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It’s Time to Talk About Us
We like to think of elections as The People’s moment to wade into the workings of our government. Assign some sort of mandate for moving forward.
The 2020 election was more like a black hole sucking the light out of our national conversation. In many ways, it still is.
Worse, events did not stand still while we were busy shouting past one another. For everyone who’s not an actual hermit living in a cave the pandemic has become extremely dangerous. Like Stephen-King-novel dangerous.
It would be fatal to think we can keep riding the current Covid-19 trajectory while the national leadership stews over the election.
Covid is only the most immediate of the existential issues we all face together. On the heels of saving ourselves from the rampaging virus will come the task of reviving the economy it devastated. Then fixing a planet that’s becoming inhospitable to lifeforms like ourselves.
And, we’re finally beginning to understand that a lasting solution to any of this also requires dealing with the systemic racism that plagues our society.
Nothing has come easy in this hexed year of 2020, and now it looks like we’ll have to work through our many troubles hobbled by a closely divided government. The usual response is to do the legislative math and scale back expectations for…