Americans stuck in climate-induced traffic hell like some kind of lousy metaphor for something

Thousands of commuters, holiday travelers, and at least one former Vice Presidential candidate found themselves stranded overnight in their vehicles on an icy, snow-covered Virginia highway due to hellish traffic logjams stemming from nightmare weather, as if it all were some vague, heavy-handed metaphor for any number of pressing societal and environmental issues threatening society these days.

Seriously, take your pick: Americans’ dependency on personal car ownership, overall lack of national infrastructure funding, climate change crises, Tim Kaine’s continuing bad luck. It all meshes with the images we’ve seen of the unfortunate people growing increasingly concerned, cold, and pissed off while holed up in their Toyota Camrys and Subaru Foresters waiting for any kind of help or logistical resolution to the situation.

NBC News correspondent Josh Lederman essentially live-tweeted his entire 11-hour ordeal last night, during which time he witnessed multiple stalled vehicles, broken down tractor trailers, and people walking their pets between cars for bathroom breaks. Lederman himself was at one point forced to melt roadside snow for his own pup caught in the crisis.

U.S. Senator, former Vice Presidential nominee, and professional embarrassing dad Tim Kaine was also among those twiddling their thumbs from behind their steering wheels. Senator Kaine spent at least 21 hours at a standstill, with his last tweet earlier this morning seeming to indicate he still hasn’t made much progress.

C’mon, universe. Hasn’t Tim Kaine suffered enough already? Cut the guy some slack. He seems like a nice guy, all things told, and if he’s left waiting on the road much longer he could start subjecting neighboring victims to sad, lonely harmonica solos.

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