Did you know there’s a whole array of coffee mugs on sale that purport to be holders of “liberal tears?”

I write this because I’m still hearing from friends and reading social media posts about how terrible life will be following last week’s election debacle.

With every transition announcement from Trump, every absolutely despicable person picked to help him run the country, there’s more caterwauling. More angst. More agitated talk about how this country is lost, how you don’t know how you’re going to make it to 2029 and how you need to think about the country to which you’re going to flee.

Stop it already.

Yeah, this sucks. A lot. All the horrible things we thought about prior to November 5 seem to be materializing. 

It might actually be worse – I didn’t have suspected pedophile and Botox frequent-sticker Matt Gaetz as an attorney general possibility. The biggest disappointment is that my imagination didn’t meet the moment.

But lamenting ain’t helpful. 

The most important reason is that one of the reasons some of these people voted to bring this felon back into our lives is, frankly, that he pisses us off. For some reason, their life gains meeting when they make people they don’t like angry.

I mean, I’ve always thought the rationale for being in politics was to get others to sign on to what you believe. In 1984, Ronald Reagan won a landslide re-election, carrying all but one state and Washington, D.C. One of his supporters, Rep. Jack Kemp, went on TV and said he wanted the administration to work to get D.C.’s support, too.

And the election mandate Trump claims isn’t close to Reagan’s.

If you put 1,000 people in a room and then divided that room into people who voted for him and people who didn’t, you probably wouldn’t be able to tell at a quick glance which side was which. In that room, as of now, 502 people would have voted for Trump, 498 would have voted for Kamala Harris or someone else.

So the idea should be to get more of those 498 people to support you, to make your agenda more popular.

That’s not their idea. They’re playing into the idea that their base is the only thing that matters. 

But they won because people weren’t happy with our side. I’m not sure that was justified, but it is what it is – and we have to fix it. That’s how democracy flourishes.

They’re doubling down on the crazy. Not to do best by the American people. But to piss off the people who don’t support them.

They want you upset. They want you scared. They want you in despair.

Don’t give them what they want.

First, keep in mind that we are enjoying the final 65 or so days of the Biden administration. One of the best presidencies in our lifetime, maybe in American history.

Enjoy the strongest economy in the world as we celebrate the 2024 holiday season. Gather with your friends and family. Play in the snow or find the warm sun and bask in it.

Agonizing over the Trump administration can start at noon EST on January 20, 2025. Until then, Trump’s just a convicted felon and 4-time bankruptee. Why waste the time leading up to it in pain?

Second, the 65 days will give you time to figure out how best to make Trump’s presidency as difficult for him as possible.

Donate to the groups that will be in the front lines of fighting him. My first choices are ProPublica, the public interest news organization, and the Brennan Center for Justice. Donate. Find out what they stand for. Find other groups working on issues close to your heart: gun violence, women’s bodily autonomy, protecting migrants, and so on.

Thirdly, don’t be miserable.

They want that. They want, as they say, to drink liberal tears. 

Keep them thirsty. Challenge them. Confront them. Do whatever you can to frustrate their worst impulses.

As I said, we’ll figure this out. We’re the good guys. Let them bask in their cruelty and pettiness.

The MAGA folks hate the expression “We’ve got this.” It implies a “we” that works for the common good.

Yup. 

We’ve got this.