My kingdom for an optimistic rating, but time will tell, wouldn't it? And 2022 isn't that far off.
Its not optimistic, so much as looking at the parts and fitting them together. The real question is "How much movement has occurred", and that question is not yet answerable. There's a clear conflict raging in both of the current parties, but the Republican side has a clear leader whereas the Democrats do not. But for actual change, it all hinges on 2022.
The Democrats, so far at least, have failed to 'refortify' the election, and Republicans, so far, have stripped out a lot of the shit that gave Democrats an edge while the Democrats themselves have provided ample reason to not fucking help them. So the question is, what will the results of the election mean?
I could run through about a dozen possibilities, give them accompanied probabilities, and do a far, far too long post. But instead, I can summarize it up to the two most likely results.
1: Things go bad, the Trumpian populists don't have the momentum to really push through. They either get meager gains or worse lose seats. The RINOs use this to pivot, push out Trump entirely, and try to simply turtle in their states. Things continue as they were, everything goes to hell, goodbye America.
2: Things go good, the Trumpian populists prove to have a mandate. They gain small but key wins or better yet manage to sweep both the House and Senate. RINOs put on suicide watch as it gives full license to begin some purges of the populists own, States see it as fair game to begin implementing their own voting laws now that they have a mandate.
Either one is about equally as likely going off current information, hence why I reject the idea this is optimism. 2022 is going to be a coin flip on the fate of the country.
This is why my profession has high alcoholism rates.