For a change I thought I’d post a few upbeat links. Starting with this WaPo list of medical breakthroughs and other good developments from 2023.
Jennifer Rubin expresses an argument I’ve heard others make: given Trump’s name recognition and his influence over the Republican Party, his performance so far is sub-optimal. Good news for decent Americans.
After eight years of right-wing rule, Poland shifted back to the center.
Wisconsin’s Republican majority gerrymanders the hell out of the state. The Supreme Court threw their maps out.
Biden’s pardoning thousands of people who went to prison on federal pot charges.
Project Veritas is a largely inept Republican propaganda outfit. Their recent attempt at a First Amendment defense for some of their actions failed miserably.
Speaking of propaganda, Ron DeSantis had a sock-puppet “news” organization of his own. Happily it’s died with his campaign.
Biden’s proposing eliminating lead pipes from water systems in a decade. Cost: $300 million which is inconsequential by US government standards. I think the health gains are worth it.
Elon Musk tried to create an anti-woke chatbot. Turns out it’s more woke than Musk is.
Despite a lack of funding, we’re seeing lurching progress toward better treatments for tropical diseases.
Trump’s latest legal woes: in the E. Jean Carroll defamation trial, he now owes her $83 million. Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro is whining that he shouldn’t have to spend four months in prison due to contempt of Congress. I’m not big on watching other people suffer but these seem like payback for their actions.
I know it’s a short list of links but there’s other stuff, like the consistent success of abortion-rights initiatives around the country. We shouldn’t have to fight for basic rights, but if we do, it’s good when we win (wow, deep thought!). As Michelle Goldberg says, lots of people thought the protests against Trump would run out of steam but the fight goes on. Victory is far from certain, but it’s attainable. As Goldberg says “Before we can fight authoritarianism, we have to fight fatalism. My great hope for 2024 is that anti-Trump Americans can transcend exhaustion, burnout and self-protective pessimism to mobilize once again for the latest most important election of our lifetimes. ”
Or as LGM says, fatalism and despair are pro-Trump positions: ”
The psychological attractions of fatalism, and its close cousin despair, is that they cater to our bottomless laziness and inertia. This is what makes doom junkies of so many people on the left, broadly defined: if the situation is so dire as to be practically hopeless, then why not check out that new Netflix series, instead of trying to do anything about it?
It’s difficult to be both clear-eyed about what Trump represents, and what his initial rise and evident political resurrection tell us about America, and to maintain the sufficient will to fight for the future of a country that has already sunk to our current level of political and cultural degradation.
But consider the alternative.”
