Today is a tense day of waiting, as Americans vote and then we all experience another unpredictable night of counting, results and who the hell knows what from President Trump. I have many thoughts that are preventing me from focusing on anything else, but these two ideas are most prominent.

First is that this country, and in turn the world, has experienced quite a trauma the last two years, and today is an opportunity for some catharsis. It’s difficult to process all of that has happened in the last 24 months: the caving DEI denying law firms and universities, whatever that bullshit DOGE was up to, the illegal tariffs that Trump somehow is still enforcing, the murderous madness of ICE, the political weaponization of the Department of Justice, the near-abandonment of NATO, Trump’s embrace of Likkud Party foreign policy, the pointless war in Iran, the Oligarchy’s takeover of the economy, all the stupid monuments to himself Trump is building and on and on and on.

But my second thought is that, if only Trump had been slightly more sensible and avoided the Iran War and the tariffs, things might have turned out fine for him today. The American people are deeply upset with the President, but mostly because of high gas and grocery prices, which were entirely avoidable. For the most part, they are not repudiating him for the authoritarian overreach.

So I feel great empathy for my fellow Americans for where we are right now. It feels like this country is disintegrating and our democratic experiment is at risk. We have a chance to restore some hope today. But make no mistake, we are here because a plurality of this country willed it to happen.

Redeeming ourselves will not happen overnight. Repudiating Trump isn’t enough, especially when the reason is purely a matter of dollars and cents. If the economy were stronger right now, the American people might be fine with the executive overreach, the mass deportations, the cruel cuts to humanitarian programs and the abandonment of international law. And no matter what happens tonight, our future is still mostly in the hands of psychopathic billionaires like Peter Thiel.

The Democrats have an opportunity to demonstrate some sense to the American people and prove that they are more than a vehicle for identity politics and upper middle class values. If they win big enough today, they could even set the stage for genuine political success after the 2028 elections.

Still, the state of the world remains perilous, and Donald Trump will have two years in power to rule by executive order and foreign policy chaos. The odds have never been against the United States in our 250 year history, but I’m not sure that’s true anymore.

There are so many ways things could go very badly before there’s an opportunity to see blue skies again.