There is so much bad news happening in politics daily that sometimes you feel like you've been physically pummeled by it. The Trump administration's "shock and awe" campaign to overwhelm the country with one extreme policy after another, dismantling most of the government institutions that make the United States a global leader, is extraordinarily punishing. You can't blame people for opting to tune out a bit and care for their emotional well-being.
I obviously can't do that because it's my job to pay attention — but I have to admit that I find myself fighting pessimism, if not total despair. It's not my nature to feel that way, but after last November and everything that's happened since, it's been hard for me to find my usual resilience. This has been especially difficult as I've watched the leaders of the Democratic Party appear to be paralyzed in the face of their defeat and read what seems like hundreds of election postmortems that indicate that the party is facing years in the wilderness — even though Trump only won by 1.5% and didn't even reach a majority. ( I haven't seen such energetic self-flagellation since 1984 when Walter Mondale lost to Ronald Reagan by 18 points and only won 13 electoral votes — his own state.)
