I'm about to give up.
A few points added on edit:
- I live in a fairly progressive community. Being surrounded by red hatters isn't an issue to me - the great majority of people where I live, and in my profession, would rather eat a live tarantula than vote for Trump.
- I'm increasingly confident that Biden will win the presidency. But it's not going to make a difference as long as McConnell is in charge of the Senate. There won't be real accountability for those who committed crimes in the Trump administration. Biden can probably reverse some of Trump's executive orders, but he'll never get to appoint someone to the Supreme Court. His agenda will die of starvation in Senate committees. And because nothing will get done, Americans will vote for a Republican in 2024.
- Even worse, we can't claim that Trump is being thrown out in disgrace. He may have lost the popular vote, but the margin is a lot narrower than it should have been. This means we don't just have to worry about his rabid core of dead enders - it's almost half of the country's population.
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I'm serious.
This election should have been a blowout. That it wasn't tells me that too many people looked at someone with a long history of moderate politics in government, someone who accepts physical reality, and decided that a lying bigoted loudmouth with artificial skin color and a lengthy record of denying what everyone can plainly see would be a better president. Even after four years of demonstrable failure and national embarrassment.
I'm tired to death of being told that I don't understand rural America, or coal miners, or evangelicals, or any other class of people who voted for Trump. I grew up in a working class family, I used to be a very serious Roman Catholic, I have a degree in geology, and I live in the upper midwest. And way beyond that, I've listened to people who voted for Trump ad nauseam. I think I've got a perfectly good understanding of such people.
The problem is that these people don't understand us. And because we're told to respect all sides (as if there's more than one legitimate side), and because there's an intricate media infrastructure that both feeds and gets fed by a market dedicated to membership in a group of people who know "the truth" and hold the key to being a "real American," getting them to even be willing to understand us is a lost cause.
This is why I'm repeatedly told that I want to take everyone's guns, shove socialized medicine down everyone's throats, and take everyone's hard-earned money. Which I don't. Which no Democrat does.
Solving a problem doesn't work if half of the people needed to find a solution don't think there's a problem in the first place.
It's not going to get better.
Next opportunity to get a job outside the US, I'm taking it.
= new reply since forum marked as read
PA absentee ballots match polling!
I want to steal that "Land doesn't vote. People do" sig graphic! 
you can't do here, etc., then absolutely: go for it. I loved the experiences I had living abroad. My life is vastly richer experience-wise because of those experiences.
When I first moved to Mexico (1978) I was (typically American -- or to be pc, I should say, "North American" 
) very unaware -- so much so that, when my orch was planning a tour of South America in 1979, the conductor said, "We're having such problems with the visas --" (the orch was comprised of Mexicans, USA Americans, Bulgarians, Poles and Russians; it was like all 3 worlds in one.) He continued, "The Cubans don't want the Americans. The Argentinians don't want the Russians." At the time, I had no idea what on earth he was talking about. Eventually I learned -- and I learned that EVERYTHING in life is political.
Frankly, smirkymonkey, I could go on and on, but I don't know where to begin.
I wanted the clarinet, or the violin.
I think they gave me the viola bc I had hit pueberty so I got taller, and curvy - they probably thought give the violin to one of the smaller girls.
I remember we used to race up & down the hallway balancing our bows on the palm of our hands. I know, not the way to treat it.
I did get the clarinet the next year! My sis played the bassoon for 3 yrs in HS.
Oh, crazy about the dual phrase. Such a terrible one.
Thanks for answering. 
by asking them why they are so preoccupied with things being rammed down their throats.
And they use that term a lot.
I am also seriously shopping garage sales and thrift stores for a GI Joe doll so I can take it out and ask "Show us on the doll where the bad man took your gun."
