Better Off Than I Was Four Years Ago?

     Am I better off than I was four years ago?  I went looking.  I'm way better off now.  In 2020, COVID vaccines were still months away.  The economy was stumbling.  My comments section was infested by people who thought the pandemic was "just a bad cold" and were grievously irked at having to wear a mask in the grocery store.  There was widespread misunderstanding of the utility of measures meant to slow the spread of the virus or even if that was a good idea.  (It was.  Hospitals are not, in fact, infinitely large.)  Prices were up and supplies were down.

     Four years ago, a Supreme Court Justice had died and commenters were saying nasty things about her, which -- look, the dead cannot hear your cutting remarks and their friends and families don't care to.  Save your put-downs for living persons or admit to a fabulous degree of cowardice.

     On the good side -- and speaking of the Supreme Court -- there was not even a hint that any of the Justices might be in someone's pocket, or hold any particularly fringe notions, Left or Right.  The U. S. Capitol had not been breached by a violent mob at the behest of a sitting President in an effort to change the outcome of an election which he had lost, fair and square.  Oh, the halcyon innocence!  I was still comfortable voting for Libertarians and a few Republicans.

     Four years ago, I didn't understand the full nature of the threat to this country.  I do now, and I am better off for it.  I voted for Democrats with some concern in 2020.  I'll vote for them this year in confidence that they're running competent people with the best interest of this country at their hearts.  I don't agree with all of their positions and polices, but I can be certain they're not running as would-be authoritarian autocrats and that they're not pushing lies and willful ignorance, that they're not demonizing portions of the population to get the rest of us riled up and easy to control.

     Four years ago, I was still somewhat convinced that the outcomes of elections didn't much matter, and yes, I would like to get back to that.  Putting the party that shattered that belief back into power won't get me there.