thunderbolt

The reaction resembles the thunderbolt that struck the U.S. aerospace community — and the government — in 1957, when the Soviet Union placed Sputnik in orbit while American rockets were still blowing up on their launchpads.

Trump also survived a gunshot that could have taken his life, and a little more than a week later absorbed another thunderbolt — President Biden’s departure from the race.

It sent a thunderbolt of fear down Asian and minority communities.

James Baldwin wrote thunderbolts of truth about American racism that changed the way people have understood and debated the issue since.

For me, it was a thunderbolt of thrill followed by pure abject terror that we might disappoint or “not have something good for her.”