Do you get a knot in your stomach when President Biden is blamed for the lack of movement in the Congress? Yes, the buck stops at the top, but if you have a razor-thin majority, and two senators stand in the way of the other 48, for whatever reason, is it still President Biden’s fault?

If the Senate Minority Leader plays dirty tricks and legislation is stalled, is that the president’s fault? I haven’t forgotten that Sen. Mitch McConnell denied President Obama his constitutional right to select Supreme Court justices while pushing through President Trump’s choices even as we were voting to evict the former president.

If you are angry that bills aren’t being passed now, just imagine what will happen to the progressive agenda if Democrats lose the majority. Women are already in danger of losing reproductive rights. America is not as welcoming as it should be to refugees fleeing climate crises and civil wars. The legal system that insures we vet those coming in has been hollowed out by the previous administration, so even good intentions are hard to act on.

Truth is no longer a valued commodity in some quarters.

What happens to any progress we’ve made if a monarch wannabe and his boot-lickers are back in control?

Disaffected Democrats, stop the sass! If you want to vent, call your representatives. Tell them to get rid of the filibuster and the Electoral College, to address Citizens United and voting rights and the Equality Act. Tell them to protect Native sites from greedy players. Talk to them, but for goodness sakes, don’t stay home from the polls.

We can’t lose heart. Justice may be moving slowly, but it’s moving, and we will need every vote in every election, from the local to the national, to insure that it keeps moving in the right direction.