Skylar’s 2021 naughty and nice lists!

I do this list every year, but this year I almost didn’t get to. 2021 is not ending on a particularly high note for me. Lots of illness and death in my family and, indeed, all around us. COVID is still raging. The economy is improving, but inflation is making it hard to notice. And there’s the ever-present threat of far-right violence. Merry Christmas.

Still, this list is a tradition so I felt like publishing it — even last minute — might help put me in the festive spirit. And it has. Reflecting on the good in this world (that’s the nice list) has reminded me that there are some real angels around us. The naughty may have the upper-hand right now, but they won’t always.

So peace on earth, goodwill to men, yada yada yada. Here’s my naughty and nice list — 2021.

5. Joe Manchin

I’m used to being disappointed because Republicans block progressive legislation. But for a Democrat to stand in the way of progress is truly a new low for American politics. Joe Manchin — the scion of West Virginia gentry who made millions of his own in the coal industry and famously referred to West Virginia not as the Mountain State, but as the Extraction State — represents everything that is wrong with American politics: big money, small minds, old boys.