There are times when I wonder if I live in some kind of weird, alternate universe where the media only reports on one side of the news, where politicians care only about power and face and the concerns and needs of their constituents are long-forgotten memories. Then I wake up and realize that it is no alternate universe but the world in which we live. How else do you explain Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi declaring she will not agree to anything President Trump says—before he says it? How else do you explain media outlets like The Atlantic proudly trumpeting that the President is trapped by his own devices and is doomed to failure? How else do you explain a government shut-down that is now almost a month old?