- The divisions between Democrat/Republican pale in comparison to the fundamental differences in lived experience, tradition and socioeconomic reality that the free/slave divisions did in the Civil War

- The "hatred of the other side" is manufactured and stoked by media and largely practiced by the fringe

- Most of the populace doesn't care enough about the divisions to adhere strongly to one side or the other

I used to vote in person. Go down to the church or whatever, stand around while the nice old ladies hand you a ballot and send you over to the machines. I guess I look smart? Because people would walk up to me regularly and ask me who to vote for.

Most Americans just aren't that engaged. I dunno. On the one hand you've got a guy asking me if he thought he should vote for Clinton because apparently he woke up on a Tuesday and felt that his voice should be counted even if he wasn't sure what he wanted to say. On the other hand I have an employee who flew to San Francisco to spend an hour at the Brazilian embassy just to vote out Bolsonaro. And here's my gut feeling: if the guy asking me about Clinton thought his life would change radically from his choices, he'd fly to San Francisco.

There's a lot of doom and gloom on both sides of the aisle now. But there's a growing locus of us in the middle who think it's going to be okay. We have seen the fullest extent of Trump's insurrectionist planning on full display and it was a bunch of idiots wandering around the capital building looking for things to poop on. That was something that really struck me about 2001: All of a sudden, the entire country was energized, looking for something to do to make things better again. And we got "go shopping." It was the biggest waste of civic engagement I have ever seen - that I hope I ever see. We could have done. So. Much. To make the world a better place and instead we bombed Iraq.

Biden is far and away the most liberal president since FDR and... crickets. I mean yeah - the right wing hates the shit out of him but not for anything substantive. At this point they'd hate Reagan if he wore a blue hat. The country, by and large, just wants to live our lives.

Trump became President of the United States because it was convenient and cheap for Putin to try to make him President. Putin succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. A disengaged, populist President remains Putin's greatest chance to stay in power - American abandonment of Europe and the Middle East would allow for as many Syrias and Ukraines as the Russians can stomach (and they can clearly stomach a lot). Putin was aided in his quest by the American media, who are always up for a spectacle. Here's the thing, though - you can only bomb Pearl Harbor once. All it takes is one Richard Reid and Americans have to strip to socks to get on airplanes for the next 30 years. The 2020 election was the most secure in American history, Facebook is a wasteland, right-wing media operations now communicate solely with the right wing and Tucker Carlson is a blogger.