Something I’m learning both in my personal ordeals and through the pandemic: Sometimes, things happen that completely redefine “normal”. The problem is, we as human beings are absolutely shit at figuring out when these things happen, and how to handle them. Our desire for comfort and status quo is so strong that we are willing to go to (sometimes literally) insane lengths to try to maintain them. In the case of the Republicans, it’s because their stranglehold on power in the “old normal” was so strong that they are terrified, now, that the “new normal” will bring about an end to the de facto oligarchy over which they have reigned for nearly 40 years. It’s going to be a long, drawn-out fight to establish that the “new normal” is, in fact, normal.