As difficult as this is to remember, 2021 began with a sense of political optimism in America, with Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election followed by the two surprise wins in the U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia. But the Democratic "trifecta" (White House, Senate and House) has delivered only limited results, and the drawn-out sabotage by Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema has left many frustrated, dispirited or disillusioned. But not everyone and not everywhere. In fact, that high-level betrayal has only motivated some people more.
Even as things grew darker, with the widespread assault on voting rights and the manufactured backlash over "critical race theory," the public simply doesn't believe that racism is just a Marxist hoax. In fact, most people understand that it's real, and support teaching actual history, even if that's not always comfortable. Even in deep-red Wyoming, an anti-CRT bill was voted down, after one of just seven Democrats in the state legislature called out its provision that "The teaching of history must be neutral, without judgment," saying, "I'm Jewish, and I cannot accept a neutral judgment-free approach on the murder of 6 million Jews in World War II."
