We — media, voters and lawmakers alike — do not seem to really get it. We obsess on questions — Will Biden’s slumping approval rating hinder his re-election? Is Vice President Harris feeling slighted? Can Liz Cheney keep her seat? — that feel like normal, that feel like 1987 or 2005 and, thus, that feel disconnected from the urgency of this strange and critical moment in our history. We need to stop treating this like it’s normal. Normal is the last thing it is.

Welcome to “shovel-ready 2.0” and another swindle that has just been perpetrated on us in the name of “infrastructure.” Swindle means “to obtain by fraud or deceit.” The administration and congressional Democrats claim the bill will cost us nothing. That’s because they have used accounting gimmicks and rely on money they hope will come in through tax increases. Won’t that cost something?

As it happens, they exemplify the contemporary Democratic Party’s electoral deficiencies, while bringing their own flagrant personal political weaknesses to the equation.

As for the price of turkeys, who’s panicking, other than certain media desperate for a hot headline during the mid-November doldrums? No need to panic. Black Friday is right around the corner, and as national obsessions go, shoppers-gone-wild are hard to beat.

As we near our annual orgy of grace and gluttony, we have a lot for which to be thankful. Most of all, I’m grateful for communities that keep on keeping on through it all.