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So here's what I think is going on. I think everybody who had to lock down in the spring/summer locked down. Worked from home if they could, schooled from home if they could, isolated if they could.
And then they saw GOP politicians and GOP media figures and "both sides" reports about doubts about COVID. About its severity, about measures to address it, about what the next year or two would look like.
Until the first presidential debate, at which it once again became clear not only that Donald Trump was a blithering idiot but that there was a sensible, compassionate voice opposite him, the info driving the national narrative was muddled at best and counterproductive at worst.
That's MONTHS of propaganda and confusion and shouting and no plan that reached the toplines and headlines because Dems' positions were ignored and Republicans were all over the damn place. So blue states like IL and NY started doing okay. And then.
Fall. School. College. Football. Holidays. And the dawning realization that this was not going to be over anytime soon. And a lot of people got fucking sick of it, and said if they haven't got a handle on it by now, they're not going to get one. Who "they" is doesn't matter. btw.
People who are doing badly are over the edge and even people who are doing okay financially are stressed beyond measure and at a certain point we entered FUCK IT territory.
I'm there. I'm like why should I give up everything when the president of the United States won't even wear a fucking mask? I have a new baby cousin I can't see and friends I can't check on in person and a kid who is CLIMBING. THE. WALLS.
Why should I continue to suffer if everybody else is just going to throw in the towel? I think a lot of people are right here. Yes, there are a lot of Qidiots and GOP-blinkered buffoons, but ordinary folks, who just want to live their lives, they're super done.
THIS is why national leadership matters. This is why you don't want a headass sentient cheeto bigot in charge. Because this is the time we need a leader to say to everyone, hold fast. Pull together. It's bad but it can get better and most importantly, we can make it better.
Without that voice, and when the loudest ones instead are encouraging us to bitch each other out and bash around like rabid squirrels trapped in a paint can, of course we make bad decisions.
But if nobody else is going to pull their weight, why should I? If everyone else is going back to school why should my kid stay home? If the next state over is descending into anarchy and I can't keep the disease out, I'm going down drunk and stupid at Disneyland.
I don't agree with that way of handling things, but god damn do I deeply understand it. I want to meet my kid's teacher in person. I want to take the bus to a job I know will exist in a year. I want to go to Christmas parties.
We need someone to unify us not in a "half the dead kids, as a treat" kind of bullshit editorial-board compromise way but in a "you are not alone, have hope, we're coming for you" kind of way. That's the president's goddamn job.
And it's been four long mean angry years since we've had anybody we could even credibly ASK to do that for us. Like we might as well have prayed to the Easter Bunny.
Joe Biden is out there right now giving speeches that are actually being covered and ads that are reaching large audiences saying we will get through this, we will be okay.
He looked straight into the camera last night and gave a shit and it wasn't until I saw it that I recognized what we've been missing, and what we might need to pull ourselves out of this. Yes, it's childish and naive and CRINGE to lean on a leader. Save yourselves.
Save each other. Etc etc. But also just for a second think about the burdens you carry and how much it might help to know that someone actually notices you're carrying them.
Think about what it might mean to know that yes, you're sacrificing, but it IS part of the greater good, it IS noticed and appreciated, it's not for nothing, and we love you we love you we love you. It might mean everything.
