Anxiety-wise, 2022 was an improvement

As December's crisp days grow shorter, once again it's the time of year for reflection and summing up: Like, what about the year that was? And, going into 2023, is the overall trend this country is riding headed toward improvement, or toward the opposite?

Well, in 20 years, maybe a historian would answer, "Hey, 2022 could have been worse."

And, my ghost would agree with that historian. Speaking of worse, 2017 gave us that infamous praising of fascists quote, "very fine people on both sides." Or, look at 2020, with its monstrous pandemic and its launching of the Big Lie. Yes, some years are worse than others. 

In spite of its many vexing troubles, I'm saying that anxiety-wise, 2022 was quite an improvement over any of Donald Trump's four years in the White House. And, because I believe the corner has been turned, when it comes to Trumpism's momentum, my thinking is that in 2023 we will see the process of recovering from the damage Trump has done to the USA to continue to build. 

Flashback: During Trump's presidency dread routinely overshadowed hope. We watched helplessly, as Trump took his whims to the bully pulpit. He relished encouraging the most angry and soulless of his followers to terrorize people they viewed as his enemies. 

As 2022 is winding down, with the mid-term results in the rearview mirror, Trump's image as a big-ass winner is losing its luster. There's no way that Trump being seen as history's sorest loser is going to help with the Trumpist cult's recruitment in 2023. The damning January 6th Committee report will soon drop and that won't be a good day at Mar-a-Lago.

Of course, I'm not saying our troubles with Trump are over. Hardly that. However, I am saying we've turned the corner. 

In 2023, I expect we're going see a steady stream of elected Republicans plotting a new course, to push away from the most bizarre stuff, such as Trump calling for the "termination" of inconvenient parts of the Constitution. 

Still, it's no surprise to me that all-in MAGA Republicans want to ignore the Constitution. Of course they do. When did they ever respect the Constitutional rights of people they don't like? 

Nonetheless, at happy hour in the back booth of the downtown pub, in the locker room at the tennis club, standing around the pool table in the basement, self-interested conservatives who want a future in politics are going to be talking about letting go of the crazy. 

We, the people who still believe in democracy, can win this battle with these new Nazis. America has had its confrontations with their ilk before. In the 1920s there was a nasty resurgence of  KKK activities. Take a look at this haunting video of a Nazi rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. 

Yikes!

There was a significant fascist presence in the USA in the last years of the Depression. Then came the post-war Red Scare years, with McCarthyism and blacklisting, etc. Eventually, the steam ran out of such shameful detours from the march toward progress. 

With 2022 nearly finished, it looks to me like 2023 will be a good year for some prominent homegrown fascist plotters to face the music. 

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