Salon sizes things up thusly:
“The summer of 2022 is hot and furious. We are dealing with a world literally on fire due to climate change. We are dealing with a world metaphorically on fire with a continuing war in Ukraine. We are dealing with monkeypox, a continuing pandemic, haters, baiters, ravenous idiots, seditionists, misogynists, racists, pedophiles, gun-toting good Samaritans, mass shootings, religious zealots, the Jan. 6 hearings, Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump and infrastructure problems. In the words of Hedley Lamarr: ‘cutthroats, murderers, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglers, horse thieves, bull dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, shit-kickers and Methodists.'”
Sounds like a normal election to me, and I’ve seen a lot of ’em. (Read article here. The guy who wrote it “is the former senior White House correspondent for Playboy, and “has covered every presidential administration since Ronald Reagan, sued Donald Trump three times successfully to keep his press pass, spent time in jail to protect a confidential source, covered wars in the Middle East, and is the author of seven books,” in other words a typical Washington D.C. correspondent.)
He quotes Bertrand Russell, who said “if we are to live together and not to die together we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.” Didn’t believe in hope, did he? Russell also said “we must be guided by the facts,” and, “Love is wise. Hatred is foolish.” As the article writer points out, probably correctly, anyone who wrote that essay today “might face criminal charges … in certain geographic locales in this country.” (He doesn’t say where, but we all know he means Florida and Texas).
Then he goes on to describe the GOP today as an “implosion” condensing into a “black hole.” Hey, I like it. It’s colorful. (Also accurate.) Given this, he has a suggestion for the Democrats: Stop eating your own and snatching defeat from the jaws of victory,* because someone has to govern this country, and there are no sentient Republicans around to do it. Look, I have to run some errands; just read the article linked above.
(* Somebody wrote a book with that title about stupid military leaders; you can get it here. I recommend it as light summer reading.)