As I rejoice the blue wave, tsunami or whatever you want to call it that eviscerated the MAGA movement and its enablers from slim majorities in both houses of Congress for the last two years, and handed over a vast vote of power to a now domineering majority of Democratic lawmakers, one famous quote keeps coming to mind.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Now variations of this quote have been attributed to many.
Everyone from:
-Albert Einstein (Note: An urban legend according to most historians) to —
-A Narcotics Anonymous pamphlet in 1981 (Note: A variation of it but in the context of “mistakes”), and all the way back in time with —
Mark Twain and Benjamin Franklin (Note: They spoke about the general idea but not in anything approaching that wording.
Point being, Americans in 2026 are not a) idiots, b) addicts or c) especially overly enlightened thinkers.
They’re just had enough.
This is understandable.
They’re paying the highest price for gas in American history, 30% more for food than they did five plus years ago and enduring massive tariffs directed by the White House to a Whac-A Mole of countries that have ultimately cost the average household $1700 more for goods and services annually.
There is also the “small potatoes” war in Iran (Note: POTUS’ words, not mine) that has emptied the treasury of more than $47 billion to date with no end in sight.
And speaking of sights, there is also the massive, nationwide roundup of brown and black and anything else but white-skinned, mostly legal immigrant neighbors of ALL AGES and sizes, grabbed in their homes, schools, cars or on the streets by masked ICE thugs and disappeared into detention centers or parts unknown with sometimes nary a trace.
As all the while as they watch their POTUS drone on endlessly on their screens about his construction projects:
-The rare marble that will be a feature all through his new White House ballroom.
-The 250 foot arch that will be armed with a military grade weapon center in a populous area near Arlington National Cemetery.
– The Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool algae debacle on the National Mall that turned a promised “American Flag blue” color to vomit green.
-And most recently the chopping down of dozens of century old trees around a beloved golf course in the middle of Washington, D.C. to make way for “improvements” personally ordered by the President.
-The same guy who allowed the richest man in the world (Note: An immigrant who is the only U.S. trillionaire) to commandeer the personal Social Security information of EVERY U.S. citizen (Note: That Means YOU/US) without asking.
To use a timeless concept that belongs to no single author but instead to the human species in general (Note: That Excludes A.I.)
Actions have consequences.
Contrary to popular thought among the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
I don’t know about you but given ALL of the above it felt like, well, s-o-m-e rejoicing was in order.
So I’m indulging.
And yet, around every corner, people want to bring me, and the rest of us so inclined, down.
Will the Dems blow it? DJT is stillllllll president. Steven Miller, likely one of the only Jews in America dedicated to the principles of the Third Reich, is now running the White House.
And my favorite — who knows if all these new people will even get sworn into Congress and if the vote will be certified because, well, remember what happened on Jan. 6th.
OMG!!!
Will everyone out there just TAKE. THE. WIN?
At least for this week???????
Because if we don’t then, truly, what is the point of anything?
Do you know that 75% of the states in the country now have Democratic governors? Among other things, this means that at minimum women will have the right to choose in that many locales in the U.S. since reproductive rights are left up to the states.
How about the fact that….oh…instead of me, here’s Rachel Maddow, the day after Election Day, to explain a lot of it to you. And far better than I, or anyone else, could. Watch it all the way through and you’ll see what I mean.
And now that you’ve watched that (Note: If not, go back and DO IT!) here are a few visuals that might make you stop and make you think.
-Georgia’s new Governor-elect, Keisha Lance-Bottoms, the first black female governor in the HISTORY of the U.S., meeting the late, former Gov. of Texas, Ann Richards, when she was 10 years old.
-The late Congressman and civil rights leader, John Lewis, posing with a kid who was his teenage intern, the newly re-elected Senator Jon Ossoff
And Paralympics gold-medal winner, Spina Bifida survivor and newly-elected Senator from Iowa, Josh Turek.
It’s cause to celebrate. And time to give at least one other person hope.
Oh, and P.S. – Did you know that the newly elected Iowa Gov. Rob Sand helped pay for his college education as a print and runway model, in Paris and Milan, for, among other brands…. Prada?
You’re welcome.
