Elections do not fix people

[angrychair]

I’m NOT saying we can’t re-take the House.

I’m NOT saying it’s impossible re-take the Senate.

I’m NOT saying that trump cannot be impeached.

What I am saying is that if we have learned nothing these last 18 or so months is that the problems we face are far more systemic and pervasive than that.

Our country is full of fucking idiots. A lot of idiots. A lot of racist and bigoted idiots.

That will not change if we win the House or impeach trump.


To be honest, im not sure it can be changed or if it will ever be better.
The US is very broke and it’s not something fixed by an election(s).
At best it could take generations of social engineering to weed out the anger and ignorance and hate.

I have no good answers but I also live under no illusions that what is wrong can ever be fixed.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Trump is an egotistical low self-esteem racist bully

what you say is true

[RainCaster]

2. You can't fix stupid

This is something I have learned over the years. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.

[Garrett78]

3. There are organizations working on reducing racism and sexism.

And we need the Democratic Party to invest more in those efforts.

I've gotten involved with such organizations, and so can you. If there isn't one in your area, start one.

Absent racism alone, there's no viable Republican Party.

[pnwmom]

4. It's true. And we have to do much, much better in our public schools,

educating students on how to navigate through the garbage on the internet.

[AlexSFCA]

5. most important is expanding voter access

automatic voter registration nationwide, voting by mail option, national election day holiday or have it done on a weekend, etc. When participation is high (80%+) in each and every election, there should be less anger and divisiveness.

By the time trump is done, gop will own SC and federal courts for a long time so even when we have house and senate and even president, our efforts could be overturned by courts.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

6. IMO, the real elephant in our room is...

economic inequality and massive asset hoarding by the wealthy, and it's getting worse by the day. The Repug tax bill just put it in overdrive.

People of high wealth live on a different Earth from us and they believe wealth entitles them to power and control. Many everyday citizens have bought into that bullshit.

I see no way to solve that problem short of a total global economic collapse which would kill many millions of people. Besides, those high-wealth people maintain hoards of precious metals and other non-currency assets that could sustain them for decades.

Without this elephant in our room, most of our problems would be easy to solve.....

* The Republican party and its clones around the globe would disappear overnight.
* The wealthy would no longer control our media.
* Corporations would return to being good community members.
* Our politicians would return to being public servants.
* Brutal poverty, homelessness, disease and malnutrition could gradually be minimized.

Sadly, there is no global will to even move in this direction. Earthlings can't even stop fighting on where to fish or who deserves the most guns and bombs.

I know, dream on.......

[mnhtnbb]

7. I recommend a book by Allen Frances

titled twilight of american sanity: a psychiatrist analyzes the age of Trump.

He believes Trump's election poses grave questions about the nation's collective health. "Blaming Trump for all our troubles misses the deeper , underlying societal sickness that made possible his unlikely ascent."

Frances' book makes an excellent companion read to the collection of essays edited by another psychiatrist, Bandy Lee: The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.

We are in a real mess in this country. Our system of government is broken. The flaws in it's design have been made glaringly obvious by the election of Trump and the refusal of the Republican party to constrain him or act to remove him from office.

It's going to take a generation or more to recover from the damage he is doing to the country, particularly if he isn't stopped from loading the courts with right wing nuts who want to turn the country into a theocratic dictatorship.