That was the week that was ...

Anyone else remember the satirical TV show?

Despite the surprise from the C.D.C., revoking the mask advice in the U.S., in most settings, for most vaccinated people, many of us found the past week disturbing.

Susan Glazer:

With Biden in the White House, many people have relished the chance to unplug from Donald Trump—and politics altogether—in recent months, secure in the knowledge that the new President will not tweet us into nuclear war. (“Fire and fury”!) Our late nights and early mornings and weekends are no longer shadowed by the ever-present uncertainty that was the Trump-era news cycle. 

For those of us who are still paying attention, however, there is a new worry, and it has to do with what Kevin McCarthy and House Republicans did this week. Trump, defeated and disgraced by the events of January 6th, might have disappeared as previous Presidents who lost reëlection did. But his Party’s continued embrace means that Trump will not fade slowly into the Mar-a-Lago sunset. “He’s going to unravel the democracy to come back into power,” Cheney told the “Today” show on Thursday. It is not over, not at all.

Or flat out terrifying, per Charles Blow:

Panic fatigue is real. I get it. 

Anger is exhausting. I get it. 

But what are your options? Acquiescence? Passivity? Ignoring the blare of the alarms because you have tired of the tension? 

The Republican Party as it is now positioned is no longer simply a part of our political system; it is a threat to our political system. The party has converted itself into the enemy within. 

The question is whether we’re too tired from the Trump years to see what is happening and mount an actual defense.

And a sensible comforting thought from Democratic  message guy Dan Pfeiffer: 

We all need to recognize that [democracy] is a marathon not a sprint and therefore checking in and out and/or saving up some energy for next year is totally appropriate and necessary ...