Are there really any left who insist that "It can't happen here"?

[Atticus]

Over a decade ago, as the teabaggers were crawling out from under their rocks and telling the nation that racism and violence were "as American as apple pie", I predicted to my wife that, if their hate and bigotry were not clearly repudiated, there would be "blood in the streets" to rival and foreign strife we've watched on our TV newscasts.

Instead of repudiating the mutant cockroach mentality, Trump and his acolytes have celebrated it. Their one litmus test appears to be: "Does it disgust and outrage normal Americans?" So far, disgust and outrage have been the only response to the tiki-torch brown shirts who get their inspiration from Trump.

I sincerely hope I am wrong, but I still see open conflict between "them" and the rest of us as a distinct possibility. It could be avoided if we, the majority, could be motivated to OPENLY voice and demonstrate our total opposition to all that Trump stands for. If the deplorables could actually see how many are determined to resist their mindless fascism, their self-preservation instinct might send them scurrying back under the rocks from whence they crawled. But, standing up in public and pissing people off is kind of scary and it might rain or it might be really hot or there might be nasty people yelling at us. So, I'm afraid the prevailing attitude is to keep your head down, your mouth shut and to just "go with the flow" and hope things get better.

Just some thoughts on a beautiful spring day as I try to ignore the looming storm that is Trump.

[struggle4progress]

1. Don't predict the future: just decide how you will help bend history in the right direction.

[durablend]

2. Yes

Plenty of them here in fact.

"He wouldn't *dare*do that...it's against the law and stuff and we know how diligently he follows those to-the-letter"

[lunatica]

3. DU isn't some closet we're all hiding in

and neither you or the rest of DU is ignoring the looming storm.

Can you imagine what it would be like if we didn’t have DU? THAT would be a time for despair!

[kairos12]

4. In reading your post I'm reminded of

a scene in "A Tale of 2 Cities." I recall a chapter when all the main characters are gathered for a pleasant day when they hear the distant thunder intruding their social gathering late in the afternoon. The foreshadowing of the revolution and the guillotine by Dickens.

That is perhaps too dramatic a take, but it is relevant to how I perceive things.

It is beyond clear that Barr is no Sidney Carton.

[CrispyQ]

5. Yes.

I have friends who believe that our democracy is too strong. And even here on DU you will read that this country has survived worse & will survive this too. And yet, we are separating families and locking up children on our southern border & most of us, me included, are going about our lives like normal.