I love this country very much

[WillyBrandt]

And if you'll spare me the conceit, I love it in a way that only a child of immigrants properly can.

And it pains me very much to see what this cruel, stupid gang running the show is doing to it. There are so very many great things about this nation; it has so much, in the way of achievement and potential and creativity and joy--and those who have commandeered its power are so low.

Sometimes it's outrage, but it's starting to devolve into a simple sullen pain.

[wtmusic]

1. Sullen pain is OK

if you can channel it into commitment :D

[freetobegay]

2. I agree with you 100%

I love this Country also & I want to cry when i see whats being done to it.

[wryter2000]

4. Exactly

The last creep who accused liberals of hating America got a verbal whipping from me. They're the ones ruining this country. I can't stand to see what they're doing to the land of Washington, Jefferson, et al.

[roguevalley]

3. I agree. This just can't last. That's how I console myself.

[MoonRiver]

5. That kind of pain is also known as depression.

We're becoming a sad and depressed nation. My family helps me through it. But also just fighting and talking here on DU and elsewhere provide a great catharsis. I believe it will turn around. I just don't quite know how or when (hopefully this November). :grouphug:

[Adelante]

6. Ahhh

Saywhat :hug: WillyBrandt :hug:

[MoonRiver]

24. WesDem...

..:) Thanks for being here.

[acmavm]

7. I love this country too, but it's turning into something that I don't even

recognize. Things that have been done by this administration, downright illegal, immoral things, are being not only condoned, but accepted, even expected from this crew of criminal sociopaths.

Hells, during the Nixon years, things weren't this bad. In fact, this crew makes them look like the Boy Scouts (with a token Camp Fire Girl thrown in the mix).

Could you have ever imagined a bunch of clowns PUBLICALLY call for legalized betting on terror attacks? Well, this bunch did. Totally frigging amazing. Steal money for the war in Afganistan and divert it so that they can pull of a bloody coup (that didn't work) in Iraq. Blatantly lie about the reason to go to war?

I'll say it again, I love my country. And I am living for the day when we take it back from these crazed psychopaths.

[IronLionZion]

8. I'm the son of immigrants

and I'm with you man. It's horrible what has been going on the last few years. Hopefully we can start fixing it by helping Kerry win in November. The damage has been done, but it can be fixed.

[slackmaster]

9. We're all children of immigrants

Or grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc. Every one of my known immigrant ancestors bailed out of some kind of shitty, oppressive situation in Europe that was worse for them than any US citizen is suffering today.

And it pains me very much to see what this cruel, stupid gang running the show is doing to it.

Me too.

Take heart WillyBrandt, there's always hope for the future. The screwheads haven't come anywhere close to destroying the country. There's still time to stop them.

[OC_dem]

10. You don't have to be new here

To love America, my Mothers family came over on the Mayflower, part of it anyway, my Fathers family was here before the revolutionary war and he was the first in his family to go to college, generations of subsistence farmers. Some family on both sides was here to greet them :)

The US has never been like this, preemptive war, flag draped coffins coming home again, our government lying, about big and little things, People in positions of power who failed miserably keeping their jobs, Condi, A$$croft, and Rumsfeld, not to mention George Tenant. Tax breaks for only the best off of us, a deficient completely out of control.

Blame the person at the top, get people to vote for Kerry, he may have warts but he'll at least get things going in the right direction. I have convinced 2 in the last 2 weeks myself, and am working on a third. Not easy to do here in republican Orange County California.

[pscot]

11. I try, man

but it's like loving someone with bi-polar disorder. The cognitive dissonance between what we profess to hold dear and the way we act can be hard to take. More and more the disappointments seem to overwhelm the positives.

[sspiderjohn]

12. I survived McCarthy and 'Nam -- but now Selection 2000? Gitmo?

I think we're in far more danger now than we were then.

[WillyBrandt]

13. Does anyone feel that this Shakespearean tragicomedy will be funny in 500

years? The idiot ruler ascends, is maniuplated by tricky, venal advisors, launches wars, misleads The People, falls from hubris with disaster in his wake...

[anarchy1999]

22. I like to hope to will not be viewed as "funny" or Shakespearean.....

I would like to believe it will be viewed historically, in context with the failure of all empires that came before the US.

Fall of the Roman and British Empires and how the US failed to know history and not repeat it.

[Turanga Leela]

14. I feel like I am in an abusive relationship.

I love America so much.

I would give anything to make things right again.

But everyday, the hurtful hateful things pile up.

It's killing my soul.

I want to fight, I want to fix this so we can be happy again.

But I don't even know if what we have left is worth fighting for.

:cry:

[DeepModem Mom]

18. Welcome to DU, Turanga Leela -- it helps a lot....

to communicate with others who're feeling the same way --

[Turanga Leela]

19. Thanks, DeepModemMom!

eom

[Bluzmann57]

23. It most certainly is worth fighting for

No matter what, this is still the greatest country on earth, even if the bastards who run it are doing their level best to destroy it. As someone else said, we can start by electing John Kerry in November. Then we can make sure that he works for us, rather than the other way around. We also need to regain control of the Senate and House. We all need to work hard these next 7 1/2 months to insure that this happens. Welcome to DU and keep up the good fight.

[DeepModem Mom]

15. Earlier today, shockingelk quoted Lincoln on Presidents and war

and I responded, along the lines you're thinking --

Lincoln understood the burden of war; I remember reading a historian's view that he carried the whole burden of the Civil War on his own shoulders. When you look at pictures, you see it. And his eloquence, on the subject of going to war, in the Second Inaugural:

"On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it-- all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war-- seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects, by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came."

Oh, man -- that brings tears to my eyes, and reminds me why I still love this country. I hope we make it through the national crisis we face now --

[boobooday]

16. The outrage that is inspired by these creeps is so high

No human being can tolerate it for any length of time. So we must have our periods of simple, sullen pain. But in between we have to KICK SOME MAJOR ASS!

:bounce:



http://www.wgoeshome.com

[Lisa]

17. it's like watching your childhood best friend get married to an abuser ...

As a Canadian, that's what it's like, reading the news from the US in the papers. Basically, America is in the clutches of a sleazy "husband" who pretended to love her but only wanted to get his hands on her house and her retirement savings. Being slapped around and belittled in public has subdued her, and that's how he likes it. Any neighbours who've tried to intervene have been mocked and threatened.

We can't wait 'till those divorce papers come through, later this year.

[Turanga Leela]

21. That's Exactly what it's like

And I've BEEN there...The best friend, not the battered wife.

[Zinfandel]

20. Every liberal I've ever known loves his country with all their hearts.

And we know we can help make it better, safer and more efficient for everyone...not just the elite privileged.

The right-wing greedy selfish consevatives, and their huge corporations, who really believe this is only their land, to exploit and pollute as they care to...The same liars who hide behind their little American flag lapel pins...who wrap themselves in the flag as they steal all the riches in this great country and shout at me... "Love it or Leave it' I wish they would leave and find some place else to exploit and ruin.