Westneat: 5 reasons not to freak out

And another: “I’m starting to get a bad feeling. I don’t know if I’m having flashbacks to 2016? I’m starting to freak out a little.”

Now these are obviously more liberal readers. This is Seattle, after all. But increasingly I find that people are expressing a shared fear of what’s ahead, almost as if they want to be talked off the ledge.

So in the spirit of ringing in the new year, here’s my case for why 2024 won’t be as perilous as many are fearing.

No. 1

Yes, Joe Biden has low approval ratings. (And yes he’s really old.) But Trump is nowhere near as formidable a threat as he brags he is. In fact he’s historically weak.

When Trump was elected in 2016, he won just 46.2 percent of the vote. When he ran again as an incumbent in 2020, he won 46.8 percent. Stare at those two numbers for a while. See how similar they are? That’s Trump’s ceiling right there, likely the most he’s ever going to get.

And those were Trump’s vote totals before he tried his bumbling coup.

No. 2

Election denialism is a proven loser.

Every time a candidate has come before mainstream voters preaching Trump’s dangerous nonsense that the 2020 election was stolen, they’ve lost. By mainstream, I mean in larger elections, not small districts. Election deniers just lose, lose, lose, from Arizona to Pennsylvania to Southwest Washington’s 3rd Congressional District.

Also, any time Trump’s fixers or sycophants in the Big Lie scam or the fake elector scheme have gone before a jury or a judge, they have lost. Every single time. That’s the quiet engines of democracy, pushing back. People should be reassured by this, not freaked out.

No. 3

Taking away civil rights is also a historic loser. The stripping of a constitutional right for the first time in our lifetimes, with the loss of abortion rights, has upended American politics. As it should. It’s toxic even in red states. This will be the first presidential election since that happened, and it makes for terrible political terrain for the right. Especially for Trump, as he’s the one who did it.

No. 4

The local GOP may be starting to edge away from Trump. The party is apparently about to nominate an anti-Trumper for governor, Dave Reichert. He once called Trump a “joke,” and another time said if he was still sheriff, he’d arrest him. This is a desperately needed development, as the crumbling of the Trump cult, if it happens at all, must start from within.

No. 5

Finally, there’s the chicken or fish rule of politics. One of our editors loves to expound on this: How politics lives in a fantasy world of endless smorgasbord possibilities for much of the year. We could be having rabbit wonton or maybe a lamb chop with tzatziki. Why can’t we get seared venison steak?

But when it comes time to actually vote, there are only two items of substance on the menu: the chicken or the fish. You could go hungry — not vote. But if you want to eat at the trough of democracy, those are your choices. And if the fish happens to be so contaminated it will poison the body politic, you’ll take the chicken. Even stale chicken.

So Happy New Year everyone!

OK, I never promised 2024 would be tasty. I just think in the end, after all the freaking out, democracy’s got this.

And as always, as you’re mulling your 2024 choices — spoiler alert, it’s the same as last time, chicken or fish — please recall the dining advice of noted food critic Winston Churchill: “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe …democracy is the worst form, except for all the others.”