So... where do we go from here?

[NRaleighLiberal]

main disclaimer - I am not watching any of this shitfest. I don't watch TV. Haven't in 10 years - so this OP is based on my life, my values, reading news here and on a few other websites - conversations with my wife (of 40 years) and daughters (in their 30s).

I am a dove - don't own, never shot a gun. Never hit anyone or be hit - never been in a fight of any sort. I am a scientist, strong believer in education, data, thinking, facts, truth, but also the arts.

My wife and I have been discussing how (as we approach our mid 60s) we don't recognize what's going on, nearly half of our country, our culture.

When lies become common place - when what educated people think is discounted (often 180 degree opposite) - when we have a president and many in his party that practice stochastic terrorism and hatred - caging children, scorning immigrants, treating women like garbage, treat blacks like garbage - when so-called religious leaders align themselves with such hatred, when 180,000 deaths and a raging pandemic are ignored, considered a hoax - a potentially devastating storm is ignored - when decency is mocked...I could go on and on. And - oh yes - that big freight train coming at us that we are ignoring at our peril - climate change...which will render all of the rest of it (including us - humans) moot in a pretty short time frame if things keep up as they are.

My wife and I feel like a second trump term could end up in anyone not "like them" being targeted. We've been in a cold civil war, but the ginning and frothing up of violence is leading to real danger for those standing up for progressive, for liberal values and ideas.

And it is not that I am afraid - I've really never been personally fearful of anything - but I am afraid for our country, Democracy (or Republic - whatever), our way of life - our species.

Sorry - just babbling now. I am sick of the media being completely played. I am sick of nearly four years of very predictable (I certainly predicted it) normalization. I am sick of willful ignorance, and sick of the effect of decades of hate radio and TV on so many people - many of which live in my immediate town, a few of them in my family.

So I ask again - where do we go from here? I have no confidence that this election will not be stolen - using any or all means. I am losing faith in the effectiveness of our constitution. So many foundational things are being disassembled - voting, the US mail, you name it.

What a fucking mess.

[yonder]

1. Yes it is a mess.

IMO, we have one chance this coming November. If it doesn't pan out, Ben Franklin's words, "...if you can keep it" will ring true.

[nancy1942]

2. Exactly.

You have expressed the way I feel. Thank you. What I feel now is an unbearable depression and dread that I can't seem to shake. Like you, I have no confidence that the country will survive this attack on it by the very people who have sworn to protect it. I would put absolutely nothing past these monsters. I am just so sick of it all.