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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI really can't get my head around it
For those who don't know, I retired 3 and a half years ago to the Central Philippines with my Filipina wife. I'm 72, she's 69 and we've been married for 22 years and have no children. We had good jobs in America and live on our Pensions and Social Security. I spend 50 weeks a year at my home here in the Central Philippines and 2 weeks a year in Boston.
That being said, I was extremely involved in politics back in Massachusetts as a union officer and personally. I've done my share in the 55 active political years of my life. Now, my politics consists of donating a few hundred dollars to Democratic causes, casting an overseas ballot and posting here on DU.
That's my quick background info. Here's my problem. I can't understand where the America I once knew went. When did we discard and denigrate science? As part of the Polio Vaccine generation, WTF is happening to our commitment to medicine. Listen, I worked hard in all kinds of campaigns. The Republican candidates were our opponents. Looking back at those years, the other side may have been our adversaries, but they weren't crazy. I can now say that Bush, McCain and Romney were normal people with different opinions. Bush II lied to get us into a war, and I opposed him, but he fell into the Historical norm of LBJ and Nixon. And as much as I criticized them, they never abandoned science, common sense or our country.
Trump, on the other hand, is other wordily. The John Birch Society, George Wallace and the original "America First" committee that were Hitler apologists in the 1930's were an aberration in US history. I never thought I'd lived to see the day when people like that controlled the country.
I never thought I'd live to see that day, and I almost made it.

Timewas
(2,475 posts)They started with the dumbing down of our educational system, they have been working on it for quite a while now and the dividends they were hoping/working for are coming to fruition.
Stargazer99
(3,229 posts)grade level when attending schools. This situation tells me the powerful and wealthy do not wan t the common kid with a decent because the lower class might not be as controllable Could explain why now our kids are forced to take out ed loans,
Silent Type
(10,469 posts)But, Id take him back over trump.
He did a few things I liked (1) Was reasonably compassionate to those without all their citizenship papers, (2) signed Part D drug law as flawed as it may be, and (3) l liked the shirts he wore. Not much else.
walkingman
(9,528 posts)Greed - a profit at any cost mentality.
Religion Fundamentalism - science is the enemy
rubbersole
(10,093 posts)....were the Koch brothers. Their think tanks and libertarian causes wouldn't have metastasized without their inherited oil fortune making it happen. 40+ years. Keeping rich white (select) men in charge is the goal. It's been working for over 250 years here.
Avalon Sparks
(2,709 posts)Should have been Luigied 20 years ago.
Be Leave On
(245 posts)In 1964, Barry Goldwater warned this would happen.
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/777519-mark-my-word-if-and-when-these-preachers-get-control
ThePartyThatListens
(340 posts)Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2024, 07:54 AM - Edit history (1)
With your romanticism of American history.
Trump isn't some anomaly.
He's the ultimate form of what Republicans are, stand for and wanted all along.
Nixon was a scumbag, Bush I was a scumbag, Bush II was a scumbag and, of course, Trump is a scumbag.
I can see clearly how these guys are all similar in policy, rhetoric and results.
That you can't is the exact reason for the problem you've misdiagnosed.
Pototan
(2,714 posts)it's you who really doesn't get it.
Welcome to DU, newbie
madaboutharry
(41,971 posts)Trump is most definitely an anomaly. He is the first person to serve as President of The United States who is openly hostile to The Constitution and the Republic.
Pototan
(2,714 posts)taxi
(2,391 posts)All of this was necessary to bring us to where we are.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/What's_past_is_prologue
allegorical oracle
(5,324 posts)not maliciously avenging past personal grievances. McCain would've never fostered an attack on the Capitol. Never voted for him, but gave him credit for his military service and decency.
malaise
(286,475 posts)Rec
Amishman
(5,893 posts)I strongly suspect China, Russia, and others have been working for many years to promote and empower the radical fringes of our society.
It has become a feedback loop now that more radical politicians are in office. Moderate solutions and compromise cannot get passed into law, increasing frustration with the status quo. That angst leads more voters to turn to the fringes in desperate hope for change, which elects more nuts to office. Almost all of them are on the right, but there are a couple under our tent that I consider to be out of touch and problematic as well.