Does anyone else feel like there's no hope left?

[KatyaR]

I'm so tired. This has been a horrible summer, astronomically high temps, food/gas prices soaring, and the whole economy thing. Personally I've had issues this summer as well--sucky job, no chance of a pay raise, and i developed Bell's Palsy, too, and got to listen to my bosses telling me how horrible I looked for weeks. What little reserve of hope that I had is totally gone. I'll never be able to retire; hell, I can hardly keep my head above water as it is, and according to some, I make "good" money, but it's barely enough to cover the basics. I'd lay down and cry, but I don't even have that much energy.

[LWolf]

1. I haven't felt any hope since Jan/Feb of '08. nt

[scheming daemons]

3. Really? you felt hope a year before Obama took office? While chimp was still Prez?

[William769]

12. I did.

Because I could see change coming. But alas another dream shattered.

[scheming daemons]

16. So you felt hope in Feb of '08, nine months BEFORE the election....

.... but no hope in March through November of '08 leading UP TO the election?

Or November of '08 to January of '09, which was before Obama was sworn in?

[William769]

22. Oy vey.

I felt hope a year before the election, because I saw change coming. Is that simplistic enough for you?

[scheming daemons]

25. I get that... but that implies that you lost hope 6 months before the election

The post I responded to said he *LAST* felt hope in feb of 2008. Meaning, hasn't felt hope since.


Is that simplistic enough for YOU?

[Shagbark Hickory]

63. Have you thought about starting over some place else?

[LWolf]

13. I felt hope when his term was coming to an end,

and we had an opportunity to nominate and elect a strong Democrat with strong Democratic values, who didn't ally with the DLC, the 3rd way, or the "new" dems; a Democrat who would actually make dismantling the bush atrocities a high priority.

When the rest of the nominees dropped out, leaving two fucking so-called "centrists" standing 5 months before my primary...that's when I lost hope.

I would have been glad to have been proved wrong.

That didn't happen.

[scheming daemons]

26. They were the last two standing long before January of 2008.

[jsamuel]

29. John Edwards was 2nd in Iowa in January 2008

jeez. At issue here isn't what YOU hoped for, but what LWolf hoped for. You may not have been hoping for an alternative to Obama/Clinton, but others were.

[LWolf]

39. They were probably the only 2 standing all along,

but as long as there were others in the race, there was hope.

[Crazy Dave]

4. I agree

Ever since the public option cave in or lie fell through. Let's see if all the "Hope" and "It's all Bush's fault" bullshit works again in 2012.

[Fearless]

6. Since the "re-election" in '04 for me. n/t

[BuelahWitch]

59. That's when mine got up and left too

:hug:

[Davis_X_Machina]

15. I can beat you....

...I haven't felt any hope since November of 1980.

When you reach a certain age you've seen 'the America we all know' die more times than the hero's black sidekick.

[LWolf]

19. I believe you.

I was only 20 in 1980. I wasn't happy with the outcome, especially having grown up under his governorship, but I still had my idealistic rose-colored glasses on in 1980. I still believed in the power of the people.

:(

[Davis_X_Machina]

31. We're both pikers. My mother hasn't had any hope since 1952.

Her father -- long dead now -- well, he didn't have any hope from 1928 on, when Al Smith lost, until his death in the mid-seventies.

[jpak]

27. pathetic

yup

[LWolf]

37. Are you calling me pathetic?

Since I turned out to be correct, maybe I was just smart.

[JanMichael]

42. for the past two days I have been making use of the amazing

features of the software that DU utilizes. ;)

You should too. You won't have any more hope, but you'll damn sure have less stress.

[LWolf]

44. It's been a long time.

:hi:

Good idea.

[FiveGoodMen]

2. No hope if we keep on the present course.

Whether any large turn-around is still possible, I don't know.

[woo me with science]

18. I think this episode is opening people's eyes

that Obama and many of our representatives are not who we thought they were.

Opening eyes, though, can be demoralizing. It is in many ways like waking up to a nightmare, to realize the extent of bank and corporate control in this country. We have been fed a tableau of politics for a very long time that does not reflect what is actually going on. The people may just be starting to wake up to realize that we are, in every sense of the word, "human resources" rather than human beings to these people.

I don't think it's even possible at this point to elect a presidential candidate who is not beholden to the oligarchy. They have the media, they have the money, and they have restructured the entire political process. Any contender will be smeared and discredited in the press and eliminated in one way or another.

Our best hope has always been to elect principled members of Congress to stand in opposition. But this horrible episode has really lifted the curtain on the extent to which corporate "Democrats" have infiltrated the entire Democratic Party, Congress included.

It is hard to even fathom at this point how we take our country back. I really do think it needs to start at the grass roots, by identifying the REAL problem, which is bank and corporate influence...and finding candidates who have their own money and are willing to take this on. I also think that once the real enemy is identified, we can peel off portions of the group that has always considered itself Republican, and win them to our cause.

We may ultimately find this country in revolution, though...

[marions ghost]

57. good points

It's hard to realize the Truth. Always. Right now we are not heard and not represented.

But also I agree there's hope for the (smarter) non-corporate conservatives to also realize a few truths...for that reason the "theatre" we have been lately bludgeoned with may have an upside.

[readmoreoften]

5. The left is strengthening globally. But I have little hope for the left wing of the Dem party.

It's now a neoliberal institution.

[dissidentboomer]

23. THIS. I think you're right. What is troubling for me is that we will suffer

quite a bit more from economic depression before the tables completely turn. However, I am convinced that, after the repubs and the lunatic right have a turn at governing and, after it is completely clear that NO ONE else could be blamed but them and their rich corporate masters (except maybe some Stalinist fantasy enemy), Bubba will have nowhere ELSE to turn but left. At that point, we will see a STRONG turn left - not to democrats - but to democratic socialist and strong labor types. Make no mistake, though - I think that movement will carry with it strong nationalist, anti-immigration, and protectionist sentiments.

[readmoreoften]

56. A democratic socialist movement with strong nationalist, anti-immigrant ties can't survive.

It either becomes internationalist through the experience of shared struggle or it becomes a fascist form of right populism. This is exactly what happened to the German SPD. (Except they were also too centrist). BUT I think that the nationalist sentiment will die away with solidarity. This is a global economy and we have only allies in the international struggle against austerity. I have a lot of hope for the future but I think it's going to be s tough slog.

[dissidentboomer]

65. Indeed, that may be correct. I just have a strong sense that, when Bubba migrates left,

he will bring with him the old organized labor positions - which aren't a bad thing and include protecting American labor from "free" trade ("free" trade has been a hell of a bad trip for U.S. labor) AND very strong anti-immigration sentiments - ESPECIALLY anti-illegal immigration. If the far left and socialists DO NOT EMBRACE THESE POSITIONS - at least INITIALLY - THEY WILL NEVER attract the large and growing numbers of disaffected and dispossessed Americans that they HAVE TO attract.

What you describe can come later but must come gradually. MOST Americans are coming to see "globalism", in ANY form, as a poison. That's just political reality.

[theophilus]

Hang in there! Where there is life there is hope.

When it starts cooling off (if) then we may see some protests and the people may start to get mad as hell. Good things can happen without prediction and we can hope that enough folks will get the message that the push will start for sanity. The problems are huge but there ARE solutions.

[LiberalLoner]

7. (((HUGS)))) yes. I feel the same way. n/t

[B Calm]

8. No hope left. There's no difference between parties anymore. .

[muffin1]

9. No hope.

And I'm very sorry for what you're going through. :hug:

[Turbineguy]

10. Sure

You just have to take a longer view. More and more people are going to start figuring out what's going on and why. Fox is hopefully losing viewers tired of being misled.

[October]

11. Sorry, KatyaR.

We are in a rough cycle.

It's hard to keep fighting back. They want us to give up -- so I don't.

Sounds like you need a day or two away from those terrible bosses, too!!! How insensitive and immature!!!

A good cry might be in order -- then get back to work. We need you.


Edited to add: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x605564

A link to show you/we are not alone!

[William769]

14. K&R.

You are not alone.

[CarmanK]

17. REMEMBER WASHINGTON at VALLEY FORGE! No surrender!

This democracy is under assault by the TPARTY NATION served by the TPARTY PATRIOTS and heavily funded by the enemies of workers and AMERICAN industry. All, this has come to light since Obama was elected and McConnell declared the single most objective of the GOP is to defeat Obama in 2012. The enemy is now identifiable: It is ALEC which writes cookie cutter legislation that undermines democracy at the state levels and installs martial law in the name of fiscal responsibility. We know the MURDOCH media empire is an extension of the GOP and purveyor of TPARTY PROPAGANDA (LIES) which values wealth over work and the KOCHroaches and the US CHAMBER of COMMERCE who are pumping millions into federal and state elections. The obvious abuses of power by RICK SNYDER in MI, RICK SCOTT IN FL and WALKER in WI are not going unnoticed, even with the dysfunction in D.C. The DEMS need to organize, put boots on the ground and create a ballot box revolution that will send the tparty RODENTS back to their garbage bins to which they belong.

[onethatcares]

47. I can't find any areas where

George Washington compromised with the British while the war was going on.

Your scenario would be a great one if the general would get on his horse (pony?), pull out his sword and charge instead of trying this bipartisanshsipbullshit all the time.

sorry, but I'm fucking tired of watching the rich get richer on the backs of the poor, not so poor and the middle class or whats left of it.

[Raksha]

50. +1000

I agree with you that the best way to defeat the Tea Party agenda to go after it at the state level, where ALEC's cookie-cutter legislation does the most damage. Exposing and confronting, and where possible prosecuting, the state KOCHroaches would be more effective than confronting them at the national level. It would be a good first step anyway.

[laruemtt]

20. my only remaining hope is that

the Mayans were right about 12/21/2012. surely the planet can't take much more from us.

[HelenWheels]

21. I had Bell's Palsy, too

The doctor started me on a very expensive anti-viral, an antibiotic and pain med. I started recovery almost immediately and it was totally cleared within 10 days. Not all respond that quickly but I think the real help was the anti-viral.

[KatyaR]

45. I went almost 2 weeks before I got a real diagnosis.

I went to the doctor originally thinking it was migraine, and I knew it could be Bell's, but I was so out of it from pain that I didn't press it with my doc. You basically have to go in with your diagnosis ready to tell him before he'll actually diagnose you, so I went a week with nothing but one shot of pain meds, which didn't work at all. I went back a week later and he finally decided it wasn't a migraine. Once I got steroids, antibiotics and pain meds I started getting better right away. It'll be six weeks next Monday, and except for a tiny bit of slack at my mouth and my right eye and a tiny bit of swelling, I'm back to normal. I know I'm very lucky.

[HelenWheels]

60. To KatyaR: I thought I was having a stroke

So I went to the emergency room and lucked out with a great doctor. He did give me steroids too, I forgot about that. By the time I got to the ER I knew it wasn't a stroke. My MIL had had Bell's Palsy so I was sure that was what I had. Just like you my mouth stayed a little numb and I had a little trouble with some words. I also went to the ophthalmologist and had my eyes checked and my vision was OK.

[Enrique]

24. the heat seems to be getting to people

i saw another post here today where it sounds like the heat is causing depression in people.

[Mnemosyne]

28. I woke up this morning and my obit wasn't in the paper, so there is still hope, jmho.

Each day is new beginning, a fresh start. No guarantees of easy or simple - only of another chance. :hug:

October 6, 2011 - http://october2011.org/statement

[Bluerthanblue]

30. the thing that saps my hope the most is

reading some of the negative, hateful, over-the-top posts here on DU.

Having said that, it is reading some of the posts which explain specifics and offering well thought out perspectives that I hadn't considered before or ever thought of that restores and nurtures my "hope".

My children and grandchildren deserve to have a chance at a future. I owe them that more than anything, and if we give in to despair and defeatism we are guaranteed to fail.

It also helps to put things in perspective. We could have been born into a village in Somalia, and be struggling to get our starving child to a feeding station- or have been one of the people on that island in Norway, or born as yet another female child to an impoverished family in India. We could have come into this world as someone like Jared Loughner, or Glenn Beck, or Rush Limbaugh- thinking /caring nothing at all the harm our big mouth and hate filled mantras promote- worse yet, believing we were doing what was 'good' and 'right'.

We weren't. Not because we deserve better, but because of pure dumb luck. As hard as life is at times, (and I'm not denying struggling and suffering) there ARE those who have it worse. If we allow ourselves to get stuck in self-pity and despair, we not only hurt ourselves even more, we hurt others around us.

Depression is treatable, and is nothing to be ashamed of.

I hope you are able to find some peace.

[woo me with science]

32. I think this episode is opening people's eyes

to the level of power the banks and corporations and their obscenely wealthy owners have in our political process, and to the fact that Obama and many of our representatives are not who we thought they were.

But, yeah, opening the eyes can be horribly demoralizing. It is in many ways like waking up to a nightmare, to realize the extent of bank and corporate control in this country. We have been fed a tableau of politics for a very long time that does not reflect what is actually going on. The people may just be starting to wake up to realize that we are, in every sense of the word, "human resources" rather than human beings to these people.

I don't think it's even possible at this point to elect a presidential candidate who is not beholden to the banks and the corporate oligarchy. They have the media, they have the money, and they have restructured the entire political process and much of our society and daily lives to profit themselves already. They have already legislated themselves tremendous power, and they are continually increasing it. Any contender will be smeared and discredited in the press and eliminated in one way or another.

Our best hope has always been to elect principled members of Congress to stand in opposition. But this horrible episode has really lifted the curtain on the extent to which corporate "Democrats" have infiltrated the entire Democratic Party, Congress included.

It is hard to even fathom at this point how we take our country back. I really do think it needs to start at the grass roots, by identifying the REAL problem, which is bank and corporate influence...and finding candidates who have their own money and are willing to take this on. I also think that once the real enemy is identified, we can peel off portions of the group that has always considered itself Republican, and win them to our cause.

We may ultimately find this country in revolution, though...

[MineralMan]

33. There's always someone else.

I'm not that someone, though.

[Guilded Lilly]

34. I have hope. Always have hope.

[handmade34]

35. take a short break

take care of yourself...

until I collapse... I wake every morning to fight anew

[KatyaR]

46. I haven't been on DU much lately, and I'm not reading much news either.

It's just too depressing. I miss DU, but I just can't handle it right now.

On the bright side, did you know there's a Ukulele Underground? I'm learning to play, and it's a forum just like DU. So now I belong to DU and UU (lol). :rofl:

[blindpig]

36. After hope dies there is clarity.

Enough of the hope, smoke and mirrors. Throw that hope in the trashcan, all it's done is clouded reality.

This is better, to truly know who your friends and enemies are is the first step to victory.

[Shandris]

38. Although I've had the occasional bout of hope, for the most part...

...my view on it has always been that hope is the denial of reality. I don't let hope (or, more accurately perhaps, do my best not to let hope) dictate how I feel. It's not always possible of course, some things just REALLY shake you one way or another, but for the most part hope doesn't come into my worldview.

[livetohike]

40. No n/t

[philly_bob]

41. Your choice: Democrats' hand or TeaBaggers' hand in 2012.

I think Democrats' hand is stronger because Teabaggers are discredited by risking default, and BO has been playing carefully and cautiously.

That's hope. Control next Supreme Court seat and show Tea Party House caucus to the exit.

[LaydeeBug]

52. No, that's a false choice. Obama does the teabagger bidding, so the choice is strength or weakness

[county worker]

43. What is getting to me and has been for a while now is that we hear everyday what

is wrong and what would be better in place of what we have. Such as cut military spending instead of social programs, tax the wealthy instead of cutting programs, raise the amount of earnings that are taxed for FICA. and on and on.

Yet I see no will to do any of those things. That's what most pisses me off about Obama. Those solutions to our problems are repeated daily on the Ed show and Tom Harman and on MSNBC at night but I never hear them from our President.

I want Obama to go on national TV and call out the teabaggers and tell them to go to hell! I'm sure he is smart enough to out smart them.

The reason there is no hope is because our leaders don't give a shit about us.

I don't get that the most stupid of the electorate is calling the shots. What the hell is the matter with us? Why are we so afraid of a bunch of old white racist seniors?

[yawnmaster]

48. Depends on what you are hoping for. eom

[Yavin4]

49. Tons of Hope

See Wisconsin.

[WinkyDink]

51. Me. If this is what we get with an historic Democratic president, ...........................

[Wait Wut]

53. Well.

It has been hot, that's for sure. I don't mind the gas prices because I never go anywhere. The economy is bad, but I don't have anything to spend money on. I haven't gotten a raise in 8 years and I'm making 1/3 what I was making 10 years ago. I had a stroke a few months back, but I'm honestly entertained by the side effects. Pretty sure I have a couple of major health problems, but can't afford to go to the doctor. I'd love to retire, but probably never will. I also have a cat that has completely lost her mind and keeps attacking her sister.

No hope? Not a chance.

I'm finally taking a week off to visit my son and d-i-l in CA. We aren't leaving for two months, but my son is already sending me texts about what we'll be doing. My husband surprised me with a "new" used office chair for home because he broke my folding chair about 6 months ago and I've been using it anyway. My best friend is coming up for the weekend. I haven't seen her in almost 4 months. My husband and I are finally saying "fuck it" and saving $50 a month, no matter what. We're hoping to save enough to take a vacation to Chicago so I can see my sister.

There's always hope. But, it's your job to give it a place to live.

[Lorien]

54. Very little hope left. Lost my Dad in May, my chronic illnesses have gotten much

worse and they are impacting my ability to work big time. Most of my friends and half of my family are either unemployed or underemployed, and the people I worked hard to elect are screwing us royally. But I know that they want us to give up, so I won't.

[marions ghost]

58. yeah

:hug: :fistbump:

[applegrove]

55. I felt that way last night.

[mmonk]

61. Hope is all that is left. I'm not talking about the marketing slogan.

[Odin2005]

62. The world is becoming surreal.

:(

[Le Taz Hot]

64. . . .

:grouphug: