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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSomething has happened over the decades. What happened
to celebrities coming together singing 'We are the world" and now we have children marching for their safety? America has gone astray with this asshole trump as president! We seem to be going backwards rather than moving forward! I am so confused and I wish this piece a shit as president could get impeached.
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HopeAgain
(4,407 posts)My guess.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)and just earlier tonight I looked at Independent Lens with workers in San Francisco advocating for workers rights in the vineyards, most of the workers were Mexicans. America is regressing and it is sad that such a powerful country is going downhill and the current resident in the white house is an effing racist. I knew that when I saw the first episode of his reality show, apprentice, seems like he got an orgasm when he fired someone, he looked like the devil incarnate! I thought to myself, that guy is a racist and a bigot, never watched another episode.
Who would have thought that he would reside in the White House after we thought America was ready to unite and elect a black President. That cockroach trump brought out the worst of the racists in America when he got elected!
Civic Justice
(870 posts)Trump focused on entertainer who had their hey day a decade or two earlier and had become challenged to find the notoriety and income they had previously had.
Trump got a high, from Denigrating People, whom once were headlines news maker in the media.
That show was purely based on "Vile" and "Desecration of Peoples Dignity". I could never figure why anyone would subject themselves to be on it. He played on the fact that many had fallen on hard times and would submit themselves to public humiliation for a pay day.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)they were on there! Guess they got paid to be fired!
I kept asking myself why that kind of garbage was on TV, but it is America! Dumb down the population with shit and eventually they will vote for an asshole, hence trump, the dumbest idiot on earth.
salin
(48,955 posts)n/t
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)the war mongerer. Why is this jackass not being impeached?
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)Granted, economic situations shift over the decades, as do other aspects of daily life, but the influence of the "Moral Majority," right-wing hate radio, then Fox, now Breitbart...they impact the culture tremendously.
I didn't start getting hated on for liberal/progressive views until the late 80's. Then it was like a freight train with people parroting Limbaugh, openly denigrating anyone they perceived as on the "left, feminazis, bleeding hearts, politically correct idiots" etc.
TV and movies are very influential, and as a whole tend to be more culturally progressive, but the same people who love Limbaugh, Fox, et al somehow compartmentalize. They can watch and enjoy those shows but are rarely influenced by them; they completely embrace the right-wing rhetoric in "real" life.
Propaganda is powerful.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)how the media influences people to the extent that they cannot think - it seems like two Americas in one country. How could so many people be so brainwashed to believe that the republicans are on their side? It just baffles my mind!
Do the majority of Americans get fox news for free and have to pay for CNN and MSNBC?
Lars39
(26,109 posts)school, local government, internet,etc.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)Here in Canada, the TV is on but there is no programming going on! How on earth is that possible in the US, that is a sure thing to indoctrinate people while they are waiting to see a doctor, dentist, etc.
Lars39
(26,109 posts)Heavy empasis on obedience, conformity...
TVs set to Fox news in a lot of public places. Heck, where I live the Christmas parade was even called a Star Spangled Christmas. The nationalism is very pervasive in places.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)I think anyone prone to authoritarian systems, including family systems, are at the top of the list to fall for propaganda. Gosh, the right-wing mindset has been explored and dissected ad nauseum -- and I agree with the OP that so many of us try to understand them but they give zero shits about understanding other people.
I hear you. Bottom line, they're predisposed to believe bullshit and, in my very, very strong opinion, at the core of it lies fear of The Other. Diversity is NOT a good thing to most of the people in question. Also their ME worldview, not WE, but again that's because they seem to be afraid of everything. All their chest thumping in the world about how tough they are can't conceal how consumed they are by fear.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)The Democrats are caring but the republicans tell you to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, that i so uncaring.
I have no idea how some people get so confused with right from wrong but I will share a short story with you. I was passing through Florida on my way to Guyana, met up with an Aunt (Dad's sister and she always hung her mouth where the soup leaks), her TV was on fox news and the first thing I said was "you all look at that station", then I thought to myself, I had not seen them for 25 years! My Aunt said that fox new was real, I clammed up and left after visiting. People are so very vulnerable and easily led. One has to pay attention to world news and not only fox news to broaden your horizon.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)Most of my family - in various parts of the country, South, North - are all Fox News people, and having an intelligent, informed, rational conversation is impossible. I gave up a long time ago. They don't even realize getting info from one source is a problem. They hear what they want to hear, see what they want to see. Trump's ridiculous Fake News mantra against mainstream media was like a drug and gave them permission to not even contemplate other sources (if any were inclined to to begin with).
It really is maddening. Fortunately, I'm essentially estranged from everyone and have been for a while due to their hardcore racism and bigotry which Fox and the rest of the right-wing media continue to fuel and make worse and worse.
OneGrassRoot
(22,920 posts)So even if they aren't the majority, they sure feel like they are. We know they feel they ARE America. They stay in a bubble (and see no problem with doing that) and only with others of like mind, which strengthens their bravado, false as it is.
Civic Justice
(870 posts)Last edited Wed Mar 28, 2018, 09:12 AM - Edit history (1)
Over the many decades preceding the past one..... many things continued to take shape. Since the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which was closely followed by "Industry Outsourcing", which was a means to 'remove the accessibility of jobs away from minorities and women, as an aim to preserve the "gap between white and minority wealthy", and the Busting of Union's, beause White Male Class and Craft, detested the thought of Minorities having Class and Craft Status, which gave them the same liberties and better pay that white males had been accustomed to. When no specific work was available for Class and Craft White men, took it easy, but they detested the thought of "women and minorities" having that option when there was no specific Class and Craft work.
Overall... the "Exodus of Industry" has many motivations, but at core, America's white establishment within the Higher Administrative and Executive Ranks was not going to allow by any means the accessibility of women and minorities to gain "Economic Equilibrium", and certainly they were not open to the concept of women and Minorities in the Higher Administrative and Executive Ranks, and if they had to cede any element of accessibility, it would be to White Women, and Black Women, because he felt he could still control them. He was determined that minority men, especially Black men would not have accessibility. It was a means to block out- Access to the General Middle Class Status, so women and minorities would not have the same equilibrium as the white male dominated society, who refused to give up the positions of social and civic dominance. They wanted to keep what they had, which was white male dominance over women and her economic and social and civic status, and dominance over minorities and their economic and social and civic status. Power will never relinquish the position of power willingly. One has to go all the way back to understanding the act, which white men, hijacked the Constitution and Claimed it was only for him, by not considering black people as person, and women were consider as object to control by white man, thus she was not counted as Person. A total desecration of the Constitution, and since that time, white men have taken upon himself to "RATION" OUT rights to women and minorities only to the degree he could maintain control to do so, and benefit himself morose, without enfranchising women and minorities with full equality as person!!!! the controls engaged by the wealthy upon the masses.
Some should go back and read MLK's speech at Selma. http://kingencyclopedia.stanford.edu/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_address_at_the_conclusion_of_selma_march/index.html
The white male dominated system's first idea was that Poor Whites would be "collateral damage", what he did not count on was that "collateral damage would sweep across the nation". He did all he could to give poor whites a line of credit, and specialty service class tech labor, but that too dried up, when Industry left.
That was followed by an increasing anguish at Mexicans when no longer could the average white person hire Mexicans cheaply, so they began to seek out the jobs that Mexican men had been doing, they did as much as they could to keep those jobs away from black men, and as time moved on, they went after the jobs that had supported many Asian men for decades upon decades.
Now, we see "white men" in vast numbers with Trucks loaded with "Lawn Care Equipment", a job they had not wanted anything to do with just a couple of decades ago, we see more white men now seeking "handi man' jobs, again jobs they wanted nothing to do with in such large numbers as they do today.
Then there came a wave of women moving into Managerial Jobs, which the white man could not boot her out, and they became even more anguished when their boss in many cases was now a woman.
America History tells us many things... for the Centuries that Women were not allowed to work, Minorities were either slaves, or indentured servants, share cropper and various service class technicians. The well to do were from shopkeeps to the administrators, and executives and they filled the ranks of the Police Departments, Fire Departments, Courts and Every Profession and again, the laws of the 1960's forced those doors open, and HAD to follow up with Affirmative Action because the white establishment engaged covert means to keep minorities and women out.
They demanded "qualification testing and certifications far and beyond what was required of white men, and minorities and women gained those certification and became very proficient as a result. This angered the white establishment of the wealthy who thought they controlled the systems and the more control they found they could not exercise, they engaged in many other tactics.
We saw in the 1980's President Reagan sent the scourge of Drugs down upon the minority communities and it spilled over into the poor white communities and even today it has morphed into drug epidemic's that he has only come to address when it impacts the middle class white society.
History continues to show the White Establishment of the wealthy manipulators, that "Racism is Vile and Its Destructive" to ALL OF AMERICANS. Still he continues with the madness, because now he pays himself like a Slave Owner, with 10's of millions, until the White Industrialist Now count their companies worth in Billions... Yet, the general society is still being Paid at a Minimum Wage, that equals no more than what it would cost in modern day to "house and feed a slave", which is a little less than what it cost to pay an "indentured service class white person" to cover the basics of house and food.
As I said before, the lust and drive to not give up slavery and involuntary servitude, was "embedded within the 13th Amendment, and today... there is a dire need for those words to be stricken from the Thirteen Amendment.
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/1105732
Today, we have a Right Leaning Supreme Court and the Trump and Republican want to fill our lower courts with Right Leaning Judges, and forestall as much of Civil Liberties as they can, and Give as Much power to Corporations as they can, because their agenda has not changed. They see Business And Industry as being Above and More Important Than People, and the struggle of the solid Democrats is to see People as being Above and More Important Than Industry. Because the solid democrats know that without people, there is no Business and No Industry, it is People, who make Business Prosper and it is People who make the Products that Industry produces and it is People's Consumption of those products that keeps business afloat.
Yet, the Business and Industry wants to take the "voice of the people and silence it". They want to push policy and regulation, which has no regard for people,but all devoted concerns for Business and Industry, even when it promotes toxicity's upon the earth and communities at the expense of the people and their lives, for the sake of profit for the wealthy industrialist.
As Democrats, we must become "unified"... the divides of the right leaning democrats, and the soft side Democrats, must bond with the Solid Democrats.... As well as the Far Left Democrats must too bond with the Solid Democrats, and understand that the Democrats when unified become the Party of Progressive Growth and Development of Democracy, and Promote the spread of Equality within Diversity, of Ethnicity, Race and Gender.
I've seen on this site in the short time I've been here, the mentality of the "infighter" within the Democratic Party, I've seen the resentment at 'engaging dialog", and the contempt's at discussing variables and elements that need to be discussed to bring unity, and I've seem the overconfidence that thinks it does not have to engage dialog, if one has claimed Democratic Status for a span of time.
We should have learned well the less of Non Functional Overconfidence, in the divisiveness that led to the splitting of the vote and the abstaining from voting, which opened the doors for Right Wing Republican to gain control of both the Congress and the Office of the Presidency.
We have to face and deal with the "real truths", not the fiction of "thinking it will all be alright", and the fancy of assuming more than one is willing to invest in the details to gain assurances. I've felt the impact of those who resent dialog, from resentment to those who are with thin skin to claim they are talked down to, because they have little patience for dialog, and rely on "assumptions that everyone understand", when fact is, everyone is not on the same page, which is why we have "right leaning democrats, "soft democrats" and solid democrats, and then there is the "independents" who want many things including some want far left policies as if the system will "flip to extremes overnight"... when true fact is "change is a slow process and the fact of 100's of millions of people should indicate to even an imbecile, that change is a process that can only achieve cohesion through dialog.
When GHW Bush led us to war and resulted to preside over the near decimation of this economy, and left many Americans jobless and homeless, Only then did people say... "let's change", President Obama ran on a platform of Change, and the more he worked to promote change, the more passively lackadaisical people became, and in the middle of all the hard work he was promoting and doing, the passivity expected it to move at lightening pace, in the middle of trying to wind down the war games and at the same time build back the economy, and people's exaggerated expectations led them to sit out the Midterm, and even the Democratic Politicians became complacent and set the stage for the Republican to over take Congress and go into all out Attack mode against the Change that Obama was working to promote.
Republican became so vile, as they watched the passivity of Democrats, until Republican Made a Pledge To Attack Anything and Everything that Obama proposed, made effort to do, and everything that he achieved doing. The passivity and overconfidence carried on, until the 2016 elections, which not only allowed people to be misled by manipulative information on social media, to Russian trolls infecting every technology platform for communication, and hacking into our voting system and our political party's data, which followed up on the previous 2 yrs Republican spent on the Smear Campaign against Hillary, 2 yrs before any Candidature was announced, with the Benghazi spins. Only when facts fell in the lap of Republican and exposed them as being the irresponsible party, who had the responsibility to fund for security, did they become silent, but they'd invoked the damage and infected the weaker minds of Democrats who fell for the smear they engaged upon Hillary and the attacks upon and against Obama.
None of this stuff happened in a vacuum... People became so enamored with things like Facebook, they forgot to think!! They blinded themselves to the "manipulative usage" and allowed Republican gaming to "control the narratives", it was so bad, that every media including more liberal media's could not speak of full spectrum reporting, they became "incessantly consumed with Focus on Trump, because the drama created astronomical Advertising Dollars, and they blinded themselves by the Advertising Money, until they gave him $$Billions of Dollars of FREE advertisement 24/7 and they still are doing it, 24/7. He comes up with anything, to throw confusion and while the Media spins on into the confusion, behind the scenes the Republican are changing policy on every level.
For over 2 yrs now, the media has been fixated on the "drama game Trump and Republican are playing, and behind the scenes they are dismantling Decades upon Decades of Regulations and Policies and weakening Department and Divisions. Here we are 14 months after they gained the seat of the Presidency, and many Departments are left without leadership and position unfilled, and many headed by people who have no idea of the responsibility those departments and divisions were established to conduct. Every week Trump comes up with something of Absurd display, the Media goes into a spin for 3 days, until he throws more confusion, and people get lost in the confusion while policies on the Federal level that impacts states is being done on a daily basis to dismantle and weaken the American system it took us Centuries and Decades to Build.
We have Right Leaning Judges 'everyday" passing ruling, that have consequences that will impact us for decades to come, yet, we are spinning in drama, about a Porn Star.... yes, deal with the covert acts of paying for silence, but get over the fictions of thinking one is going to head some salacious erotica. Sex is a generic function, thus so, one can get over expecting to hear how many positions people twisted their bodies to engage it. If ones wants to deal with something in that respects, then it is the "Moral break down of cycles of infidelity", which is an integrity flaw, which demonstrates a lack of self dignity and a disgrace to the institution of marriage. Then address the fact that this man, desecrates the institution of marriage, and has the audacity to attack homosexuals who want to marry and do uphold the morality and virtue within their dedication of marriage relations.
We had better wake up in the true sense of being awakened, as the White Evangelicals in America, are still pushing the ideology of the era they are most proud of; which is the history of slavery's denigration of people of color and the vile of segregationist madness and the promotion of some delusion of white superiority, while they try and protect the historical acts of wanting "white privilege" to dominate the social and civic atmosphere and society. They want to push their twisted brand of malicious convolution of the Bibles own words and control the people through their own Faith with this madness, to prolong the system they devised during the era of Slavery and Segregation, by claiming and promoting White Nationalist as a Dominating program over America. They seek to Usurp the United States Government with the same Ideals that the Confederates engaged more than 150+ yrs ago, to give control over to the Industrialist and the Wealthy.
Yes, there is much that has taken place... and we must refocus and gain our own control over the narrative that dominate our focus. We are functioning in a 'delayed reactionary mode", as if we are daily waiting on the Republican to do more stuff that controls the narrative, while we make sarcastic remarks and push slap stick wittiness, while we are being overcome by a continue acts by republican to change the Courts and the Laws, and Governance methods, and we push a few slap stick comments and consider ourselves as being clever or the comedic player of the day.
We thought it to be non consequential when we watched Tea Party take over Congress, and we watch the constant attack upon and against a public service program of ACA and when people like Scott Walker attacked Labor Unions and people like Bobby Jindal decimated the State of Louisiana and embedded it with debt, and left a mess still existing from the ravages of Katrina, to people like Christie playing mafia games with his role as Governor, and Arizona Governor and their Dissing of the President, to the madness of allowing Republican to fill State and Local Governing Position.
We watched six years + of republican attacking Medical Care, when they had already busted up Unions decades earlier which led to a drain away of people's Job supported insurance coverage, which set the stage for higher medical cost to the citizens while enriching Medical and Pharmacy Industry/
I posted a Thread asking : What Do We Want? ( we need to know and be cohesive in understanding what we want)
https://upload.democraticunderground.com/100210402680
We are at the point that we need to conclusively know... "What Do We Want"... when we know that, we have a premise to be bonded together.... as Democrats.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)not care about the safety of children, not now, not ever. The NRA has to go, but who is going to bell that cat. No president can get electoral reform done. As far as I am concerned, a handful of states is not credible to elect a present, the founding fathers did not have faith in the people voting, so am wondering, why get the vote out when a piece a shit got less votes but got elected president. I believe in proportional representation, that is when my vote counts.
It just baffles mind mind how a country could think so different! On the one hand, you have Democrats who care for people and then you have the republicans who could not care a shit about anyone!
Civic Justice
(870 posts)The Reason Electoral College was established, was at a time, when many states had not become populated as it is today. It is an "outdated system" that must be abolished !!!!
We have the "Delegates who Support selecting a Party Nominee, that is enough representative control, We DON'T NEED an Electoral College to over-ride the voice of the people.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)politician want to change the system. The electoral college is archaic and needs to be changed. However, it works for the republicans and am sure they will not want to make any changes.
You know, in most third world countries, when elections are compromised, they have to vote again. I just cannot understand how in a country like America, with Russia's involvement, and all the negativity against trump did not help Mrs. Clinton to win. That was a sad night for me!
ananda
(28,858 posts)That's what happened.. though it's always been there
just not so egregious and openly hateful.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)trump brought out all the hatred from the bigots who went underground for eight years during President Obama's time. trump escalated their hatred and now they are like monsters! It is such a pity that a country started to make bad decisions during bush's time to invade Iraq and now trump has appointed bolton, the bomber, who most likely want to bomb Iran!
The US never helps any country, it always fucks it up and it has now fucked up the Middle East, hence ISIS. Well, if someone comes into your house, won't you try to protect yourself. I remember when the US invaded little Grenada, the US is a frigging bully!
Demsrule86
(68,543 posts)impeachment is useless unless the GOP Senators agree to join Democrats and convict Trump which mean removal. We cannot mathematically get enough Democratic Senator in 18 to have the Senate majority with sufficient numbers to convict Trump.
Civic Justice
(870 posts)Our goal should be at this time "unify" ... to RETAKE Congress, and if Trump is impeached before or after and maybe even imprison Trump, We'd have ability to 'handcuff Pence" in ways that he cannot further damage us - when we regain Control over Congress and then work to gain Control over States and Local Goverance away from the destructive forces of Republican Ideology.
Also, Right now, we must be THANKFUL for Ginsberg , Breyer and Kennedy and hope they can stay healthy and not retire during Republican Leadership....
Hopefully we can find means to Remove Thomas from the Bench, we need pressures on Alito and Gorsuch
Demsrule86
(68,543 posts)can do.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)Those demorats (that is what they are) who feel they need to keep their jobs are only for it because of their salary. They have no conscience, I could not believe that in matters of grave importance, some demorats voted against the Democratic Party. What bothers me is how money talks but morals go into the gutter. Never thought that some demorats would vote with republicans.
I know, I was just hoping that Mueller investigation would eventually indict the piece a shit!
Civic Justice
(870 posts)We have many "Right Leaning Democrats", who are far different than Soft Democrats, and not like Solid Democrats. We had many people who were Right Leaning Democrats and some of the Soft Democrats that voted for Trump, and the same ones did not stand up in full promotional support of Obama and his Administrations Policies, and they stood in 'fixed silence" during the midterms that left us with a Republican Controlled Congress.
How do we "Unify Democrats" is a big question, that we need to find the solution to do so. Sadly, even the presence of Trump has not achieved the "cohesion" among Democrats that is Truly needed.
Therefore, again, I ask.... "What Do We Want", when we can get that narrative clear, then we have a basis for Unifying Democrats.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)That person needs to keep their job as an elected representative. However, right is right and wrong is wrong. If someone wants to keep their job because their electorate is for gun rights rather than voting for gun control so that innocent children are not killed in schools, that person is not a soft democrat, that person is protecting his salary. Most times, money is more important than lives for these callous electorates. They need to frigging go. The world is not perfect but am sure if we try hard enough, we could find people to elect, who will vote for gun control!
Demsrule86
(68,543 posts)not be forced to vote for it...in order to get and keep a majority the way the Senate works, we need red state Democrats...and that is just math...count it out yourself...and that calls for moderates. I would say that the same is true in some purple states like Virginia...where liberals had success at the legislature level and below...but a centrist governor won. We have to deal with the reality of our situation and continuing to engage in fantasy politics will mean more losses...and honestly, there will not be a progressive movement at all if we don't start winning.
Demsrule86
(68,543 posts)and a pardon or more likely.
Generic Brad
(14,274 posts)Brighter days are ahead. We just have to go deeper into the darkness before we can collectively appreciate the light again.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)How deeper do we need to go before this nightmare of trump ends? I really do not share your optimism. With the bully nominating Bolton as his security advisor, the middle east must be shuddering.
Generic Brad
(14,274 posts)But the sheer incompetence of Trump and the way he has alienated everyone around him indicates to me that all he has left is angrily lashing out like the wounded animal he has become. Yes, he will be ferocious and do damage. But in the end, he and his ilk will lose.
akbacchus_BC
(5,704 posts)Pence is not a compromise but I hope his offsprings do not go murder wild life in Africa, like trump's.
IronLionZion
(45,427 posts)They see some changes they don't like and assign blame to other changes they see that might not even be connected but they lump it in together and long for a previous time that seemed better by comparison.
While mass shootings are up to insane levels, overall gun violence is down in other areas and fewer people have guns.
Our current asshole in chief launched his political career by claiming the former US president had fake documents and wasn't a real American. Many people believe they can have an easier time getting jobs by taking out their competition. Racism and treating minorities like foreigners in our own country is one way to thin the herd. For example, someone having a frustrating time getting or keeping IT jobs might find it appealing to think of me as an H-1b even though I was born and raised in America. It happens all the time.
I hope when they impeach and remove this shit stain on America, they also remove his religious extremist VP.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)about a month ago I found myself tuning in, and watching and singing along with this repeatedly, with tears streaming down my face:
Then I tuned in to this one and watched, and sang along, several more times:
What has happened? We've glorified self-centeredness, bullying, hate, and fear. We've turned away from empathy, from humility, from generosity of spirit, from inclusive community.
