"...Just Ignore The Troubling Politics..."

     I've gotten that advice in comments quite a lot.  Oh, if only I could!  The problem is, politics won't ignore me.

     The United States was supposed to be a place where you didn't have to worry about the Federal government: it was supposed to be inherently stable, in ways that "Westminster" parliamentary democracies weren't.  It was intended for find the centerline in American politics, compromising between the interests of the states as polities and the people as a whole.  It was supposed to have limited, enumerated powers, with inherently fair courts based on law and not politics.  It was supposed to respect individual rights, and not play favorites to any group or creed.  We were a nation friendly to innovation science, technology -- and ways of getting along with one another.  No majority held forever; the Presidency, House and Senate rotated regularly from one party to the other, often out of step with one another.  We were a nation with open arms.  A lot of that was more aspiration than reality, but the aspiration existed and was held up as a worthy goal.

     We've got an administration in place that doesn't buy any of that old-fashioned bunk.  They've got friends to reward and enemies to scourge.  They're hamstringing science and medicine in the service of politics -- and bending politics to serve religion.  The United States is going to come out of this poorer, sicker and less capable: that's what's happens when you defund universities, slash healthcare and medical research, set up hospitals to close, crash the economy with tariffs and uncertainty, shrink the Federal workforce at key service programs and let religion overrule scientific conclusions.

     It's a revolt of ignorant, opinionated, unqualified middle-managers, pushed to prominence by pressure from below and a moribund, senescent vacuum above.  I can't ignore it; they're hacking away at the foundations of my future and not just in the broad, society-wide sense: my retirement was predicated on Social Security remaining solvent for another decade and the economy staying relatively stable.  Both of those things are no longer true.

     The other thing I get told it, "Your side lost, get over it."  But the Democrats were never my side.  I was closer to the more centrist Republicans, tolerant people who didn't want cultural change to scare the horses and thought budgets should balance (oh boy, remember when the GOP talked big about eliminating the deficit? They could give a rat's ass now).  Now that the Republicans have embraced authoritarianism, xenophobia, vast expansion of Presidential power, so-called "Christian Nationalism" and conspiracy theories, the Democrats are the only remaining party that values our republic; they're the only party left with much variation among their elected officials, the only party that pays even a little attention to reality.  Don't think that doesn't gall me!  Most of my life, I could rely on the Dems to be the party floating zany notions; now I have to open my browser and learn Republicans in Florida have outlawed "chemtrails" and banned any efforts to control the increasingly-violent weather.  In a contest to be the craziest major party, the GOP has a commanding lead -- one that will carry the country right over a cliff unless we are wise and very, very lucky.

     It's as safe to ignore politics at present as it is to ignore storm sirens.  Better head to high ground or the root cellar -- and better still if you know which one to choose.