America has indeed lost its MIND politically and legally.

[jodymarie aimee]

America has indeed lost its way politically and legally. The day the now utterly defunct GOP made a joint decision to stop working for America and become the cult of Trump....the least fit and competent man to ever (illegally) hold the office of the POTUS. The America you and I knew ceased to exist the day this demented, fat, treasonous, nefarious yet uniquely idiotic jackass somehow got his handlers in the Kremlin to hand him the Presidency. We, in the span of 2 years, have fallen from a flawed but resolute nation of laws into a pseudo-banana republic. America has lost its mind....at least the right side of the aisle has. Completely.

[vlyons]

1. We lost our moral compass

We have allowed selfishness and greed to become the highest value.

[rickyhall]

11. We?

We, the people, did not vote for these bastards. I never voted for Republican in my life.

[vlyons]

12. Yes, we the people -- for over 50 years

going all the way back to the war in Vietnam. I've never voted for a Republican either. "We" is the editorial we. Don't take it personal.

[Hortensis]

13. +100. :) Geeze, it's not even a month since the midterms

proved this OP wrong. How quickly anxiety can cause getting lost in a moment without understanding.

We keep seeing these posts, and agreements to them. I think they come from inability to understand ourselves and define what makes us different from those who have lost their moral way, perhaps in many cases never one, just had less disastrous leaders.

Here's a book I read because Obama recommended it.

Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
https://www.amazon.com/Enlightenment-Now-Science-Humanism-Progress/dp/0525427570/ref=sr_1_2_twi_har_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1543931744&sr=1-2&keywords=enlightenment+now+by+steven+pinker

It gives a big-context picture of the world and of our place in it, what we believe in and why, and of those who do not. It's about why and how we keep progressing. It's not the one true book of knowledge, but is a wonderful antidote to the bizarrely twisted, dystopian view of the world that news reports and phony intellectuals whose careers require ignoring reality give us.

No liberal or progressive conservative here could read it and still feel politically lost, limited to taking one side of minor political squabbles "because," unable to explain even to himself what he believes in large political terms and why, or why he's not really just less worse than those others. There are huge differences between descendants of the Enlightenment and throwbacks to the dark ages. And we do progress.

“As we care about more of humanity, we’re apt to mistake the harms around us for signs of how low the world has sunk rather than how high our standards have risen.” ― Steven Pinker

[pecosbob]

2. Republicans fully sold out thirty years ago if not before

Russian money has been flowing into their campaigns for more than twenty years now.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

3. Perhaps more accurate to say.....

The day the now utterly defunct GOP made a joint decision to stop working for America and become the cult of corporate and wealthy interests. Trump, McConnell, et al are just symptoms of the disease.

They've turned us into a society driven by consumerism, individualism and a hundred forms of fear and delusion that worships:
*corporations and their masters,
*churches ran by millionaires,
*politicians that are just actors for the wealthy's nefarious stage play, and
*the newest shiny object seen on Amazon, at Walmart or on QVC.

...........

[Garrett78]

4. The pre-Trump Republican Party made Trump possible. Trump is part of a continuum.

50 years of increasingly cruel rhetoric and policy led to Trump. We should be on guard against this notion that all will be well if we simply discard Trump and go back to the pre-Trump America. Republicans, including the anti-Trump Republicans, will make possible Trump 2.0 (a more intelligent and charismatic demagogue), and we had better be vigilant.

[Bob Loblaw]

5. What you said.

[Garrett78]

8. This is why I've been critical of anti-Trump Republicans.

They're in denial. They continue to worship at the altar of Saint Ronnie without acknowledging the linkage between the rise of Trump and the white backlash to the Civil Rights Movement and Nixon's Southern Strategy in the 1960s, the Powell Memo and creation of the Moral Majority in the 1970s, Reagan's dog whistling (like kicking off his campaign with a speech on "states' rights" less than 10 miles from where 3 civil rights workers were murdered) in the 1980s, and so on.

Trump is a symptom and part of a continuum. As intelligent and articulate as the likes of Steve Schmidt are, these anti-Trump Republicans are in denial...the alternative is coming to terms with what they helped make possible. Denial helps assuage guilt, so they opt for denial.

I worry very much about what the dominant narrative will be after Trump is gone. Republicans will try very hard to establish a narrative that is downright dangerous and will only allow for Trump 2.0. Democrats better be ready and better understand the importance of establishing narrative in the public consciousness. Being on the defensive (as we've been against the "liberal media" narrative for the last 30+ years) is a losing position.

[Bob Loblaw]

15. As a member of the choir...

Amen

[Hortensis]

14. "Trump's success, like that of right-wing populists in other

Western countries, is better understood as the mobilization of an aggrieved and shrinking demographic in a polarized political landscape than as the sudden reversal of a century-long movement toward equal rights.” ― Steven Pinker

“Though the Nones supported Clinton over Trump by a ratio of three to one, they stayed home on November 8, 2016, while the Evangelicals lined up to vote.” ― Steven Pinker

The "nones" are people who checked "none" for religious affiliation. Which brings up a question: How many times can a person refuse to stand against candidates who promise to hurt others and not be every bit as much of the problem as the Trump voters? Looked at in numbers, 3 times the problem Trump voters were 2016?

What Pinker is referring to in the first quote, though, is that all these people who enable regression and retard progress have always been with us, yet we always have been progressing, dragging them all along willy-nilly. 2018 is a continuation of 2008 which is a continuation of 1964 which is a continuation of 1920, ...

This moment in history comes to us courtesy of fright acting unusually strongly on more people than usual, a reaction to too much change too fast and a black hole where a view of the future should be.

[BlueJac]

6. k&R

[Freddie]

7. Tyranny of the minority

That the woefully outdated Constitution allows is at least partially defeated stating next month. We can build on that.
Can the Democratic Party PLEASE agree now in what criteria we have for a 2020 candidate who can WIN, given that we’re stuck with the EC? The Repugs and the Russians played the EC like a fiddle. We can too.

[watoos]

9. Yes I agree that the greedy Republican party

goes back at least to Reagan.
Let's remember also the pact they made when Barack Obama won the presidency. Let's remember the meeting they held where Republicans made a pact to oppose everything the Democrats proposed, they made everything political. I thought to myself at the time that this strategy surely would fail. I thought surely the working class people of both parties will see through this strategy. I was wrong because I ignored the impact of the propaganda that comes from the corporate controlled right wing M$M. The M$M waged war against Democrats, demonized Democrats, which led the way for working class people to vote against their best interests.

Income inequality will bring down America. 2/3 of our GDP comes from consumer spending but money is flowing from the bottom up and congregating in the hands of a few people. "I load 16 tons and what do I get, another day older and deeper in debt. St. Peter don't you call me cause I can't go, I owe my soul to the company store."

[Laura PourMeADrink]

10. Hoping it's only temporary insanity. Have often thought

Will we get back? Will it take more than 8 years to recover? Or will we need to have control of all branches for 16 years to recussitate?

[joanbarnes]

16. Pseudo?

[Nitram]

17. No, we have NOT lost our minds. A political party without principals and with the help of

a foreign enemy, succeeded in helping a crass, amoral, sociopathic narcissist become president. That same traitorous political party supported without question every ill-conceived project the president undertook. Meanwhile, the MAJORITY of Americans have made their displeasure known through demonstrations and their vote, the press have documented the disgusting behavior and shameless corruption on the president and his party, the justice system has undertaken a deep investigation into the president and his co-conspirators, and the Democratic Party has gained control of the House of Representatives. We WILL take our country back and punish the guilty. I say ENOUGH defeatist and wrong-headed talk of America's demise.

[Linda Ed]

18. Pretty sad

While the president that oversaw the removal of a cruel wall lies in state, the current president seeks to build a new one. This is not who we are.


Today, George H. W. Bush is lying in state while Trump is lying to all fifty states.