Authoritarians like Trump gain power by exploiting public cynicism. The more that voters believe that all politicians cheat the system, the more decent citizens will give up engaging meaningfully in politics at all. Eventually, the only people left in politics are the ones with no vision of a better world beyond a bitter desire to stick it to racial minorities, LGBTQ people and women. Getting people to believe in equal justice and functional government is a necessary prerequisite if folks like Fetterman and Ocasio-Cortez are to make any progress on the social and economic issues that matter most to them.
Never said I don’t. I know two railroad guys - one retired as soon as he possibly could to escape the hell outlined in the Vice article. The other was on the phone with work the entire night when we last had the chance to drive 4 states over to visit him. Never even got the chance to ask how he was doing but it was pretty obvious.
I’ll take whatever wins we can get, but that should make us hungry for more.