This midterm was just plain nuts, and the billions spent on the craziest election cycle, maybe ever, could have been put to much better use, but that’s a Citizens United rant for another day.  That the outcome, (sans Georgia and the endlessly-counting Arizona and Nevada), is nothing like the predicted end of America, (actually a rocky outcropping on one of those Aleutian islands), bemoaned by the likes of, well, me, is hardly cause for celebration…a cautious, cleansing breath, perhaps.

After a few masked and armed intimidators were shamed and court-ordered away from early voting drop offs, there were barely any overt acts of antisocial behavior, (sorry, Paul), losing candidates, for the most part, politely conceded, winners seemed gracious and voters, lots of them, exercised their precious right of citizenship and stood up to the crazy Trump-o-sphere that has mired us for the last seven years…you know, like it’s supposed to be in a country that claims to be a shining beacon of democracy.  I was surprised.  The army of election deniers and the candidates they primaried onto the ballot and the rising tide of fanatic white supremacists, but mostly, the rudderless chaos that is the Republican party, seemed like the perfect soup to bring us down.  I revel in my miscalculation and, as the mesmerized minions begin deserting their cultish god-child, fingers pointed, to shame and blame the Cheeto man for not delivering them to a more perfectly white, Christian union, I’m already considering the optimistic possibility of a long, slow pendulum swing back to sanity.