Fish, you are a seriously good dude. You should teach classes on how to behave on the internet. If more people handled themselves like you do we would be in a much better place. I think it's very cool that you almost always communicate civilly, even when your opinions are at odds with the people you're writing to.
And BTW, I was going insane while of that **** above went down. There were times that I might have reacted like Brett Kavanaugh when he was being questioned in the Ford hearing, but as much as possible I kept my anger hidden from those who could have used it to hurt me. At my lowest point I was experiencing horrifying schizophrenia because my brain was coming un-wired. Until you've experienced something like that you cannot imagine how terrifying it is. I was getting punished for good behavior while the woman and man who were actively working to destroy my life were getting rewarded for bad behavior. And my poor children were caught in the middle. It was super stressful and causing my mind to short-circuit out of control. I would have ended up living under a bridge if not for the support of amazing friends and family. It took such a toll. Both of my parents died during the course of this ordeal.
One of the most powerful coping mechanisms for me was repeating the mantra, "This too shall pass," over and over again when I was angry. My mom taught me to do that. She said that nothing ever lasts, whether it's good or bad. That is both fortunately, and unfortunately, true. And maybe that has a bit to do with my political outlook as well, though not for logical reasons. What I mean is that the Obama years were flat-out horrible to me, and the Trump years have been beyond spectacular (in both cases for reasons that have little if anything to do with the president).