is any other first-world nation

we are not a proper democracy, and arguably have never been a proper democracy, though our flaws weren't previously as exploited as they have been lately.

- gerrymandering in the house
- the senate is by design inherently "gerrymandered" as it's representative of the states, not of the people
- the electoral college, well, we all know about that by now
- massive voter suppression with a particular bias in favor of the republican party

the republican party has long been the party of wealth and privilege at the expense of the majority, it has merely become much more overt and obvious with donnie. they know they can't win a legitimate majority, so they have abandoned democratic principles in favor of authoritarian methods, including cheating, violence and threats of violence, dividing society, stoking the "in" group, cruelty to the "out" groups, etc.


they have been building to this for decades with hate radio and foxnews. they saw the way the country was evolving -- becoming more democratic, more socially accepting of minorities, and less white -- and decided to do something about it. it has been a long-term project for them to radicalize 30% or so of america that is bigoted, and donnie is the ultimate conclusion of their efforts.

hopefully we've hit bottom as a nation and we recover from here, but it's going to be really touch and go from here. even if we win the senate with both georgia runoffs, we'll have a tough time holding on to both houses in 2022, and if the next president is a republican, we're screwed because they can't help but be more competent than donnie.

nt

Yep, enabled to do so because they own all of the megaphones.

but I sometimes think there has to be a deep well of hatred, or something, in a very large segment of our population. No universal Healthcare, folks dying due to it. Rich getting richer at schlubs' expense. Trickle down economics for decades. And they're okay with it, when there should be general strikes and mass marches in DC over the mess of it all. Healthcare alone. Sometimes I think cutting social security or ending it might cause pushback, but probably not

and mass marches to protest how the American people are treated compared to the rest of the industrialized world.

I hope so.

this will be it. They've gone too far. They're hurting their own supporters. They'll get sick of it. Not that myriad people didn't complain about these things. But never enough, or they're in publications or websites 99% of Americans don't read. Yet, there have been payback in America's past (wobblies) and coal miners. Triangle factory. Civil rights protests. People have said enough in the past. Will there be a tipping point? George Floyd's murder brought people out in the streets.

You hit all of the high points.

electing Joe and Kamala and showing tRUMP the door. Sure, there's a lot wrong with the U.S.
and some of its citizens but there are more of us than there are of them. We've shown that we
can do it so let's keep at it.We got this!

but America's been mean since Reagan. I'm praying that turns around

and they will do more bad than we can do good.

they fit right in and continue the status quo of how horrible it is in this country.

India is probably the worst, with Dalits, Moslems, and others being outcasts even from the gradations of the caste system.

We are evolving towards India, not the other way around.

.