Have We All Had It?

Does America need a collective nap?

I’m Michael A. Cohen, and this is Truth and Consequences: A no-holds-barred look at the absurdities, hypocrisies, and surreality of American politics. If you were sent this email or are a free subscriber and would like to become a paid subscriber, you can sign up here.

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Earlier today, my girlfriend sent me a Substack post about “existence fatigue” that so accurately captured my current mindset I must quote it here.

At its core, existence fatigue is the shared feeling of burnout, overstimulation, and emotional exhaustion that builds up over the course of a year—and 2024 delivered it in spades. From global uncertainties to economic pressures, people aren’t just tired; they’re drained.

Maybe it’s this way every December — the combination of increasingly cold weather, the consumerist crush of the holidays, and the prospect of spending time with our extended families put us in the collective blender. But something about this year feels different — like we’re being pulled in so many different directions that it’s impossible to remain focused and present. Maybe we’re all just overstimulated, a by-product of those ubiquitous electronic devices that we seemingly can’t put down. Or, since this is nominally a newsletter about politics, perhaps it’s the impending doom of the Trump presidency, which is a bit like being forced to rewatch the worst movie you’ve ever seen again for four years straight.*

Nothing that’s happened in the six weeks since Election Day has given us any reason to believe that a second Trump presidency won’t be a complete disaster. Indeed, one can look at the shit show unfolding in Washington this week to see what awaits us.

To recap: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson negotiated a bipartisan deal with Democrats to keep the government open. Then Elon Musk started tweeting about how it was a terrible bill. Soon after, Trump came out against it, and pretty soon, House Republicans couldn't run away from it fast enough.

Then Johnson worked out a new deal with Republicans, which Trump endorsed. The GOP brought it to a vote in the House, and 38 Republicans voted against it, which killed its chances of passage. Now, we’re on the cusp of an almost certain government shutdown. It will undermine inaugural preparations if it lasts through the New Year. On January 3, the House is supposed to pick a new Speaker, and since, at present, it’s hard to see how Johnson gets enough votes to win the gavel, we might be looking at a protracted struggle to pick the new House leader (like we had two years ago). Meanwhile, President-elect Trump is musing about prosecuting members of the January 6 congressional commission; he’s suing a pollster who put out a pre-election poll he didn't like, and he is still the most broken and sad man in America.

All of this is yet another depressing reminder that the modern GOP is incapable of governing the country and that with them in power for at least the next two years, we’ll be pinballing from one governing crisis to another. If that doesn’t want to make you crawl under the covers and escape the world, I don’t know what else will. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but when it comes to politics, things aren’t getting better any time soon.

So if you feel like you’re at the end of your rope, like you’ve had enough, and want to leave society and join the mole people in splendid isolation, you’re not alone. It’s rough out there.

My advice is to take it easy over the next two weeks. Enjoy the holidays and step back from work … and don’t see any of the movies below.

*FWIW: my rankings for the worst three movies I’ve ever seen are 1) Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” 2) Lars Von Trier’s “Dancer in the Dark,” and 3) “Forrest Gump.”

I saw “Natural Born Killers” with my father, and we walked out of the theater speechless. When we got to the car, he turned to me and said, “What the hell was that shit”? To this day, I still can’t answer the question.

In my humble opinion, all Lars Von Trier movies should be set ablaze, but “Dancer in the Dark” stands out because of his heavy use of the Steadicam, which made me want to vomit for most of the movie. Don’t get me wrong, “Breaking the Waves” was also a dumpster fire, but there was less Steadicam. I’d have to write a longer post about “Forrest Gump,” but good god, I hated that movie.

(I’m leaving the comments open: tell me your worst three movies. I’m sure that I’m forgetting some real turkeys.

What’s Going On

• For MSNBC, I wrote about the true effects of a government shutdown and why it could have dire consequences ... just not for the plutocrats and cynical politicians pushing for it.

• The WSJ has published a blockbuster piece on how the White House kept Biden’s age-related slippage under wraps. My take is that there is a bit of cherry-picking going on here. One could point to examples of Biden struggling, but plenty of people interacted with the president — including Republicans — who thought he was fine. Remember the State of the Union, when Biden not only gave a rousing and fighting speech but was impromptu parrying with Republicans in a way that suggested he still had his marbles? Also, it was hard to argue that Biden’s decision-making suffered. He handled the debt limit showdown effectively, and the same with his response to October 7. If you go back earlier, one could say the same about the Ukraine war. In retrospect, it seems obvious that Biden’s decision to stay in the race was a mistake (everything is obvious in hindsight)— but in real-time, it wasn’t necessarily clear. There were enough conflicting signals that people around Biden could convince themselves that he could handle the rigors of a campaign.

• Killing the bipartisan deal worked out by Speaker Johnson means also killing hundreds of millions of dollars in research into childhood cancer.

• According to Ha’aretz, IDF soldiers are committing war crimes in Gaza, and military commanders are tacitly supporting it.

Musical Interlude