Did you ever think you would live to see this day?...

[Locut0s]

Did you ever think you would live to see the day when the very foundations of american democracy would be thrown into question? I'm not arguing that America has lost its democracy yet, although I know there are those who are willing to say so. However I do think that, certainly for the first time in my own life, questions about the stability of America's democracy have seriously arisen. And for the first time we are no longer talking about the odorous whiff of something suspected to be rotten. America has had plenty of presidential scandals in its history, everything from the legality of actions carried out by the presidency, to whole Wars fought on questionable or even false information. I'm not one to paint a falsely rosy picture of America's past actions carried out under previous administrations. A lot of damage has been done by previous administrations, wars fought, lives lost, countless trillions wasted. But never in the past, during my life time, has so much rot infested every corner of an administration. It's true that many question whether Bush legitimately won the 2000 election as well. However even in that instance the actions that led to Bush's victory, even if they were underhanded, at least involved pulling the levers within the American system of governance and the justice system.

This time it's different. This time we can say the sentence "the election has been influenced by international tampering, espionage, to favour one candidate over another". Read that sentence again. Let it sink in. Did you ever think you would live to see a time when that sentence not only would be the truth in America, BUT that even more worrisome, it seems that the result is largely going to be a form of apathetic resignation. Certainly America has been through worse, 500,000+ died in the American civil war which literally tore the country in two. To be honest though, I feel we have to go that far back before we encounter times as uncertain as today. The incoming administration is nothing but a cavalcade of thugs, crass and crude entertainers, shifty tycoons, racist wing nuts and air headed buffoons. And that's not counting all of each of their train of YES men and women lapping at their feet. These are truly waters America has never been in before.

[LonePirate]

1. I'm more concerned about large swaths of America not caring about the trouble we're in.

I put the blame squarely at the feet of the ignorant people supporting Republicans because of god, guns and gays.

[pangaia]

3. That is exactly it.

[putitinD]

7. +1000

[Docreed2003]

10. Spot on!

[no_hypocrisy]

11. Meaning that we could have kept our democracy as long as we

went to Church, oppressed and persecuted gays and lesbians, and could use guns to threaten anyone we didn't like.

[LonePirate]

12. We could overcome the troubles our democracy faces were it not for Christianity and Repubs.

[Boomerproud]

18. Your point is 100% right on.

None of this would be happening if the majority of people cared. Come January 20th I fear it will be too late.

[raccoon]

26. You got that right. nt

[BadgerMom]

2. No

This is surreal.

[True Dough]

4. It really is

Almost every time I see Don the Con on my TV screen, I just shake my head at the thought of a man-child in the Oval Office.

BTW, welcome to the DU, BadgerMom.

[BadgerMom]

22. Thanks

I joined in Oct. 2012. I must've been worried about Obama at the time Would all be well? Would he beat Romney? After he did, I didn't visit often. Now it's like group therapy. It's the only site I frequent where opinions close to mine are expressed. Thank god.

I'm glad we're here.

[True Dough]

36. My mistake

I saw you had a dozen posts and assumed you were new here. Sorry about that.

Obama did prevail back in 2012, of course, but he was hogtied by the damn Republicans and only able to achieve a fraction of his agenda, much of it by executive order. I have great admiration for the man and what he accomplished despite the constant obstruction, but I also wonder what could have been...

[Rex]

5. Yes, after we stumbled as a nation over 2000.

Had no idea when, but knew we would pay for not having fair elections.

[susanna]

17. I am with you.

When nothing fundamentally changed after that debacle, I knew it was coming. I just hoped we had more time and more faithful public servants to change the tide.

I was denied that, as was the entire country.

[brush]

31. You're right. Obama's win in '08 wasn't close enough for them to steal. Rove tried in '12 but failed

Now we are hit with the failure to stop the cheating.

And frankly, much of the failure can be laid at the Democratic Party's feet. We paid scant attention.

We should now know that we have to mount a sustained, concerted effort to thwart Crosscheck, repug vote suppression, ID laws, easily tamper with no-paper trail voting machines, and the whole repug bag of dirty tricks.

That should be our priority now.

[Rex]

37. I know many don't want to go low, I can understand holding the high ground.

But we will have to fight dirty with the GOP. They just don't know how to do anything else but cheat, lie and steal.

[brush]

38. Yep. That's who they are. Wonder if it's a conservative brain characteristic?

[Rex]

39. I am biased, I will admit to it.

But living around a lot of conservatives in a small Texas town, I would say yes. I observe them to be very selfish and myopic. Don't know about crime part, but if I had to guess and said they had a proxy - I would say yes some would commit crimes.

[BainsBane]

6. I suppose I did

but I never imagined its demise would come this particular way.

[ffr]

8. Christianity. It above all else. If you're against them, you're against Christianity.

That has deep powerful meaning to them, which is why they see 66 million of their countryman, us, as a greater threat to America than they do a foreign KGB agent turned ruthless dictator. To them, he's their brother Christian on the block.

They don't really believe that that dictator who has murdered his own countryman has a purpose behind his propaganda campaign to undermine American democracy and democracies around the world. They refuse to see that. So the fact that Putin wanted them and helped them feel good about voting for tRump as the worst possible outcome for America's future, is a failed connection they are unwilling to make.

They'll just turn Fox News up on the television to drown out all news to the contrary and pray America is made great again.

[Tatiana]

9. No.

This is pretty hard to take.

[elleng]

13. Of course not; we're SPECIAL, right?

[Solly Mack]

15. I'm not surprised by it.

[Guilded Lilly]

16. I'm terrified and angry. The two emotions battle it out in my brain..

until I am numb. Never would I have believed in a million years that Russia would be all cozy in a twin bed with a President. And in fact, may own the President...

Russia.

Russia.

The misogyny and hate, bigotry and lies, somehow one can almost wrap their brain around that. But the embracing and coddling and acceptance of a foreign enemy...out and out treason.
Simply beyond comprehension.
I didn't think there could possible be anything more to abhor about Republicans and extremist conservatives.

But there is.

[Idoru]

19. Yes, this

Or that the Republicans, of whom I did not think it was capable of going any lower, would embrace it. Republicans for Russia. After a lifetime of hearing the left called "commies".

It's more than that, even. It's everything at once, like you literally can't think of another angle that isn't corrupted or desicrated by this coming administration or the Democrats put in a more powerless position. Not that they are burning the house down to stop it, either, this time it's really us against them. And the potential for true failure of this whole democracy experiment is really a possibility.

[brush]

32. Yes! My feelings as well. A generation of hate radio and FOX has somehow turned what was once ...

the staunchly anti-Russia/soviet, family values party into Putin schmoozers and crotch-grabber justifiers.

[Crunchy Frog]

20. Yes.

I think I first saw the writing on the wall in 2003.

[burrowowl]

21. Yes, I remember McCarthy, was young 6 years old

then Raygun started the downward spiral, etc.
I am not surprised and I am scared.

[struggle4progress]

23. I stopped believing in our national mythology nearly fifty years ago

and ever since then I've considered it a distinct possibility that I might someday be beaten to death in an American concentration camp by American fascists

This originally plunged me into a deep depression but later I learned that was childish and self-indulgent

America has always been a work-in-progress: we need our ideals but we also need the willingness to make a never-ending effort to put them into practice

Old-fashioned organizing works -- so we have a moral obligation to engage in it

[handmade34]

28. thank you for the music

[Raine]

24. After seeing a lousy hack senile actor like Raygun elected to be governor then president

not much has suprised me since, not even Trump. I KNEW if Raygun could get elected twice ANYONE could.

[Hekate]

25. Never in my long life; only in science fiction, as a theoretical possibility, not in actuality.

[Cha]

27. Nope, did not see it coming.

[Vinca]

29. No.

There is only one truly happy person in this country: Dubya. We'll now look back on his tenure as the good old days.

[KingCharlemagne]

40. The capitalist swine are laughing up their sleeves at the hapless

rubes who voted for this piece of shit. Even AA and Latino 1%-ers dont give a shit, as long as they can just keep getting richer.

[Paladin]

30. No, like most people, I figured Hillary would prevail.

I have no illusions about Trump, however. The guy has got no second act: he's never going to grow up, he's never going to learn anything, he's never going to improve. The way he is now is the way he's always going to be. It's up to us to take our country back, from him and the idiots who put him in office.

[Guilded Lilly]

34. I think even the Cretin thought Hillary would prevail.

And he is totally out of his mind clueless and ignorant about the scope of the danger we are in and how our standing in the world has been instantly shattered. A blithering megalomaniac narcissist blowhard OAF will be sworn in as leader of the free worlds most powerful nation.

And there is not one mature, intelligent Republican in Congress who knows how to cope with the sudden power they have to destroy the Republic except to spew continued hate and blatant revenge against the man they have obstructed relentlessly and without a shred of decency for 8 years. Devoid of character. The Neener-Neener Party of self-congratulatory inhumanity.

Rubbing their hands in ignorant, classless glee. The lethal stupidity is beyond comprehension.

I walk around trying to act relatively normal and focused but I am always two seconds away from throwing up.

I want desperately to believe we CAN take it back.
I'm under no delusions about the massive struggles and serious problems we have fought within our nation since its founding. Nothing has been easy or particularly pleasant to progress and grow forward.

But this.

This is a giant shovel repeatedly smashed to the face, brain and soul. I'm stubborn and can be civilly defiant, but I am aging...and wearing out!

[Paladin]

35. Oh, I think it's painfully obvious that he expected to lose.

Did you see his face while he was meeting with Obama in the White House for the first time? Talk about a frantic deer-in-the-headlights look....

And Lilly, I'm old and tired, as well. But I think we old timers have a better perspective on just what's at stake, here. Our nation was once led by John F. Kennedy, and now we're facing the unspeakable threat of someone like Trump. We have to stay angry, stay motivated, call up additional reservoirs of strength, and reclaim our country.

[sinkingfeeling]

33. No. This is the dismantling of the US of A.