Hope is a good thing
It’s encouraging there is finally reason for hope in America, because hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. For even in the darkest of times, Spring is certain to come.
My annual Covid shot last week reminded me of those hopeless days in 2020, when the uncertainty of a deadly pandemic overshadowed our world. It was the last time our nation was ruled by an irresponsible snake oil salesman. The same charlatan America just reelected.
Back in those dark days, we patiently awaited our place in the vaccine queue behind essential workers and politicians. Hoping for a return to the everyday America we once knew, and that eventually would come, with the help of modern science. Of course, with loony RFK Jr. now compromising the public health of our nation, we can only hope he and his enabler Trump are long gone before the next pandemic hits . . .
I’ve been accused of being too doom-and-gloomy in my Substack posts, and I acknowledge the accuracy of that criticism, while attributing it to my background – there’s a reason economics is called the dismal science. To atone, here’s a post that offers a little hope during these discouraging days of living in Trump World.
“Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. Fear can hold you prisoner. Hope can set you free.”
-- Andy Dufresne in Stephan King’s, The Shawshank Redemption.
As Minnesota’s challenging Winters inevitably subside each year, we are reassured that Spring always comes. And so it is in these darkest of political times, we must also hold on to the hope of an eventual return to stable normalcy. My friends, recent national polls are the harbinger robins of that certain Spring.
It is encouraging that Americans are beginning to reject the policies of Trump and the sycophants he embedded at all levels of government. While there will always be a core of meanspirited right-wing extremists, a solid and growing majority of voters are supporting the good that is America.
Polls are reporting that Trump’s job ratings continue to plummet even lower, now with a commanding 60/40 ratio of disapproval to approval. Our notoriously thin-skinned president is incoherently lashing out, desperately trying to stem his decline with increasingly bizarre actions and outrageous claims.
Significantly, Americans solidly oppose Trump’s Big Beautiful Budget Bill by a similar 60/40 negative margin. Even his core base opposes the regressive, deficit busting, needlessly heartless bill his MAGA Republican Congress is arrogantly ramming down our throats.
Trump is also way underwater for his handling of the economy. His failed trade and inflation polices have completely botched that typical Republican strength. Americans also reject Trump’s reckless Iran bombing by a similar margin, and there is even greater opposition to his heavy-handed deportations of those hoping to provide a better life for themselves and their families in our great country.
Yes, hope is a good thing. And now there’s reason for hope in America.