Have you ever felt this bleak about the future of your country?

[marmar]

I'm 35, and haven't lived through that many of the turbulent periods in our history, but I've never felt such doom and gloom, nor sensed it as much from those around me, about this country as I do now. During the crises than I can recall fairly well - Iran hostage incident, Reagan-Andropov nuke threats, the 80s stock market crash, even 9/11 - I had the sense that we would come out of it okay. But with Iraq, this administration's post-9/11 despotism and the climate crisis, I'm not so sure anymore.
Perhaps someone who's lived through some of the more turbulent eras can offer some perspective....

[leftofthedial]

1. 51 and no

[maveric]

63. Also 51 and no.

I knew that Nixon was going down and and the swamp would be drained. But this administration has up all by by the short hairs. They run EVERYTHING! Including the MSM thats constantly feeding us bullshit and misinformation.
Oh, and The Patriot Act too!

I have a very "bleak" and cynical outlook for our future as the Old US of A.
This administration will NOT be leaving Jan 09 regardless of who else is elected prez. They have the power to allow another "Pearl Harbor-like event" to institute martial law and decades of fascist rule.
They own us.
Sorry but thats how I feel.

[NYCGirl]

2. Yes, during VietNam and the Nixon admin. NT

[MADem]

26. Concur--it was pretty rough back then, certainly. We tend to forget... nt

[pink-o]

56. Hi, Fellow oldies but goodies!

...52 here, and I think this clusterfuck is a lot worse than
the Nixon-Kissinger-Hoover clusterfuck that was the 70s for
one reason:  Back then, there was integrity in the media,
there was independent reporting, and a Murrow vibe still
surrounded the evening televison news.  We had no Faux, you
young dudes.  The MSM wasn't fully corporate and owned by
defence contractors, so we could expect real stories with real
issues on our TV every night over dinner.

That said, if you'd asked me a couple years ago about how
bleak I thought our future was, I was far more pessimistic
back then.  No matter how the MSM and the System try to
"catapult the propaganda" most Americans get it now,
and are as sick of the fearmongering as I am.  

Listen, Americans are not stupid.  We may be ill informed,
unsophisticated, loud and clumsy, but we're not stupid.  Our
government just thinks we are, and are in for a huge upset by
misunderestimating us.  Take heart!  It always takes longer
than you want, but I think we'll ultimately come around.

[Bake]

3. Frankly, while I get discouraged sometimes over the current state of affairs

The United States has survived worse. We'll survive Bush. Another year and a half, and he's gone, and we can start repairing the damage that has been done.

All is not bleak. But we've got a lot of work to do.

Edited to add: I'm 51.

Bake

[H2O Man]

4. I do not

feel bleak about the future of this country. I do understand how and why people might. But I feel positive about the future.

[rhiannon55]

8. Why?

Please elaborate for those of us who need a boost of optimism.

[H2O Man]

19. Post #18

Sorry -- I intended it as a response to you!

[H2O Man]

18. In large part

I am confident about the future, because I think that we are approaching a point where enough people at the grass-roots level are recognizing that no one in Washington is going to change "the system" and save us. It is what we do. It is how we conduct our daily lives. "Democracy" isn't something that is provided by people in the state capital or Washington, DC. It's how we live our lives. I have great faith in people, though very little in "government."

We are at a crossroads in history. If we believe that Martin Luther King, RFK, and others told the truth as a result of their clear vision, we take one path; if we believe George W. Bush and Joe Liberman, we take another path. I know that some people are confused, and many more wish that we were not at this crossroads. But we are, and we are have facing some very significant choices in what direction we venture out into.

As long as we decide, rather than hoping that people in Washington will lead us, we will take the right path.

[BOSSHOG]

5. I'm a backwards you - I'm 53

and I'm rather optimistic. I believe we are going to see some liberal leadership step to the fore in the next ten years and clean up bush's mess. And because of that we are going to see a puny little republican party barking like pups all in a minority status. One can hope.

[waiting for hope]

6. 43 and definitely YES -

I have two children, 6 and 2 years old and I worry about what kind of country they will inherit and what is in store for my husband and I during our "Golden Years". I have never felt so overwhelmed with the problems this country is facing.

[devilgrrl]

20. Count me in as 43 and yes...

I'm not sure if it's because I'm older but I've never been this bleak about our future ever.

[MotorCityMan]

73. 43 in August

and I have never felt such pessimism for the state of the country before.

Even with all the shit that has been brought to light about * and company, remember, this has been the most secretive administration, EVER. I can just imagine how bad some of the stuff is we don't know about yet.

The other thing that adds to it for me is it seems a lot people don't give a shit.

[peacebird]

7. 50 and never - even under Ronnie RayGuns....

I knew bush would be BAD but I had NO CLUE just how utterly terribly horrifically un-freaking-believable nauseatingly AWFUL he would be..... I am sick, just sick over how far down he has dragged my country.

[babylonsister]

9. 51 and no also;

I was not as well informed in the past, but I know for a fact that there has been no one as evil as this current admin, who has done so much to screw up our country and the world.

[Lerkfish]

10. 48, and no

I did have a lot of concerns under Nixon and Reagan, but I always felt there was hope.

I no longer hope for a good outcome, I only hope for survival.

[enid602]

22. atty gen'l

I just read over the weekend that Watergate transitioned rather smoothly because Nixon's atty gen'l told him the gig was up. Good luck with that this time around.

[bamacrat]

11. No, but Im only 23 so all I have to compare to is Clinton.

I was 8 when he was elected so my memory or Regan and Bush 1 are limited.

[yy4me]

12. I am a Senior and have lived through a lot. I have never been

so concerned about the state of affairs of this country as I am now. I worry for all Americans. For our economic and physical well being. Also for our historic freedoms. I believe they are being eroded by this administration in a well planned way. I fear there is more in store for us. My children and grandchildren are a constant worry for me. All Americans deserve much better than what this current cabal in Washington is giving us and we are either helpless or are not being taken seriously by the people we elected to make changes to the current state of affairs.

[blueworld]

13. Keep the faith, marmar

My family is very close, and I had many talks with my parents about the Depression, WWII, McCarthy...I also am over 50 and well remember the Civil Rights movement of the '60s, Viet Nam, raging inflation, Reagan.

The best part of America will out. It's happening, but it doesn't get the airtime. Most of the Certifiable News Nutz bobblejournalists & their ilk are busy chasing blondes and the latest cause of death in Dr. Sanjay Gupta's specials.

Read Al Gore's book if you haven't. Think about what this country has been through & accomplished as well as the rest of the world. Stay mad & fight like hell, but don't give in to despair. I'm paraphrasing Gandalf: "despair is for those who can see the end". We'll win, but getting our Constitution & Bill of Rights off life support won't be easy fer shure.:hi:

[marmar]

16. Thanks for that....

And my grandparents grew up in the Jim Crow south, where they drank out of "colored" fountains and went to inferior, run-down schools. It's tough to keep everything in perspective sometimes.

[MonkeyFunk]

14. Yes

and a little knowledge of american history helps me realize that we are nowhere near the darkest times this country has faced.

A little perspective is a good thing. The republic will survive this asshole.

[Progressive_In_NC]

24. The Republic will most likely not survive globalization, the rise of the NAU

and the opening of the borders.

So my answer is no, and I'm 32, and watching the Information Technology workforce in this nation crumble from within.

[MonkeyFunk]

37. Yep

i've watched that happen, too.

And previous generations saw the blacksmithing industry crumble, the farrier industry crumble, the steel industry crumble, etc. etc.

Again, a little perspective is helpful. There will always be disruption and tumult, problems, challenges, worries and fears. But these are not the hardest times the Republic has faced. Far, far from it.

[azmouse]

15. You forgot to mention the corporate takeover of this country.

That alone means very bad times for the ordinary person.
Yes, I feel very hopeless about the future of not just this country, but the world.
I'm thankful that I don't have children to live in the mess that lies ahead.

[Individualist]

17. Never in my 65 years,

and with an "opposition" party letting the cabal run rampant, I fear there's worse to come.

[BlueIris]

21. Nope.

[alkaline9]

23. I'm 30 and... I feel the worst right now.... however....

...there is always hope.

I find comfort in thinking about things like: the future of the internet, future medicine, future strategies to fight environmental issues...

I even find comfort in the idea that once human life is totally gone from this planet, (which could be sooooon!) that the planet will once again thrive without us.

I suppose I'm beginning to see that our individual lives are pretty much meaningless on the grand scale of things.... so why not just smile for the things that make you happy, and learn to let all the rest of the bullshit be meaningless along with yourself (if that makes sense).

[coco77]

25. Yes, and I also feel that...

Bush adm and the neocons are the Y2k everyone was fearing.

[bikebloke]

27. Another 51

I hope for the best, but plan for the worst. But a lot of people will have to shake off the corporate media induced stupor. And it would help if some dropped the princess syndrome of self-centeredness and selfishness. It may take a nasty jolt unfortunately.

[tmlanders]

28. I am actually starting to feel better

From 2000 to 2006 I was incredibly depressed with the criminal idiocy going on in my country. I probably felt the worst on election day 2004 when Kerry had the election stolen from him in Ohio. But the 2006 election lifted my spirits. I agree with those who think that the Democratic congress should be doing more faster, but I remain optimistic and buoyed by the investigations. We may never get the joy that would come from actual impeachments, but as more stuff comes out showing what the Repubs have been about the last 6 years the more likely it will be that we will have a Democratic President and Congress come 2008.

Well, if they don't steal that election, too... then I would be all depressed all over again.

[bigmonkey]

29. The WW1 period, under Wilson, was worse in many ways.

The social atmosphere was very corporate, explicitly white supremacist, and oppressive. People went to jail for speaking German, for example. German (and Italian?) language newspapers were closed as subversive.

I oscillate between thinking we are now going through the bleakest time and thinking that there were certainly worse times. The Civil War stands head and shoulders above this period as a crisis, obviously.

My own feeling is that the current circumstance is a result of ignoring the Nixon tendency toward monarchy. Ford's "pre-emptive" pardon should have been ruled out of order right away. If we only could get the pardon ruled as only applying to convicted criminals, I think a lot of this would right itself. The law is king, and must be re-set on the throne.

The climate crisis is off the scale, though.

51 here, paid close attention during Watergate.

[Zoigal]

40. Seventy eight plus

Remeber the Depression in the 30's; WW!!, Korean conflict, Viet Nam, Nixon, Reagan...
am definitely not a happy camper with the current situation in our USA. But the last
election results offered a ray of hope.

[Raksha]

30. I'm 61, and I was feeling very bleak about this country until recently,

but now I sense that the tide is turning. They say that change occurs when the pain of staying in the same place begins to outweigh the pain and fear and uncertainty of change. I feel that America has collectively arrived at that point now, or will in the very near future.

The tide is turning.

The wind is changing.

[CanonRay]

31. Not as bleak as I'm going to feel when...

a) Bush seizes power
b) we invade Iran
c) both the above

Actually, I was pretty bleak just before the Nixon impeachment after the Justice Dept. massacre, but I think I'm more bleak now.

[chemenger]

32. I'm 55 and feeling pretty screwn right now.

We need some strong Democratic leadership and diplomacy.

[LSK]

33. 35 years old, and confident in another blowout in 08

and a major decline in the GOP for a few election cycles to come. We will be able to clean up this mess.

The public is out in front and is decidingly moving in our direction.

Green is cool again, Bush approval ratings are in the 20s, there is serious talk about health care reform, Al Gore is a major celebrity now because Global Warming has gone mainstream. Just wait till Sicko comes out, it will open many more eyes too.

The momentum is on our side and if we can just hang on 1.5 more years and not attack Iran, I think we will be alright.

[MindPilot]

34. 52 -- Vietnam & Watergate were nothing compared to this.

There is so much of the cold war communists-lurking-around-every-corner rhetoric that seems to be re-emerging now with the only difference being in the name of the wildly exaggerated enemy. But this is different. Then we did try to take the high moral ground--we always tried to be better than them, like we didn't torture people or jail them for the wrong political views. At least we didn't do it openly. I can't recall being worried about loss of my fundamental rights as an American, or that martial law might be declared, or concerned that my vote was not counted.

We also had a whole bunch of independent news organizations, and the TV news divisions were not the corporate propaganda catapults they are now.

Things may have been worse during the World wars or the depression, but for speaking from the reference point of my life, I can't recall any time when I entertained thoughts that I might have to escape my country or that I felt really pessimistic about the future of the US. I do now.

[Grandrose]

35. Afraid So!

Senior/AA...lived through 60's upheavals, so you have some idea what I have experienced.

What bothers me most is the MSM takeover by Repubs and the entrenched right wingers put in place by Bush and the leftovers from Reagan/Bush!

Bush 41 left a mess for President Clinton as it will be for the next Democrat who holds that office.

With all of the problems left behind by Bush/Cheney, I truly believe it will take decades to just get back to pre-2001 and face new challenges.
:-( :kick:

[Firespirit]

36. Globalization and climate change will do us in.

"Free market" policies such as what we've been having, brought to their natural end, have one of two outcomes:

1. The corporate masters keep the industrialized world in a constant state of economic terror. The middle class is nonexistent, and working-class people fear for their jobs and have three or four wage earners per household just to pay the bills. The price of things continues to go up and salaries stagnate. Benefits disappear. Third world countries are used as the actual labor, and are held in virtual slavery. This system maintains itself, somehow, because the people are too exhausted/busy/terrified to revolt en masse. Those who do are thrown to the wolves and die on the streets or in prisons, but few ever know because of the media stranglehold.

2. The system collapses and the entire globe goes into massive depression that makes the 30s look like fun times.


One of these will be the future unless something drastic is done, and soon.

And climate change would just compound it, with the fear of famine, water shortages, loss of a home due to natural disasters, and rampant tropical disease that would be widespread until humanity evolved some resistance to it.

Yes, I have a pretty bleak view.

[MindPilot]

47. The economic ramifications

When I first entered the workforce, minimum wage $1.75. And you know what? I could live on that; I didn't live well, but I had the necessities--including a car--and the bills were paid. I was even able to save a bit and bought a house just a few years later.

Now there is no way. Making minimum wage is almost like not having a job and has effectively doomed a generation to a life of poverty.

[Odin2005]

38. I'm 21, and no.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

39. I gave up on "my" country after the Chicago convention, My Lai, and Kent State.

I don't love America, or any other country, and find the notion of "patriotism" rather ridiculous. Nor, do I hate any country.

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." - Thomas Paine

[marmar]

41. I agree..... I definitely see myself more as a "citizen of the world" these days...

Rather than a citizen of some artificial political creation....

[Ezlivin]

42. 50 and no...for damned good reasons

We've got a "Perfect Storm" brewing here, folks. The idea of a representative democracy was a good one; too bad we don't have one any longer.

If anyone here honestly believes that our votes are fairly counted, that the representatives we've sent to Congress actually represent us or that the government will improve under different leadership, then I would say that you need to really reevaluate those beliefs. Our government is just a facade; the real power lies with the corporations.

Raise your hand if you think any of these things will happen before 2008:

• Impeachment of ANY official
• Trial of ANY official
• Independent investigation of 9/11
• Independent (or any) investigation of illegal wiretapping
• Cessation of earmarks
• Investigation of election fraud

Wait a second? You say that after we get a Democratic president that the ball will get rolling?

Pardon my cynicism; I thought we'd see a real change after they got a majority in both houses of Congress.

[sinkingfeeling]

43. I'm a month away from 59 and the answer is 'no'. It's almost too much to bear right now.

[blues90]

44. No , never felt this bleak

I am 58 and went through some rough times but never enything like this and never lost hope that we could come out of it .

Alot of people hope the elections will pull us out , others feel the admin will go down in flames before their terms end with all the investigations .

Some feel people are waking up to the reality and use polls to figure this , I am not so sure about polls .

I don;t hold much faith in either , to add to this all the damage done will take decades to fix even once we figure out where to start .

we are now in a race against time and the tipping point , either one way or the other .

[onethatcares]

45. 55 pushing 56 and no

I never thought I'd see America sink so low, so fast. I worry about my kids and grandkids, mostly my grandkids. I thought it was only normal to do better than your parents did, now I see my son trying to keep up while raising 2 kids, my other son is in Kirkuk, his wife and kids are here. I hope he comes home soon.

[yardwork]

46. 47 and No

[Hubert Flottz]

48. Yes, before November of 2006.

When there was no help at all...When the GOP ran all three branches of our government.

[Vinca]

49. 58 and no. The Vietnam era was horrible, to be sure, but I don't recall

feeling as powerless as this. It seems like the vast majority of the public wants certain things - the end of the Iraqi war and universal health care to name a couple - but the people who can make it happen have their fingers in their ears, their eyes closed and continue to sing multiple rounds of "la-la-la-la-la-la-la." Money's another issue. All of a sudden everything is expensive. Each trip to the grocery store costs more than the last, gas is out of this world and in June I'm already worried about next winter's fuel supply. The rich are getting megarich and the rest of us are trying to tread water and not sink. It's very depressing.

[mcscajun]

50. 55 on the way to 56, and No.

It's been this way off and on (*mostly on*) since November 2004. (I didn't feel so hot in November 2000, either, but the Current Occupant staying on plunged me Way, Way down into despair for the future.)

[pinto]

51. I remain optimistic. I'm 55. We've surmounted worse times than this.

In the Vietnam War, 50,000+ American lives were lost, 100's of thousand Vietnamese lives lost, as was the war, and the rifts in our national fabric are still healing. Cities were aflame in those days with riots in Detroit, LA, NY, etc. Watergate looked to be the end of the rule of law, yet we emerged, wounded but whole.

As bad as this Administration is - and I agree with Pres. Carter, it's the worst - we'll come through it. The world may not look the same in many ways, but the basics will remain. And, as always, time will tell. There have *never* been instant solutions to our national problems, only the perception of a quick fix.

The demands for a quick fix and the 'end is near' alarmism are two sides to the same short sided coin.

Stay tuned, and hang in there.

[StudentsMustUniteNow]

52. 21 and no. Free trade, corporate rule, insecurity, Washington Conensus, neoliberalism n/t

[TwilightGardener]

53. Looking at all the Paris Hilton threads...yes, quite bleak, indeed.

[treestar]

54. 47- I think the pendulum might finally be about to swing back to

a more reasonable way of thinking. When * is gone, things can start to get back to normal. I even think the rightward drift generally is going to start to stop and reverse itself a bit - the days of right wing fundie freeper nutjob influence may be over - the general populace will begin to see that they would lead us down the path of destruction.

[MistressOverdone]

55. No, this does not compare for me to

mutally-assured destruction and the cold war when I was certain..absolutely certain that I and my family would be incinerated (along with the rest of the world) before the decade was out. The fact that we came back from that brink is amazing.

I have great hope that we will, if not stop global warming, get adept at dealing with the consequences. And politically, this period is no better or worse than many other polarized times. The civil war comes to mind. Or all the way back to the War of 1812 when it all hinged on one battle.

We'll get through. Look for the positive things around you. Seriously, focusing too hard on the worries and negatives can bring on depression and that won't do the world any good at all. We need your passion and energy.

[lyonn]

57. In the past six years we have gotten ourselves involved in

an unending war; loss of confidence of countries that were considered our staunch allies; lost our voice due to the takeover of our media by the repubs; our rights taken away by big corporations; Loss of legal rights such as a right to representation, privacy, etc.; laws governing pollution have been discarded and left up to the corporations (brilliant, fox and hen house theory); Corrupt voting laws, no recounts possible without a paper trail. We have a president that doesn't appear to have a problem attacking another country without provocation, Iran! Bush has a year and a half to do damage! Look what he did his first year. No. 1, he let Osama get away and said he wasn't important! Let's not forget Our Great Leader sat for 7 minutes in a classroom after being told we had been attacked!

Yes, we have had dark times in our history as some above have mentioned: Civil War, Lack of Civil Rights, Viet Nam, (at least Johnson had the smarts to know when to leave), Nixon was demented too but got caught and then the Reagan era where he destroyed an economy.

Earlier today while talking to a 21 yr. old about wars and Viet Nam, his dad served 2 tours over there, he made the comment that he didn't vote for Kerry because he threw his medals or someones medals after he got back from VN. Stories like this convinces me the media has the masses figured out and that is to constantly feed them full of crap and lies and it becomes the truth. Yes Kerry threw some medals in protest against a war that was going nowhere and thousands were dying each year for a lost cause. Kerry was against the government not the troops.

[antigop]

58. I've felt bleak since 2000 and it's gone downhill from there n/t

[OnionPatch]

59. Yes. November 8th, 2004

Early in the AM when I realized that either the election had been stolen, or Americans had gone insane. That had to be the worst I ever felt for my country. There have been a lot of people waking up since then. The problems are still here but if people are awake, at least there is more hope that we can fix them.

[Venus Dog]

60. Whoever said the Apocalypse would be easy?

It is the time of the "unveiling" and, boy, are we seeing it bigtime! However, all this truthiness, can be a real burden on the observer.

The Hindus called this time, the Kali Yuga (the Iron Age), the end of the 4th age - one of a series of changes, each of which marks the end of one cycle and the beginning of another creation (precession of the equinoxes). The qualities of this age are exactly what we have been living through (for a long time, I might add).

Many believe the Age of Aquarius was in the 60's, but it hasn't even begun. What we experienced was sort of like Preview. But we're stuck watching the bad movie and unless we want to leave the theatre early, we'll have to suffer through till the end, doing what we must and just.

I'm not a religious person - I do not like organized religion, but I've found that studying science (esp quantum physics, astronomy) and spirituality have helped me perservere through this madness - to maintain a balance - Zen and Tao have helped a great deal and I'm a big fan of Schrodinger's Cat and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle.

I have my good days and bad days, but I also KNOW there is order in chaos and, like Daedalus, we are complicit in having constructed our own prison. However, we are also capable of escaping from that prison if we so choose since we know the plans - we just forgot them. We're all slowly waking up and remembering what we forgot.

[librechik]

61. today was a low point.

I don't even know how we can sink further, but I'm pretty sure we will.

[taught_me_patience]

62. The groundswell of religious fundamentalism in america

has gotten me pessimistic about the future. Hopefully, this is a passing "fad". I'm optimistic about the economy (especially here in Los Angeles).

[Nay]

64. 55 and no. I feel we have reached some sort of watershed, a point

beyond which we cannot do much except weather the storm and wait for a much reduced and impoverished way of life.

[Generator]

65. The despair over Gonzalez is really bad for me

The guy is not competent to be the head dog catcher, much less attorney general. He "decides" that the Geneva Conventions are moot and lives are ruined, and we have no one to counter the idea that basic liberties are more important than ANY politics. I just feel a sinking dread of it all.

My country I've found is built on sand. I understand how someone from a South American dictatorship feels, in my heart I'm an American and always will be-I cannot divorce what I believe is good and right and true but forgiving and forgetting what my government has done, is not ever going to happen in my lifetime. The disconnect between "this is a great country ", the myth that has become, and facing the truth has changed my identity forever. American, but no longer sure and proud of anything that means in the world anymore. American, because I am that. I realized that running away to another country will never change that. But it's not something that means what I thought it meant. It means uncertainty and fear. Quicksand and dread. It's so damn sad.

[Initech]

66. 27, and yes, especially since 1/20/01.

The exact day that Bush took office, I was skeptical of him, and that was when I was involved in religion at the time. Since 9/11 and the crazies started coming out of the wood work, I pretty much bolted from the church I was with because of their insane right-wing end of the world views, and that was pretty much when I started to think things took a turn for the worst. I've been inside the freeper / fundie realm. I've seen them at their craziest, and it isn't going to get any better. :scared:

[ordinaryaveragegirl]

67. 31 and ready for a change...

And I'm hoping we get it done next year; I firmly believe we will. I've never seen so many people around me (online and offline) so disillusioned with their own country. This joke of an administration is one mistake after another, and people are fed up with feeling like they don't matter. There's just so much that's gone wrong in the last 6+ years, that it's sadly part comical, and part tragic (someone called this joke of an administration a "clusterfuck" earlier, and that's exactly it). If you've got a leader without a clue, you have no direction. We need direction.

[k8conant]

68. I just turned 58 last Friday and you've got me thinking...[NO]

my husband (a Repuke now) keeps telling me I shouldn't "live in the '60s". I tell him those were good and hopeful times and I'd like to regain that hope. I have to admit that in the late '50s when I was in grade school we had our fair share of "bomb scares" (as in, at 2 pm the Russians will bomb Ten Eyck Elementary School in Dearborn, Michigan) and we were suckers for it and got very scared as kids are wont to do.

Back in the '60s, the politicians and leaders voiced our dreams in the political and civic arena: the New Frontier, the Great Society, "I have a Dream". We had our own slogans also: "Make Love Not War", "Peace Now", "We Shall Overcome". It seemed as if we were on the road to something great.

Now I despair of ever getting back even to that level of hope and expectancy. We have been stepped on so much, lied to so much, smirked at so much, that I tend to withdraw to keep from puking. I deplore the fascist trends in this country and pray and hope that this is not foreshadowing of an even more horrendous future.

[The Gunslinger]

69. You ain't seen nothing yet...........

Wait until Rudi becomes the decider.

[Patsy Stone]

70. I finally see the sun coming out.

Two years ago, it was much darker.

[Golden Raisin]

71. Never. Worst I've even seen it.

I'm turning 58 and I've lived through some bad times: McCarthy era witch-hunts, Cuban missile crisis, Cold War, Kent State murders, lynchings in the South, Vietnam, all the assassinations, Allende-Chile, Nixon-Watergate, Reagan, Iran-Contra, you-name-it. Not only does this top them all but I have NEVER seen the country so polarized and divided (and I include the Vietnam era).

[Ganja Ninja]

72. It was looking pretty bleak in the early 70's after Nixon.

It got really bad during Reagan's first term in the early 80's. It's always bad after the Republican's "fix" things. I have no doubt we'll turn it around when the country finally gets over this infatuation with all things conservative.