On Moving the Needle

I wonder what it will be like for things to get better after being arguably as bad as they have ever been.

I wonder how all those falsehoods will play after things start to get better.

I wonder how many full fledged COVID deniers will finally encounter this deadly pandemic.

I wonder if red states will continue to suffer needlessly under Trumpian COVID policies.

I wonder what the recovering blue states will look like from those red states.

I wonder how those red state constituents will feel when their jobs come back.

When they aren’t so frightened.

When their families feel safe.

When they feel that their families are safe.

I wonder who the ratings leader is among cable news networks.

Wait … who used to be the leader?

Okay … but for how long? Really?

I wonder what changed.

I wonder how many more previously registered Republicans will re-register with reality.

I wonder what it will feel like in 2022 … after two years of feeling better.

I wonder how difficult it would be to reject reality for 6 straight years with nothing but the whole sale loss of jobs and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of American citizens to show for it.

I wonder how much quicker the historical record becomes cemented when that record has been broadcast to the globe via the digitization of every inch of our lives.

I wonder who will write that history, and how the reality rejectionists will come off in retrospect.

I wonder how embracing white supremacy and white grievance as a party platform will age as the demography tips (like flipped GA tips).

I wonder how many more people will come to believe in a shadowy high power cabal drinking up babies in the pursuit of immortality.

I wonder if it will be enough to win elections.

The optimistic vision I have of our future is only attainable when the answers to these questions are what your heart wanted them to be. Those answers are inevitable only if we put in the work. If you are doing what you did last time, you’re doin’ it wrong.