when you grow up in poverty, you're always focused on "the next 2 weeks", you're gonna work some OT, pay that one bill, get some shit squared away, and you'll be All Set. i've been waiting for that 2 weeks to pass for 30 years of my life, i inherited the lifestyle from my dad
it's a sort-of coping mechanism to keep you "moving forward" even when you're ultimately going nowhere, you have small breaks and setbacks, but the major ones pile up, your body ages and falters, you start to die the death of a thousand cuts, still waiting for that 2 weeks
when your government/institutions are hopelessly corrupt & compromised, you can get into a similar tunnel vision, that "the next election cycle" is going to be the one that fixes things. its even harder to escape this trap, since so many bad changes work on generational timelines
the game won't be won or lost in november, if Trump or Biden prevails, there is enough institutional inertia driving this country into the ground that we're basically all going to have to throw our bodies in front of it to break the fall, pay now or pay later but we will all pay