all, Joe Biden was the most successful president any of us has ever seen and yet, it was pretty clear he was going to lose to Trump if he stayed in the race. Which would not reflect well on any of us.

But then an amazing thing happened and the whole vibe of the moment changed.