There’s some clever writing in this CNN essay. The headline suggested some sarcastic snark. But the third line, “Call it the audacity of President Trump: He is bringing more hope and change than Obama ever could.” made me mobilize to get pissed.

But then came the reveal, and it’s a point I’ve tried to make many times over the last couple of years:

Yet one of the biggest ironies of Trump’s presidency is that he has become a more effective catalyst for progressive social change than Obama.
He has discredited core conservative beliefs, boosted the popularity of left-wing causes and caused millions of Americans to face ugly truths about racism and bigotry that they used to deny.

Yep. It’s so easy to get trapped in the moment with Trump, to get pinned down by a fusillade of poison and hate; for one’s horizons to narrow down to just the foxhole’s rim.

I find hope in the long view. Actions have consequences, and for Trump there will be an opposite reaction, at least equal but perhaps more. The reaction started when he was inaugurated, and it hasn’t let up. Hope is a sea of people holdin signs and carryin on.

The CNN essay goes on to elaborate the argument, from finally laying Ronald Reagan to rest, to making it impossible to deny racism in America; and those things and others make up the gigantic political sewer ball that’s clogged our political system. Change isn’t peaceful, and in hindsight let’s be honest: America would be a much more peaceful place if Clinton had won the election, but perhaps we’d have bought our peace at the price of giving up on change. Centrists like Clinton don’t change the world, they preserve the status quo. Maybe we had to be faced with ruination and the loss of everything we hold dear before we’d wake up from our self-satisfied slumber.

Day to day life under the rule of President Trash will remain a horrific shitstorm to the bitter end, but there will be an end. There’s a decent chance that things will look pretty good on the other side. Hang in there?