[Coda]

Progress is slow. Progress has always been slow. The way the government of the United States is designed, progress is intentionally slow. The way the Constitution has built the US government is specifically designed to keep things stable -- no one wants to live in a country where they've got to wonder if the laws are going to completely change next year, and no one wants to live in a country where there's a risk that someone they don't like can seize power and change things for the worse. The Founding Fathers understood this and put a system in place with checks and balances, so that power is distributed across several groups that make sure the others all stay well-behaved and observe the common good.

Patience is a virtue.

And the same things that make you feel like progress is slow are also going to be the same things that will make all of the doom-and-gloom predictions probably not come true. The office of the President doesn't actually have the power to do some of the things that people are afraid of.

As for Trump in specific: I don't actually LIKE the man, and I didn't vote for him, but the fear about him is almost entirely manufactured. People have attributed a lot of policies to Trump's candidacy that he hasn't actually proposed. Assumptions are made based on things Trump said YEARS ago, not during his campaign. Worst-case scenarios are talked about without regard for the fact that real policy implementations HAVE to take such things into account or else the bills won't pass. And the things that MIGHT be legitimate fears have all of the negative aspects played up, and because bad news travels fast the clarifications and further discussion that would improve on the situation get overlooked.

Make no mistake: This is intentional. There has been a ludicrous amount of effort centered around making Trump look as villainously scary as possible.

So again, this brings me back to my core point: It's VITAL to look for the good things in the world, because people are innately biased to see bad things.