Feel apprehension and despair about the next 4 years?

[Ron Green]

Turn off your TV. Get outside and talk to your neighbors. Watch this guy's TED Talk:

&sns=em Seriously, take 18 minutes to watch this, then come back here and try to engage in the mewling about how doomed we are.

The fact is that the stuff that happens inside the Beltway has almost nothing to do with how authentically we live our lives.

Yeah, the cowards in the Congress are going to do what they've been doing for the past many years, but you and your neighbors and your friends and your people have the power to build a better world right where you are.

[Canoe52]

1. I did, but then remembered we out number them

by at least 3 million.

Now we have many groups popping up to oppose these idiots. I added three to my Facebook page just yesterday.

Look at what the tea party did, they were a small minority and not even a grassroots organization, started and funded by big money.

We are truly a grassroots MAJORITY, pissed off and ready to do something.

[Behind the Aegis]

2. Sure OK.

Great if you aren't a woman or gay. Anti-gay bills are popping up, almost daily, throughout the US. Then there are the attacks on Planned Parenthood. Do I really need to mention issues revolving around those who are immigrants or POC?

I am OK with people trying to make their neighborhoods better. Good for them. But, don't think some "neighborhood" building is the only thing that affects our lives and that being afraid of what is coming is "mewling". How fucking insulting!

[handmade34]

3. "the stuff that happens inside the Beltway...

has almost nothing to do with how authentically we live our lives" maybe not 'authentically' but practically, yes... what happens inside the Beltway has everything to do with how we live our lives... our laws, our taxes, our social programs, how the environment is cared for (or not), etc.... "we are a Nation of laws" and those laws matter

[mdbl]

4. infectious enthusiasm can manifest in many ways

He could become a great tv preacher, or a pawn for someone like Trump or this do nothing congress to use as an example to shirk their responsibility to the public that put them there. "See, you don't need any government!' blah blah blah But he's a good diversion away from the widespread thievery of our democracy.

[hlthe2b]

5. I have always dealt with great stress and grief with lots of walking and I don't talk politics with

neighbors, colleagues, or most family.

That said, I know which neighbors hung Trump/Pence banners and I remember having to walk the gauntlet when trump supporters were screaming at Hillary supporters on opposite sides of the intersection that my dog and I are required to walk through to get home from the dog park. I remember that glass bottle thrown from the Trump side of the street that whizzed by my sweet doggy's head, leaving the sweetest, most unquestioning friendly dog terrified and skittish and only now starting to get past it... She still gets upset when loud voices emerge from tv shows.

I can forgive a lot, but that has left a lasting mark. Talk to these people? Ummm, no.

Maybe time will help, but given I can't know for sure who among my neighbors was taken in by this outright fascist, I am very reluctant to engage-- other than on the most generic and impersonal level.

[Ron Green]

6. That's a very sad and toxic place you're describing.

These are neighbors, and that's very sad. Their TV has not helped them at all.

[hlthe2b]

7. Yet my locale & the state as a whole DID go for HRC

Still, (and though illegal, a main thoroughfare adjacent to ballot drop off point was littered with Trump signs on Election Day. It was infuriating.

[Ron Green]

8. I imagine there was much of this around the country,

fueled by the TV entertainment masquerading as politics. Perhaps when Trump's voters realize America's greatness has nothing to do with Trump or his words, and everything to do with local peace and tolerance, they can get down to the business of living.

[hatrack]

9. Mmmmm, delicious Hopium! And it's cut with a dash of both-sidesism!

"The fact is that the stuff that happens inside the Beltway has almost nothing to do with how authentically we live our lives."

Now, delete one word, and see how it reads:

"The fact is that the stuff that happens inside the Beltway has almost nothing to do with how ( authentically ) we live our lives."

Hmm, that doesn't seem right . . .

[Ron Green]

11. Calling community activism "hopium?"

The things he's talking about are what work to make places more connected, inclusive and prosperous. What we're getting on TV (and from much of DU, I fear) is a 50-50 split of a country that's in reality lots of neighbors who don't really know each other.

[hatrack]

12. Arguing that more and better block parties will negate corruption, war, racism and repression -

That's what I'd call hopium.

[Ron Green]

13. It's not "block parties," it's development.

And the way to rid ourselves of those things you listed is to connect.

What are you doing in your town to help?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

10. Dude talks way too fast.

I couldn't even concentrate on whatever he was talking about because he was just going a mile a minute like he was on some sort of coke binge.