Optimism is not really my default gearing. I view the current situation as incredibly desperate - the American president plainly works for the Russians. And the democrats never run out of new ways to punch themselves in the dick. Their platform and leadership is disjointed and centred around the conceit of "We're The Good People". That's not a good strategy in a two-party system where people vote AGAINST someone, instead of FOR someone.

They also find new ways to lose via infighting, identity politics, not doing enough for people, not celebrating their own wins, being duplicitous as it pertains to israel and corproate funding generally, having boring, cold dishwater policies and insisting America must have a frumpy woman president, even though they literally aren't thrilled to vote for one. And too much of the electorate is frankly fucking stupid, and vote against their own interests. These people can be fooled by things as simple as the price of eggs FFS.

But - why be optimistic? It beats the alternative. Trump and Putin are in desperate, desperate days. Gangster goon trolls like them are at their most ludicrous when they're at their weakest. Russia is a complete shambles for reasons too long to list. They are a dead empire thrashing in their tacky, musty bedchambers. Still capable of causing harm, but Ukraine will endure and survive. Russia as a great power won't. They are a 20th century goon squad fighting a 21st century war with 8th century brutality. The world is moving on from them in the same way that the Ottoman empire collapsed in stages over 300 years. In our lifetime, Russia will undergo more collapse into a less malign rump state, like Turkey emerged from the ashes of the Ottomans.

Everything Trump is going to try to do from here on out gets harder. The worst of his unrestrained grift is probably over. Probably. And he's going to die, hopefully soon. His remaining months will be spent in impotent sputtering rage and paranoia. There's a non-zero chance he will have to flee the country if he DOES live past 2028.

Trump was special. It took 80 years to create a perfectly malign, narcissistic child of privilege, corruption, charisma and vulgar shamelessness. There is only one Trump, and only Trump can hold his black hearted hate horde together. There will be an era of pale imitators that try to capture the magic again after him, but none of them remotely has a fraction of his powers. And the GOP can't afford to lose much and stay electorally relevant. They are on a dead end path, and once the old ringmaster strokes out, they will have a long period in the wilderness if they don't pivot to a more appealing message than 'burn it all down'.

The Democrats could absolutely fuck it up, though.