At the end of WWII, there were the Nuremburg Trials, but also the Marshall Plan.

[Girard442]

We have to start thinking forward about how to put this country on a path toward some kind of decency. Neither an endless thirst for revenge nor fuzzy-wuzzy brainless forgiveness will get the job done.

There are an awful lot of people who followed the Orange Mussolini. It's not like we can put all of them on an ice floe.

[Moostache]

1. I rise to second your ice floe idea...I find it intriguing and would like to hear more...

In reality, what MORE do you think we can offer to the "y'all-queda" crowd? They already are concentrated in states that offer more in government program payouts than in taxation contributions...so money and assistance don't seem to help...

They are gullible, useful idiots for the agendas of the people who tell them what they want to hear - namely "It's not really YOUR fault life is turning out like this...its THEIR fault, over there. See them making fun of your plight and giving breaks to OTHERS? That's not FAIR!!!"

People who think like Trumpers are racist assholes who I have less in common with than a garden slug...because at least he garden slug helps move soil around!

[Girard442]

3. A long time ago, I used to fly light planes.

There was one in particular, the Grumman-American Traveler, that didn't have a steerable nosewheel. You steered by tapping either the left or right brake. The instructor told me not to try steering with the rudder -- wouldn't work.

I wasn't too keen on the herky-jerky taxiing with the brakes, so I though I'd try the rudder myself. Turns out that almost all the time you could ground steer smoothly with the rudder if you went full-on right away. You could supplement it with a tap of the brake if needed.

That's where we're at. We don't have crisp responsive controls, but we don't have nothing either. We can do things like providing cheap (or free) broadband to rural areas. We can provide universal healthcare, even to the people who piss and moan about it. We can have some high-profile crucifixions of Fortune 500 types responsible for the opioid crisis. We can crank up Social Security payments. We can piggyback on the COVID-19 situation by ramping up public health services (Help us, Dr. Fauci.)

And...most important of all, reach out to the next generation. Many of them are way better people than their elders.

[paleotn]

2. Let justice take its course....

wherever that may take us. That's how it works in a nation of laws.

[gratuitous]

4. It's important to remember who benefited from the Marshall Plan

It wasn't the architects of World War II, it was the citizens of Europe who had suffered under the dogs of war. I am more optimistic that the incoming Biden administration will do a vastly better job of crafting a coherent, consistent national and international response to the pandemic that isn't consumed by pointless squabbles over countermeasures like washing your hands and wearing a mask. Or blunted by favoritism playing to the president's pals and denying resources to cities and states that the president is mad at. Real live money doled out from the Treasury to people and families and small businesses and not shoveled willy-nilly into the coffers of large corporations that don't need but who somehow got to the front of the line to suck up millions of dollars.

[byronius]

5. Good impulse.

[doubleplusgood]

6. There was also a de-Nazification plan in Germany

We've needed something like that here since Appomattox

[Girard442]

7. Reconstruction.

It didn't succeed. Very complicated history there. We should all study it.