This was all for nothing, Part 2 -- My Democratic friend's final word.

[ancianita]

I was saying the real goal - stopping Trump - was not realized in any meaningful way at all.

And I strongly disagree with the notion that any significant number of Americans are learning much about the civics of all of this.
A few? Sure.

But the conservatives have done far more to muddy the understanding of the masses than the factual events have.

This is yet another instance of how controlling the narrative controls how the masses think about certain things.

Most liberals I have talked to at length have ended up with LESS of a solid idea of how our civics works because of the failure of the Mueller Report with regards to its target - Trump. Most of them have conveyed in one way or another that they know less than they thought they did about the civics.

The conservatives went to great lengths to engineer that, and they achieved it.

The liberals have not gone through great lengths to engineer ANYTHING about how the masses think about things. And they achieved that goal as well.

Effectively nobody cares about or can name any of the people that went to jail because of the Mueller report. All that will have less than 1/10th of 1% of an effect on the 2020 elections.

What WILL have a greater effect on the 2020 elections will be the widespread (however wrong) feeling that the Democrats are “Whiny losers” who DO appear to have been engaged in “witch hunts” or whatever crap BUT EFFECTIVE branding they were aware of.

I watch and I see college educated sophisticated Republicans gear their messaging towards the masses - who are definitely NOT that.

I watch and I see the college educated sophisticated Democrats gear their message towards other college educated sophisticated people.

Entirely missing the masses.

As far as I can see, it is only Trump’s extreme horribleness that is producing the modest Democratic gains of the 2018 mid-terms.

We will see if that continues into 2020 and into the voting for President and the Senate.
I sure hope it does, and something tells me it will.
But just as many things tell me it won’t.

As I frequently say: A country’s population that scores a dismal 35th globally in math, science, and reading is not likely to make good decisions.

He was right. I was wrong.

I'm taking a break from all this seeming politics of inevitability.

Everything he says, I always saw it coming, and screamed my bloody head off and worked for humane goals, Democratic Party goals, for decades. So I'll be damned if I'm going to cry when I fought my best.

I'm going to go have a smoke and a drink.

Thanks, DU. You're still my anchor.

If you got this far, thanks for reading.

[LovingA2andMI]

1. Is there a purpose here for posting this dribble?

Seriously?

[ancianita]

3. Feedback for me. Thanks for yours.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

4. I think you want the word drivel

and I think the author has it right. The Democratic Party needs a national spokesperson who can articulate a message on a weekly basis that will break through the wall of Republican bullshit. I don't see anything like that happening. We are being buried in an avalanche of lies and mis-information. Remember there is a TV network and hundreds of conservative radio outlets raining that crap on the nation daily. What does our side have?

[dustyscamp]

12. We have Rachel Maddow, Steven Colbert, The Jimmys & Seth Meyers

Plus some small youtubers like David Pakman Show & a few Twitter people

[Curtis]

14. Yes, we do have those people and a few more

However, they are so busy deflecting the constant bullshit from the GOP and not putting out a unified single message of our own. Our message is just responding to the other sides lies and misinformation along with a cacophony of different ideas.

[LovingA2andMI]

15. We said what we said....

Dribble.

[Aussie105]

2. Yes, seriously.

Point being, that what was done, will take time to undo.

The election process was subverted and threw a maverick into the White House.

Those who thought that the Mueller report would make Trump leave the White House, were wrong.

Those who think that the current impeachment moves will make Trump leave, are wrong too.

There is no easy fix.

What does need fixing is:
1. Removing outside influences from the next election.
2. The Electoral College needs neutering.
3. Gerrymandered districts need revising.
4. Effective communication needs to be restored. Especially the MSM to the electorate.
5. Election propaganda (aka TV ads) need to be put in a positive frame, ie explain policy positions, and not be attack ads.
6. People will need to go out and vote. Vote on policy, not personality politics.

Only then can the next election produce a correct result. (And 'correct' does not mean a Democratic Party candidate gets in, just a sane one who knows how to do the job for the betterment of US citizens.)

[ancianita]

11. I'd add getting Citizens United dark money and "money as speech" & corporate personhood rescinded.

[2naSalit]

17. +10000000000000000000!!!

[global1]

18. Your Post May Be The Most Serious Post I've Ever Read Here On DU.....

i've used the word 'demoralization'. Every day the American People are becoming more and more 'demoralized'. We watch as every thing we know about right and wrong or law gets flipped on its back. We see Trump and his minions getting away with crimes right before our eyes and we remain helpless to prevent them. The very laws we thought would protect us are being used against us.

It's an insidious process that is eating away at our sanity. Right is wrong. Up is down. Bad is good. We're living an Orwell nightmare bracing ourselves for the ultimate 'demoralization'.

We're being lulled into the thought that this impeachment process that is going on will rid us of this criminal only to learn that he will be aquitted by his partners in crime in the Senate and will become more embolden.

We haven't seen nothing yet. The gloating and arrogance will become so much more brutal that many will give up and sit out 2020 to give this regime a win. Trump and the Repugs will stop at nothing as the stakes of them losing become more serious because of the consequences of a loss.

Voter suppression will become more prominent. So will stealing of votes, cheating and foreign influence.

The ultimate 'demoralization' is on the horizon and I really don't think we'll be able to stop it. It's been a long time coming - slowly but calculated - insidiously - but finally overtaking us.

Heaven Help Us!!!!!

[Karadeniz]

5. It's so scary. Scary that so many people want a dictatorship, not a democracy. Why have a

Brain if it's not used? Gullible. Blind faith. Lazy minds.

[ancianita]

6. Right. It is. And the mental landscape is sliding right into the new world order.

[Aussie105]

7. Main stream media

have been working for decades to dumb down the general population.

Makes them gullible, easily manipulated, and complacent consumers. Sheeple, in short.

Trump is the natural end product and outcome of this process.

[ancianita]

9. Media goes the way of profit. But public schools' defunding was by design and began decades ago.

I taught in Chicago public high schools for 34 years, and clearly gave my students the tools for logic and argument and thus, reading non-fiction and watching media well. Teachers are the scholars of their communities, no matter what anyone thinks of them.

The formula for crashing institutions like public schools and government:

1. Defund (take taxes away from public to private sectors)
2. Deform (make big media noise about the need to reform, predicate $ on following reform formulas)
3. Stigmatize (bash socialists, journalists, teachers and human development segments of government)
4. Privatize (close government, close schools, channel that money to corporatists)

I saw it for decades, yelled about it for decades and got yelled back at as a gadfly troublemaker.

There's no one point of attack when corporations who live generations beyond people decide to dismantle the social contract and human-based institutions. All institutions are attacked.

[phleshdef]

8. The 2018 gains during the mid terms were not "modest".

[ancianita]

10. You're right. I'm going to pass that point on. I hope 2020 gains go the way of 2018.

[LovingA2andMI]

16. And another Republican talking point..

"Modest". What a useless addition.

[Liberalhammer]

13. Time to give up

And enjoy the ride.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

19. Give up? Never!

[brooklynite]

20. Allow me to synthesize.....

We're DOOMED!

Thank you.