What we are fighting for

I've stopped believing that anything I say or write about politics makes any kind of difference. Like religion, like conspiracism (which is religion at its most primitive and unformed), politics is driven by the emotions attendant on one's feelings of power or powerlessness.Trumpites fixate on his power because they know they have none. "Look at me," he says. "I went to the best schools, have the best genes, the greatest mind, the most money, the hottest wives. I won the White House. I am immune to Covid. And all you have to do to participate in my greatness is love me unconditionally." Deep down, they are nihilists; they know the world is on fire, that they and their children are doomed. But at least he makes their enemies suffer in the meantime.Democrats believe they have power and agency and potentially a future, but only if they acknowledge the hard facts. "Look at him," we say. "He is fat and stupid and a serial bankrupt, a lech, a liar, and a loser. We are in terrible shape as a nation. Thousands of us are dying."Trump gives his people a sugar high and we give them a cold bath."Those of us with money and security owe our good fortune to structural inequities that we wouldn't tolerate for a moment if we weren't their beneficiaries," we say. "We have to make sacrifices. We have to pull together and put our shoulders to the wheel." As Nietzsche said of the Christians, it's a philosophy that could only appeal to a sucker or a slave. The only advantage to it is that it supposes a future that's worth fighting for.