I can’t believe I’m writing this, but the presidential debate the other night was actually watchable. Obviously, our stable genius in chief still repeated the same baseless accusations and alternative facts that spew from him anytime the attention is on someone else for a few moments, but he also was more professional that I thought possible. Despite Joe Biden’s performance, which was pretty solid, I’m still having trouble feeling even the slightest bit of cautious optimism. I’ve been so wrong so many times at this point that I know not to rely too heavily on my own instincts about which way the wind is blowing. If there’s one overarching lesson to be learned from the whole Trump era, it’s how painfully unaware we all are about what is going on outside our frame of reference. Even with the height of technology in many people’s pockets at all times, we enclose ourselves in our echo chambers, which generally ensure that nothing too challenging reaches our delicate ears. Unfortunately, the types of changes that America needs will be far outside many people’s comfort zones, leading to resistance. How badly do we want the change? I’m not sure I’m ready to hear the answer to that question. It feels like it would be demoralizing.
