IMO, are we overlooking the question, "what is there to win"?

[CK_John]

Who really wants to go through the next 2 yrs and then 4 more of the same BS of a flat earth Congress?

The public has to go with a kick them all out election, which I don't see happening or sit at home and see if it get fixed before 2020 which to me is the most likely.

[merrily]

1. What is the alternative? Mass suicides? Most of us ARE going through the next few years, no matter

what. And those who don't get to go through the next few years probably would do almost anything to change that.

Cheer up!

[CK_John]

2. That long list of candidates makes me believe the party is going to sit this one out and

see who falls out of the Clown car until 2020.

[merrily]

8. No matter how important politics is--and it is--politics is not all there is to life.

You cannot let yourself think things like "I don't even want to go through the next few years."

Do whatever you can to improve things--not just political things, but whatever affects you. Enjoy whatever you can enjoy and try to make the best of the rest. If you are depressed, seek help. If you need help finding someone, pm me and I will do what I can.

Whatever the political problems are, we'll all be in the same boat and we will all get through them together. And, eventually, things will improve.

[MineralMan]

3. Same question every election brings up.

There's a lot to win in 2016, and even more to lose. Imagine this country right now with a Republican-dominated Congress and a Republican President. That's what we have to lose.

It would be wonderful if we could turn the country around in a single election. It would be terrific if we could elect progressives into every legislative office, both state and federal. Wonderful, terrific, but completely impossible in the real world.

What we can do, and must do, is to elect a Democrat as President and turn out in numbers high enough to recapture control of the House and Senate. We can do that. If we will. If we "sit at home and see if it gets fixed," though, we'll get the other alternative described in the first paragraph of this reply. That's what we'll get. That's what we have to lose.

That's always what we have to win and lose in elections in the United States. Voters are almost equally divided. Who wins and who gets control of our legislative and executive offices depends entirely on who shows up to vote. That's something we can work on.

Not huge changes. They aren't even on the ballot. Incremental improvements. That's what will be on the ballot. We can either get those improvements or get nothing beneficial. It's our choice.

[CK_John]

6. Could have, would have, and should have in 2016.

[randome]

4. Has a political party in the U.S. EVER been this dysfunctional before?

I'm thinking the GOP is in new territory now and it's impossible to predict the near-term future.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[CK_John]

5. We had 1812, 1860, 1890, 1929 and the 1960's. Remember McGovern?

[randome]

7. I was alive in the 60s but not that cognizant of politics.

I think the GOP has 'taken a bullet' in the form of the Tea Party, though. It's a lingering death, unfortunately.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]"The whole world is a circus if you know how to look at it."
Tony Randall, 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964)[/center][/font][hr]

[CK_John]

9. Society cannot judge a plan or a party until it gives it a chance to work. I

believe we are in that stage, they are going to go with the teabagger until 2020.