It’s been the better part of ten days since a New York jury found Donald Trump guilty on 34 out of 34 criminal counts.

The reaction in the aftermath has been exquisitely predictable. Too many Democratic partisans responded with unbecoming glee. On the other side, Trump acolytes, either convinced of his virtue despite all contrary evidence or long ago cowed into submission, took to the figurative barricades.

So much of modern politics is a mindless race to one’s respective corners. These days since the historic verdict have been but the latest exhibit of that sad trend.

From one camp, we have heard much talk of the “rule of law.” Except that those now singing that tune were somewhat less enamored with that rule following the Dobbs decision.

Those on the other flank were newly screaming about the abuse of process and norms. Yet this was coming from many folks who managed to excuse away the gruesome transgression of Jan. 6.

For hardcore believers on both poles, principles these days are, shall we say, rather elastic. The prevailing ethic, if there is one at all, is situational.

The question in all circles has centered on whether the verdict matters politically and if so, how. Color me dubious that it will be definitional or decisive when November rolls around five months from now.

With Trump, so much of the sleaze, provocation and outrageous conduct is already baked into the equation. It was not exactly a revelation that he cheated on his wives, and probably on his mistresses, too. Nor was it new news that he employed fixers or used under-the-table money to buy his way out of messes.

Did voters really come away from the breathless trial coverage with new information as to Trump’s core being? Did someone just emerge from a cave to learn that the former president is several shades beyond a cad?

Or when that jury foreman stood up and pronounced “guilty” time after time, was some line of acceptability finally breached after it had withstood “grabbing them”, disparaging American prisoners of war, insulting Gold Star families and blowing kisses to dictators the world over?

Idolaters and stooges being who they are, the Trump campaign reportedly raised $52.8 million in the 24 hours following the verdict. So much for the quaint notion that crime doesn’t pay.

That said, let me offer some words of caution here before Democrats get carried away with the high-fives and talk of some imaginary Biden comeback. Hope is most often an ineffective political strategy.

Quick-reaction polls mean very little. Better to wait a number of weeks for the news to settle in and then gauge whether the verdicts altered the race in an appreciable way.

Moreover, for all the hype they receive, national polls are essentially meaningless. Trump’s numbers in Colorado are about as relevant as Joe Biden’s popularity in Arkansas. Show me whether this has moved the meter in Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, and you will have my attention.

Add in the fact that Trump under-polled his actual election day performance in both 2016 and 2020. There will always be a fraction of voters who pull the Trump lever without admitting so publicly.

My surmise is that Biden is an even shot at best for reelection. His margin for error is essentially zero. If he loses any of those three Rust Belt behemoths, his second term hopes likely to evaporate.

Biden’s biggest challenge might be the notable enthusiasm gap. I encounter plenty of voters who say they “have to” vote for Biden but have yet to encounter a single voter declare that they “want to” vote for him much less are excited to do so.

It has been evident for some time that a vast chunk of the country has tuned Biden out. A hardened judgment has been reached that he is past his sell-by date.

In 2020, Biden was the safe, level-headed choice after four years of White House chaos. Even with that advantage, it took days to confirm his narrow victory.

In the present tense, given his age and the public sense of his capabilities to go along with discontent when it comes to inflation, crime, border control and overseas wars, Biden no longer wins that security and confidence test.

Just as Biden’s reelection campaign is a white-knuckle affair, voters perceive a second term would be even more so. Add to that within days of the Trump verdict, it shifted to Hunter Biden’s turn in the criminal dock.

Voters desperately crave something new and different, not Biden’s slow decline and not Trump’s “Unified Reich.” How else to explain the appeal of Robert Kennedy, Jr, brain worms and all?

Sadly, the GOP remains in Trump’s crazed grip. Their day of reckoning awaits.

Though summer is now upon us, Democrats still have the chance to change course. Biden’s re-nomination is only foregone or fated if the party makes it so.

Imagine how Democrats could change the narrative and capture the focus were Biden to become a generational bridge, per his pledge, and will his party a monthlong contest, culminating at the Chicago convention, among a very ample bench of next-generation talent.

Then further conceive of how such a fresh face unburdened by the past eight years, neither frail Joe Biden nor convicted Donald Trump, might fare in November.

After the revolt of 2016, the pushback of 2020 and the upheaval of the entire span, the country is hungry for a healing restart. The Republican Party, clearly, is not so inclined. Is there still a chance that Democrats might rise and meet the moment?

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A postscript note this week: On the subject of partisan foolishness, a huge, juicy, rotten tomato goes to those local Democratic Party interests, operating under the banner of Rocky Mountain Values PAC, for interfering in the Republican primary in Congressional District 3 with some lame effort to boost election-denying extremist Ron Hanks.

We saw such supremely cynical adventurism two years ago, shook our heads and hoped that left-leaning money-types had learned their lesson. How do you credibly claim that American democracy is at perilous risk at the same time you engage in gamesmanship to promote its worst actors?

For shame.

Eric Sondermann is a Colorado-based independent political commentator. He writes regularly for ColoradoPolitics and the Gazette newspapers. Reach him at EWS@EricSondermann.com; follow him at @EricSondermann