It's heartbreaking

[KentuckyWoman]

I'm over 70 yrs old. Being a citizen of these United States has been my good fortune and privilege.

We've had our finer moments, and our embarrassments. I've spend my lifetime advocating for "the little guy" and for a government that exists for our collective good. I've had elected representatives that performed well and with honor, and reps who used the office for the sole purpose of enriching themselves and their rich friends. I thought I'd seen it all.

I was wrong. Lady Liberty is still holding her hand high but I don't see how. 30+ years ago we opened the doors to "conservative talk radio" and now we've progressed to open hatred in the streets. We are a nation that elected a buffoon whose idea of political discourse is in sentences short enough to fit on a bumper sticker. Even if we drum them all out of public view, it will take generations of hard work to simply regain the little bit of ground we gained in my lifetime before everything started falling apart again.

We worked SO hard to turn our local police departments into a group of people who protect and serve rather than turn the firehoses and attack dogs on citizens exercising their constitutional rights of free assembly. We made so little headway and now we are to a point where the police all over this country feel free to beat up women, shoot unarmed children with no consequence whatsoever.

Donald Trump embodies everything that was ever wrong in America - well with humanity in general. He is all 7 of the deadly sins. The sheer pettiness, greed, sloth, gluttony, wastefulness, frivolousness, disrespect. Just the fact our society gave such a person the limelight at all is an embarrassment. But to exalt him to the highest office in the land is beyond all understanding.

His presidency underscores the fact we, as a group, have had our priorities all wrong for decades. President Obama did his damndest to try and pull us back to some sort of sanity, but we would have none of it. Pigs at the trough under Whistleass got put on a diet, and now put a man in office that is literally the rich flipping us all the bird.

I really don't know where I'm going with all this.... except to say that I'm heartbroken for America and what she's become.

[lpbk2713]

1. Good post. Thank you.

I worry for my grandchildren.

[northoftheborder]

2. Well said. My heart fully agrees w/your sentiments.

Also over 70

[skylucy]

3. ++++++ Well said.

[panader0]

4. Recommended!

And I'm only 66.
"He is all 7 of the deadly sins." Even as an atheist, I agree.

[spiderpig]

24. Does he have a single redeeming quality?

(answering my own question)

NO

Even his relationships with his immediate family are creepy.

Norman Goldman pointed out that he's never had a pet. Even a goldfish.

[Scarsdale]

44. Thank goodness

he does not have any pets, apart from Ivanka of course. He has no soul. An empty shell, perfect for the Russians to control.

[JudyM]

5. I feel you. Heartbreak is the word.

And the global impact, as well... the planet, the people. Here's hoping it turns back around soon.

[Cooley Hurd]

6. You've crystallized my feelings as an "in the last 3rd of my life" member

[MFM008]

7. Perfect

Especially the 7 sins rolled into one fat bloated maggot.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

8. Heartbreaking, yes. But we resist, we persist, we win victories. . . nt

[Amaryllis]

55. Something hopeful:

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029051925
Sen. Wyden's aide told me not to give up hope because...

[we can do it]

9. I'm a little younger, but also feel like this.

[lunatica]

10. I'm 69 and feel much more hopeful

We've seen a lot of really great things in our lifetimes. You and I have seen the greatest advances in civil rights and equality in history and the world. The most recent has been the hard earned right of the gay community to be completely equal to the rest of us. The way I feel about that is that we truly live in a country that is great.

We would never have gotten this far if we hadn't struggled very hard against all the forces of hate that stood in the way with hatred for their fellow man.

I imagine that as I did, you must have despaired that the civil rights of the Black community would ever happen when we watched the horrible attacks on the marchers in the South.

This may seem unsurmountable now but so did all the other crises. But just like this country became better and stronger before, so it will happen again.

[KentuckyWoman]

19. Your point is very well taken and I thank you

I hope you are correct that it's 2 steps forward one step back rather than 1 step forward and 2 back.

Thank you again. I've not been getting enough sleep because my husband is a big kind of sick, (he'll be fine eventually) and being tired it's been harder to see past the current state of affairs to the whole of where we've come from.

I can't say you put a new spring in my step but perhaps my grandkids and their kids will be able to push onward like we did back in the day when we all just knew we were right about everything. (big smile)

[lastlib]

33. It took the bad to get the good, in almost every case.

It took the Bloody Sundays and the Birmingham bombing to brings equality into law and civil rights and voting rights to our minority groups. Maybe if we endure all this bad--(IF we survive it!)--some incredible good will come of it all. Maybe Citizens United will get overturned when people have come to see the tremendous evil it has unleashed on our nation.

Or maybe I've smoked too many of the funny cigarettes with no brand name........?

[classykaren]

48. I pray you are right.

[Amaryllis]

56. See post #55 a few above yours.

[lunatica]

57. Thanks

[mountain grammy]

11. Good post

especially this: Donald Trump embodies everything that was ever wrong in America - well with humanity in general. He is all 7 of the deadly sins. The sheer pettiness, greed, sloth, gluttony, wastefulness, frivolousness, disrespect. Just the fact our society gave such a person the limelight at all is an embarrassment. But to exalt him to the highest office in the land is beyond all understanding.

[3catwoman3]

12. Perfectly stated.

Dictionary.com had a poignant Word of the Day yesterday - saudade.

Pronounced soh-dad--duh.

Definition - a deep emotional state of melancholic longing for a person or thing that is absent.

I have saudade for President Obama and for our country.

[Kimchijeon]

13. I agree with your sentiments

It is really heartbreaking and will be difficult to overcome, assuming we ever escape from the crushing rule of corporate control in government (doubtful, hence the heartbreak)

[VOX]

14. Just turned 68, so I'm right there with you.

All that battling, all that blood shed, in city streets and on college campuses. All the legwork, gathering signatures, working for heartbreak candidates like Eugene McCarthy, Bobby Kennedy and George McGovern. All the riots, the growing pains, the assassinations, the Watergate hearings, the horrible grind of the Vietnam conflict. We gave everything, even our very hearts, to make this country better for *everyone*.

And despite all those decades of effort, THIS is how we wind up? With a seriously ill, jumped-up fascist buffoon and his gang of miscreants who aren't fit to lead a banana republic? With whom Republicans just approved at an insane 84% in the most recent Gallup weekly average? I've thought about walking away from it all and just going off to enjoy what time I have left, as best as I can in a fascist dictatorship. But goddamnit, I cannot stand to see the less fortunate continue to get get steamrollered, or justice not served, or witness our very reality being called into question. I'm tired to the soul right now, but I will continue to fight. I cannot NOT fight-- not while I still draw breath.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/12/the-one-little-number-that-so-far-is-all-of-the-protection-donald-trump-needs/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_number-850a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.cadbdd6d545f

[byronius]

15. We'll muddle through somehow.

It's better right now than it was fifty years ago. And that was much better than a hundred years ago. Liberal thought, sustainability, respect for all life -- it's spreading like a slow virus.

They cheat because they have to to survive. If they can't gerrymander or programmably steal elections they fall to a vanishing minority status, sqwauky but ignorable, which sound like their proper role to me. An example of what not to be. I think Hillary was going to be the death of them, and they knew it, so they cut this deal with the Russians.

I think the founding documents are stronger than this. I think you and I and every other good person -- I'd say certainly more than half our population -- know better and won't let this happen. There are thousands of heroic people in every level of government, people who take this nation's doctrines seriously and pledge their lives to it. As Trump presses the nation to its limits with his bizarre murder-clown act and the Republicans finally bare their bloody teeth and show that they're actually dedicated to Mad Maxian Anarchy, others will wake up and join. The national stress is going to alter all of our perceptions and behavior for four generations.

Point short, it gets better too slowly, but it gets better. And it gets better faster with time.

They can't kill us all. And they would have to. And if they did, they would all die within a generation. Because they're like bad Captain Kirk coming out of the transporter -- they have no plan and they're angry all the time. Sucks to be them. Be grateful we're not them.

[KentuckyWoman]

21. you know how to write.

Whatever else you do to put a roof over you..... I hope you write.

And what you wrote in this post I appreciate. I don't know if you are right, but generally speaking I hope so.

You are correct in that our founding documents are stronger than this, and that we have a lot of good people, some in leadership, that take those very seriously.

I have a cousin who says she feels like this current state of affairs is like a 3 yr old throwing a full tantrum in the supermarket because they want Sugar Smacks instead of Cheerios. She thinks before too long they'll realize Mommy is not paying any attention, won't give them what they want, and unless they want to be lost forever better get up off the floor and act right.

Not as eloquent as yours, but I think you are both telling me the same thing.

A privilege to read your writing. You really are good.

Thank you.

[byronius]

22. Why, thanks for that.

This is me --

So yeah. I write.

[mountain grammy]

27. Nice post. I try to tell myself this every day.

It's getting harder, but I know you're right because in my 70 years on this earth I've seen too much change for the good. The resistance to this change is strong, and now we're stalled for sure, but it will get better.

[marlakay]

16. We are in 60's and wondering

if we will ever get to see things being run right again. I feel we are in a deep spiral down. And not just Trump.

Private prisons making slavery legal.

Even many democrats going along with keeping the bankers and wall street out of jail.

State by state women are losing their rights.

Racism is worse than ever. Even locally a murder happened in my liberal area of a black college kid and things weren't handled right by either the college or local police.

Health care is to the point unless you are covered by work who pays a good chunk of it unaffordable for most people.

It's getting harder to vote, and harder to get people to care to vote because they don't feel like their vote matters.

I feel like we are a nation of people living in a "fight or flight response mode". We are expecting so much to be screwed at all times we are tense waiting for the next thing.

That's why it is no surprise to me when I read how many people are on anti depressants, drinking, doing drugs, emotional eating, etc. we are all looking for something to numb us.

[babylonsister]

17. Brava! Thank you.

You said it all succinctly.

[Kath2]

18. Thank you.

MANY of us agree 100%.

[pansypoo53219]

20. fux gnewz myst be nuked for creating this stupid monster + his fans.

[localroger]

25. I'm 53.

A little different perspective. I'm not old enough to actually remember the activism that led to the civil rights victories of my youth. I was told about and read about how bad it was before. But I do remember Nixon resigning in disgrace, electing a generally decent guy nobody had heard of in 1976, and a general air of hope that we were going to stop killing our kids in stupid wars, make women my equal and take the stigma out of sex and pleasure and fix hunger and poverty and preventable disease.

Then we elected Ronald Reagan, and started the long process of rolling it all back. Bill Clinton seemed to make it better for awhile but he only slowed the pendulum temporarily, he never reversed the direction it had been falling for my whole adult life. When Obama was elected I thought I might finally see it turning around, because frankly I never thought I'd see either a POC or female person elected President.

Then of course Trump, who makes Reagan look like both a genius and a saint. Sure he shouldn't have won and wouldn't have in a more fair system, but it was only possible for him to win because a depressing number of people really were able to look at and listen to the guy and say to themselves sure, that's a guy I want appointing Supreme Court justices and keeping his finger on the nuclear trigger. Maybe the fools who think that way are also victims of a generational propaganda campaign, but even if so the fact is it is working much better than it should be able to. Our Founders understood that the structure they created would be fragile without the wisdom of voters and the strength of those we elect to uphold it.

Because of the betrayal of all my expectations when I entered adulthood I never allowed myself much hope for the future, but today I feel the strongest sense I ever have that it all might actually shatter, leading to an entirely new and most likely far more unpleasant political reality. The lesson of history is depressing as to our chances. And with that, if you don't mind, I will take my leave and pour another glass of wine.

[TxDemChem]

26. You nailed it

A few years ago I was so positive about the direction we were going as a country. But today, I feel like it's a shitshow. I can't tell what direction we are moving towards, but it's not where I want to go.

[PsychoBabble]

28. Not QUITE your age, but chasing fast, and ...

I agree with your observations.

When you measure the DECADES it took to create those gains, and the speed with which we lost them .... scary.

However, While GOP was busy w ALEC, State govt takeovers, gerrymandering, etc ... DEMS were not doing equivalent political infrastructure things. We thought our IDEAS ... and desire for COMMON GOOD ... was enough.

It wasn't.

We must be smarter this next time.

Deep breath.

ONWARD.

[Honeycombe8]

29. Me, too. I've never experienced something like this with our govt before. It IS heartbreaking. nt

[UTUSN]

30. I'm in the same age range, and everything goes in cycles. I hope to go out on a high note.

[elfin]

31. With you - also in my "prime"

With a background in Education with a History Major.

Have seen a lot and know that our ship of state will eventually right itself, but the realization that I may not be here to witness it dropped me to the floor.

Our age adds another dimension to our despair of current events.

I feel set apart when I witness the rage of those younger. Our distress is qualitatively different. Because this era is also qualitatively different and may take a much, much longer recovery than most envision.

it is not normal by any comparison to challenges past.

[furtheradu]

32. YOU SPEAK for SO many Americans.

I am also aching for OUR NATION. Please STAY STRONG! I have to tell You, I am more enCouraged TODAY, than I was 1 week ago.. trump's self inflicted destruction is taking its toll, even on republikers.WE will prevail.
Take a break & a Breath when YOU need, take goood Care of YourSelf.. 💜
but WE *MUST* continue to be LOUD, verbal, ACTIVE. I know YOU KNOW, WE must keep the Faith & fight for American VALUES.
WE can get this Sacred Work done. Do NOT doubt.
& I surely do appreciate YOU & Your posts.

[ProudLib72]

34. Earlier today, I wanted to start a thread about how embarrassed

I am in my country. You thread made me realize this is our country and we (the majority) feel embarrassed and disheartened. However, I want to remain convinced that we will manage to wrest the country back from evil that smothers it. We are gaining momentum daily. It will be that momentum that carries us beyond the immediate darkness and into a truly great age of progressive politics.

[B Stieg]

35. Hang in there!

Remember, you're tougher than Trump!

[smirkymonkey]

36. K&R

[BarbD]

37. From Hope and Yes We Can to this nightmare.

I'm pushing 80 and have lived through McCarthy, Better dead than Red, America love it or leave it. I worked on the Obama campaign and cheered in 2008 only to be disappointed in how we failed to support Obama by not working hard enough to keep a Democratic congress. Obama was a black man in a white man's world.

Now, we cannot stop fighting. I refuse to allow this evil to survive in my grandchildren's world.

[defacto7]

38. I feel the same sadness, the same disappointment.

You write truth from the broad perspecive time provides. Living history and retaining the whole picture is one of the greatest gifts a human can experience. It's also one of the greatest gifts you could give to those who would hear. If there is hope for humanity the path would be found in the memory and experience of those like yourself who have fought for collective human rights against the cheep dribble that comes from the short-sighted, the greedy, the ignorant and the gullible who have brought us to where we are now. There will always be a question whether present and future generations will learn from the past and fight for the common good or choose to sink into slavery as has happened over and over in history. We fight on.. we hope and warn. People will hear or ignore. We keep on.. and on. That's what we do.

[Kittycow]

39. All you old people have made me feel better :p

--64 yr old in PDX

[lucca18]

40. Well said!

Trump is destroying what is great about America....

[Paka]

41. K&R

Good Post!

[Cha]

42. Well Done, KentuckyWoman.. Too many took

President Obama for granted. Did not appreciate what we had.

[Hekate]

43. I will be 70 in September, and I understand everything you are saying...

This week has been horrible, and the last blow for me was the Russians and TASS in the Oval Office with the idiot, unescorted by so much as a translator. Plus Kissinger the same day.

For a man obsessed with "optics" this was no accident -- it had to have been carefully constructed as the most massive FU to the American people ever done in history.

I spent part of the morning trying to articulate what my personal image of my native land is and has always been (despite the blows of the BushCheney era) -- things like why I thought it was worthwhile having served 13 years on the County Affirmative Action Commission -- versus what is going on now, this stinking mass of corruption. I came home and spent the afternoon crying with loss.

We had a chance with Obama, and all the time this festering poison lay beneath the surface, ready to break out in a plague of boils. My husband checked a book out of the library last week that had been vandalized with some nasty anti-Semitic slur about the authors.

For those in our age group, we could be staring at the shape of the rest of our lives. Just saying this here at DU makes me feel as though I've failed in some fundamental way.

As with you, I don't know where this post is going.... But here it is.

[llmart]

45. So true...

I'm closing in on 70 myself and I feel the same way. Those of us of a certain age remember how President Carter was the last time we saw our country care about something more than the economy and money. He asked us to sacrifice for the sake of the earth and our fellow man. I took all that to heart as a young woman, wife, mother and taught those values to my children. Then Reagan descended on us and the greed is good, look out for yourself and the hell with the common good mood took over the country and it's been downhill since then. Yes, President Obama tried to get that back but the Republicans wouldn't let it go too far.

Now I fear the younger generations may not even know what it's like to not be materialistic and to realize that working towards a common good makes for a nicer life for them too.

[HelenWheels]

46. I'm 79 and I fear for my children

I know exactily how you feel. Two of my kids and their families are Democrats who also decry what is going on in this country. One of my kids has drunk the koolade and fed it to her family. Our famiy is torn apart and I am sure there are many families like ours. This is a national nightmare.

[WyLoochka]

47. "He is all 7 of the deadly sins."

sheer pettiness, greed, sloth, gluttony, wastefulness, frivolousness, disrespect.

Thanks for putting it this way. Need to point this out to my "so called" Christian acquaintances.

[bucolic_frolic]

49. As soon as

the GOP Congress steals our Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, natural resources,
freedoms, then they'll find a spine and investigate Trump. We will never be the same.

[Useless in FL]

50. Message deleted by DU the Administrators

[shenmue]

51. Hang in there

[catbyte]

52. I'm almost 62, so I'm right there with you. This picture describes how I've felt

every day since November 9, 2016. You've put it much more eloquently than I could have. Thank you.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

53. That was so well said.

And especially this:

30+ years ago we opened the doors to "conservative talk radio"

[KPN]

54. Great post! You speak for most if not all of us here at DU.

[Butterflies]

58. I agree with everything you wrote. It's all so sad.

So many people brainwash themselves with right-wing media, and it is destroying our country. I work with these people, and I don't know how to deal with them. They are weirdly insistent that the poor suffer as much as possible. When did Christianity become so cruel and GREEDY?

[calimary]

59. I'm heartbroken, too, KentuckyWoman.

I'm 63 and I've been keeping track for a fair amount of time. I can't EVER remember a time when people in this country started turning on each other like we see now.

Everything seems upside down. Now, it's okay to grab a woman like that.

Now, it's okay to lie openly, and change one's story several times in a single day.

Now, it's okay to poke fun at a disabled person - not only in words but in physical actions.

Now, it's okay to instill fear in vast swaths of the population in this country, and elsewhere around the world.

Now, it's okay to threaten people openly.

Now, it's okay to sanction beastly behavior in others around you.

Now, it's okay to joke about proving how popular you are by shooting somebody in public.

Now, it's okay to sow chaos and uncertainty everywhere around you.

Now, it's okay to speak without thinking, and ignore the fact that words have consequences.

Now, it's okay to ignore the facts, period.

Now, all this and more - this mean-spirited, anti-social, greedy, sneaky, inconsiderate, duplicitous, loutish behavior is OKAY.

Every time I see a republi-CON in the news, usually defending Agent Orange, I find myself mumbling - "and this is okay with you?"

I feel like some of these assholes should be given a hammer, a chisel, and a free ticket on the ferry out to Liberty Island. Let them chisel the plaque inscribed with THAT poem off the front of the pedestal on which the Statue of Liberty stands. The plaque that features the landmark quote: "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free..." Maybe they should knock it off its mounting and let it crash to the ground. Because that's not us anymore, to a tragically statistically large percent. Agent Orange has even made a liar out of that poem. Turned that precious passage into a cast-in-bronze lie. He's managed to bring out the worst in everybody, and let all their demons get out and run free. America, and far too many Americans, lost something very big when he grabbed the White House. Like maybe our collective soul.

I've NEVER seen it this bad. All those things I've loved about my country - to a great extent, they're gone.

And we have to get them back.