What do you have to lose?

So much. We have lost so much. And there doesn’t seem to be an end in sight to the losing.

As a campaign frame, asking for your vote by asking what do you have to lose is what a snake oil salesman goes with. Or in this case, Donald J. Trump. Our very own P.T. Barnum, charlatan, main character in his theater of the absurd. Think a washed up reality show personality has what it takes to lead the free world? Are you better off than you were four years ago?

There’s a painfully simplistic view of politics we Americans take. We love that question. Better off now, four years in, then we were then. The mark of progress, or something like that. So let’s answer it. Are you better off now, staring down a global pandemic with a terrible government ill prepared and unequipped to lead us out this?

Donald Trump is a conman of the first order. America’s worst person. As he remains in the position of president, at least for now, best to keep in mind all the hugs, weddings, graduations, funerals, sports matches, retirement savings, dinners and movies, pool days, live shows, workweeks, and vacations that we all have lost. Not to mention all the lives and jobs that aren’t ever coming back.

This is your current moment, America. A dark one. Let’s hope we come to grips with it and change course before it’s too late.