General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: For a little perspective, let this sink in: [View all]Cosmocat
(14,535 posts)1) We are pretty much in agreement.
2) To clarify my point about this country indulging them, IMO, this country is basically divided into 1/3s, not 1/2s. Their 1/3, the people who are totally in line with whatever lunacy the conservative media complex drives, our 1/3, people who for whatever reason are immune it and mostly have an attachment to reality and common sense, and the "middle" 1/3 that is not truly tuned in, but tend to break the wrong way more often than not based on their biases and just generally hearing the right scream like lunatics all the time. When I say this country indulges right wing fuck wittery, I am talking about:
3) The right wing 1/3 who allow their souls to be poisoned by right wing hate and division in the first place. I know it is a lost cause with them, but end of the day, they choose their biases, prejudices and fears to over ride common sense, and their own interests.
4) The "middle" 1/3 for allowing their biases to influence them, but also for just hearing the noise and wanting to believe "they are both same" to allow them to get behind right wing lunacy.
5) I have had heart burn over this my entire adult life - three decades now.
* In my younger, more naive years I was beffuddled over their deranged hatred of Clinton, and knew their well crafted talking points in the 90s was bullshit
* my anger over how they spent 6 years post 9-11 using that as a political sledge hammer, supporting BHO over Hillary because while I knew they would be assholes, but felt he was so calm and cool, it would be less horrible with him, and somehow they were just as big of assholes
* the 2010 mid terms, when this country, for no good, god damn reason, after two years, gave the repubicans the biggest mid term whitewash in our lives because they threw a hissy fit over dems PASSING THEIR GD VERSION OF HEALTH CARE - I was merely skeptical until that point, but that was the moment when I knew this country was fucked.
* I told people when he came down the escalator that 45 was not joke, that he was a serious threat to win the nomination, and if he did, while I did not say for sure, this country was absolutely stupid enough to make him POTUS.
Two considerations - the slide has been exponential, they went from the bullshit, but well crafted talking points in the 90s, to just bullying their way through the 2000s because they were keeping us safe, to waking up every morning and throwing a fit over the first thing they saw on cable news and making it BHOs fault, to coming out of the closet with 45. AND, the media has slide along with them, another aspect of our "indulging" them. Allowing our media to dutifully follow their frames - liberal bad, conservative good.
FINAL POINT - These years have been marked by them taking us several steps closer to fascism, with brief periods of our being able to slow them down, but the march continues. Yeah, god willing, we have a big day in November, but the middle in the democratic party (see, when we passed health care we passed THEIR GOD DAMN VERSION OF IT) AND, they now have so many dumpster fires going we are NOT going to turn it around, we simply are going to slow it.
We did two things primarily in 06-08 - banking reform and health care reform, both have been all but unraveled already.