Dwain Northey (Gen X)

At some point in every national meltdown, a person has to ask themselves a very simple, very American question: Is there at least one silver lining in this flaming dumpster being pushed downhill by clowns? Because if there isn’t, we’re all just doom-scrolling ourselves into an early grave.

Let’s recap the highlights of the current shit show. U.S. citizens getting murdered. Others being abducted like we’re auditioning for a low-budget geopolitical thriller. The Orange Menace in the White House casually announcing—between rage posts and capitalization errors—that he is now, apparently, the de facto president of Venezuela. Because sure, why not. That’s how sovereignty works now: you just call dibs. And if that weren’t enough, there’s the ongoing, obsessive, toddler-at-Target fixation on acquiring Greenland. Not for science. Not for diplomacy. Just vibes. Big “I saw it on a map and want it” energy.

It’s exhausting. It’s absurd. It’s dangerous. And it’s all happening at a volume so loud and constant that it’s become background noise—like a smoke alarm we’ve collectively decided to ignore because, technically, the house hasn’t fully collapsed yet.

But here’s where I cling—white-knuckled—to the idea that something good might come out of this mess.

Maybe, just maybe, people are finally waking up.

Because it turns out that “bad government” isn’t some abstract civics-class concept you can shrug off with “well, politics doesn’t affect me.” Bad government doesn’t stay politely contained in C-SPAN hearings and talking-head panels. It shows up in real bodies, real borders, real lives disrupted or ended. It shows up when chaos becomes policy and cruelty becomes branding.

And suddenly, that smug little comfort phrase—it doesn’t affect me—starts aging like milk.

Good government, on the other hand, is boring in the best possible way. It fixes roads. It prevents wars instead of inventing them. It treats human lives like something more than expendable props in a strongman fantasy. It doesn’t make the entire planet wake up every morning wondering what unhinged announcement is coming next.

Bad government makes everyone’s life miserable. Not just “those people.” Not just someone else’s kid. Everyone. Markets jitter. Allies recoil. Laws bend until they snap. And the rest of us are left standing there, staring at the wreckage, being told this is actually strength.

So yes—through the murders, the abductions, the delusions of imperial grandeur, and the international hostage-taking masquerading as leadership—I am choosing to hope. Not because things are fine (they very much are not), but because the mask is finally off.

This isn’t theoretical anymore. This isn’t partisan sport. This is the cost of incompetence, ego, and authoritarian cosplay playing out in real time.

If there is any good news at all, I hope it’s this: that enough people finally understand that government matters. That competence matters. That decency matters. And that shrugging while everything burns is not neutrality—it’s surrender.

Let this be a wake-up call. Because the snooze button has already cost us enough.