It’s up to Pelosi, Schumer and the congressional dems to keep making the case that Trump, his corrupt cronies and his disastrous know-nothing policies are making people’s lives worse.

It’s the same fight that is going on with Trump’s butt-buddy, Vlad Putin in Russia. My friends there refer to it as “an argument between the TV and the refrigerator.” As in, the Putin-controlled TV stations tell them everything is fine, couldn’t be better, WINNING, DUH! …

… but the empty fridge tells them that they are hungry, their job is shit and the country is going to hell in a handbasket.

And so how can we square the difference between Russia’s objective reality with the optimism of its people? Which is the real Russia? In many respects, they both are. The way people feel about their standard of living is often as important as the reality of their “objective” conditions. If a person is afraid to walk the streets at night, it can be as debilitating to their quality of life as living in a high-crime area even if, in reality, crime rates are low. The perception of a problem (however unfounded) can be as crippling as the reality. In Russia, the opposite is true. Putin’s increasingly muscular approach to foreign policy — and his effective modern-day propaganda machine — diverts Russians’ attention from their deteriorating living standards.

But the wide gulf between perception and reality can only be sustained for so long.