The media spent years pretending Trump could magically pardon his co-conspirators, consequence-free, at any time, even though nothing works that way. Now the media is pretending the GOP can magically filibuster, consequence-free, at any time. Nothing works that way. It gets old.

Every media pundit understands that there are always consequences to every move in politics. Yet they always frame the Republicans as being able to magically do anything they want, with no consequences, to try to scare/enrage you into staying tuned in.

"But the Republicans are indeed getting away with it all..." No they're not. They lost the Senate, the House, and the presidency. Their top leaders in the House are at each others' throats. They're out of power, adrift, losing donors. These are the consequences for their antics.

The catch is, it's just not the consequences you want. Because even as TV pundits convinced you that republicans were magically winning, liberal Twitter pundits convinced you that republicans could be defeated by imaginary simplistic magic wand solutions.

So now the pundits have spun you around to where you don't even realize your side won the election, you don't realize the Democrats are going be able to pass everything they want to pass, and you're pissed at Democratic leaders for imaginary reasons.

Nor are you able to recognize that the GOP is in the absolute worst and most vulnerable shape it's ever been in. Impeachment trial is a no-win for them. Greene's expulsion is a no-win for them. Decision on whether to cooperate on relief package is a no-win for them. On and on.

The only, and I mean ONLY, thing the republicans have going for them right now is that the TV pundits have convinced a bunch of liberals that the Democrats are somehow in a no-win situation, and liberal Twitter pundits are convincing liberals to turn against Democratic leaders.

But hey, the TV pundits have to hit their ratings marks to stay on the air, and the liberal Twitter pundits have to get their retweets, and they don't think they can get it from the GOP implosion alone. So they fall back on "Democrats in disarray." Please don't fall for it again.

Biden and Democrats will get all their legislation, all their nominees, everything. That's a done deal. The only real concern for them is whether Biden can keep his high approval rating while he and the Democrats ram everything through.

Approval rating is the only thing that ever matters in politics. Trump's was always low, so he lost the midterms, then he lost reelection. If we want to retain power and keep delivering progress, Biden's approval must remain high. It's that straightforward of a calculation.

But the pundits don't even want to talk about the question of whether Biden will still have his high approval rating after he gets everything he wants, because that would mean admitting he's going to get everything he wants. And they're still pretending there's doubt about that.

Some of you like to ask why it feels like I'm always three steps ahead. I'm really not. I'm just always on the current step. Most other pundits are focused on imaginary steps that don't even exist, because they think they can get more ratings out of imaginary controversy.