I Honestly Forgot How Dumb This Is Going to Be

Cruel reminders of our stupid, stupid Trump world.

The invasion of Greenland. (Emil Stach/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images)

Yesterday was a “good day” for American democracy, apparently.

I know this because Vice President Kamala Harris said so — right after she certified Donald Trump as the next President of the United States. And while solemnly ceding power to a racist who has made little secret of his plans to transform this country into (even more of) a gaudy playground for fascists doesn’t seem like it’d be such a great day for democracy, what do I know?

Still, I can’t help but shake a lingering sense that retreating to the comfort of ritual and civility is not really worth celebrating these days — especially when those things are partially what brought us to this extremely fraught, dangerous point in the first place. And especially especially when those same edifices of democracy are so obviously about to be detonated in the service of unchecked avarice and bigotry.

But what’s really given me reason to question Harris’ optimistic faith in the American political machine is, well, pretty much everything that’s happened in the intervening 24 hours. Because it’s been bad. Bad and dispiriting. And above all else: it’s been extraordinarily stupid—stupid in a way that feels…familiar to anyone who lived through, say, 2017 to 2021.

Let’s review.