It worries me that, 9 years in, there's a whole generation of young voters coming up who have only ever known Trumpian dysfunction as normal, ordinary, everyday politics.
i first turned onto politics in the 2000 election. i voted for the first time in 2006.
i distinctly remember the Starr Report and Clinton impeachment, Bush v Gore, and the Tea Party as we rolled toward Trumpism.
American politics has been broken for a long time.
To be fair, anyone that started paying attention to politics post 9/11 is in the same boat
The shit's been broken since the 60s, and Reagan turbo charged the evil - but it was Shrub the Lesser and the 9/11 freakout that really sent things off the rails in a way we'd never though possible prior
It worries me more that people think it's an outlier and not the obvious outcome of decades of conservative politics being met with bone-headed naivete from the liberal establishment.
It's worth adding, most Democrats haven't voted "for" a candidate in over a decade.
Instead they've been told "you must vote for this person who has spent their entire career fighting for things you hate: hard-line immigration policy, Iraq War, drug war, etc.—or you're helping the fascists win."
Those just now able to vote this year, still remember Obama. Though, admittedly, it does feel like a dreamy ancient past. I should shake my roller-ball mouse and yell "back in my day, sunny...."
