Utopianism is a centuries-old pursuit. And, in its defense, the pursuit of a utopia has yielded a steady crop of genuinely beneficial human achievements.

But I do think people mistake being young and naive with being on the cusp of a brighter future. As though US politics wasn't a clown-car full of bigots, sex-pests, and greedy fuckwits under Bush or Reagan or Nixon.

We are a nation that yearns for a New Deal but refuses to acknowledge the real possibility of a Great Depression past every horizon. We want another Lincoln to lead us, but are scared shitless of a new Civil War. We want to go at the Constitution with a Sharpie and an eye towards the 21st century, but we don't want to endure the Revolution that comes with it.