Things I've noticed in my 74 years, mostly since the 1970s.

[shraby]

Since JFK Democrats aren't allow to have a president who isn't hounded from day 1 in office. republicans are constantly looking for something to impeach over from the first day.

republicans tend to tank our economy while in office, or leave it in shambles as they exit.

republicans divide the populace into ethnic, and moral sections. More if I thought on it heavier.

republicans block as many people as possible from voting, even using illegal means until the courts reverse their venom.

Democrats when in office are not only made to defend themselves, but have to pick up the pieces of the shambles republicans left in order for the country to be able to operate somewhat properly.

How does all this come to a full stop? We don't even have a full Supreme Court now and other courts are seriously lacking because of them.

[DURHAM D]

1. Agree.

Why do Republicans hate themselves and their fellow Americans?

What will happen now without Democrats to defend them against themselves?

[kentuck]

2. How do we change it?

I don't know.

[shraby]

5. I don't know either, but its a hell of a sad state of affairs.

What might help is going back to paper ballots. No electronics involved.

Stop the purging of voters from the roles unless they die which would be on record at the county level, or have personally notified the clerk they no longer live in the area.

Stop allowing gerrymandering by any political party, set up some other independent system to allocate precincts. Possibly connected to the census bureau.

We already have built in term limits called elections, but they need to be on paper so they can be checked if need be. There are things to be said for experience in office.

I would guess these would be a good start at turning things around.

[shraby]

10. I thought of one more thing but have received flak over it before..

Have a rule that only a candidate's constituents can donate to their campaign. This would help with the heavy money coming in to sway local and state elections.

Representatives would be supported by their district only
Senators by their state only
Presidents would be supported by the populace as a whole.

Any other method invites heavy money and all that it brings. There should be no reason for candidates for office garnering money from residents from other states, period.

[MADem]

12. Elizabeth Warren won her seat with out-of-state money. Lots of it, too--the most ever spent.

And there was a lot of big money support for Scott Brown, but it was more local.

[mdbl]

13. I like that idea

[Fast Walker 52]

9. fight like hell, talk about real issues and call them out on their bullshit every chance we can get

[MADem]

14. EVERY time--every SINGLE time--the media mitigates, normalizes, or fails to cover issues of import,

they need to be called out.

They've gotten a pass for far too long.

[volstork]

24. Who will call them out?

What is the plan?

[MADem]

32. Get on twitter and speak directly to them.

@NYT, @CNN, etc. It's not hard to do. If enough people do this, they notice--even more than they would if you comment on their webpages.

All of this introspective analysis we're seeing came about as a consequence of people calling them every kind of asshole after the election.

[Fast Walker 52]

30. yes, but we need Dem figures in media who will do this

I'm sick of the ones who let the BS slide by and are too nice.

[MADem]

33. Call 'em out. Communicate directly with them and tell them, succinctly,

that they are FAILING and we notice.

[Fast Walker 52]

34. I would if I had a way to contact them... I guess twitter is a start but

not sure how effective it is for giving feedback to people.

[Cracklin Charlie]

3. All part of the plan.

This tactic helps stall progress. Leaders who are always "on defense" over petty, bogus issues don't have time to accomplish meaningful change.

The struggle is eternal.

[cilla4progress]

4. Sometimes all we can do is

just keep swimming.

[LisaL]

6. Up the creek without a paddle.

[cilla4progress]

7. Yep.

I can't give up. I have a 24 year old daughter who needs to see me keep fighting.

I won't give up.

[Fast Walker 52]

8. sounds pretty on the mark to me

This is why I was saying I want Dems who fight!!!

[moondust]

11. The monster in the room.

Insatiable greed.

Responsible for wars and poverty and murder and environmental destruction and on and on. I don't expect much to improve until that is somehow "cured." Scandinavian countries have probably done the best job of containing it and serving "The People." Other parts of Europe not so much. The candidate currently leading the RW French Presidential contest who apparently stands a good chance of winning the Presidency there is described as a "neoliberal," "pro-business," "devoted Thatcherite." So much for égalité.

[Hamlette]

15. The same with FDR

The only one I remember not being hounded was LBJ. Maybe its because we, the anti war protesters, did the hounding, not the GOP.

I'm sure they think they are being patriotic and maybe that is where we need to get to.

[maddiemom]

42. True enough that LBJ was thoroughly hounded by war protestors, but

he was also an old hand and had a total grasp on how Congress functioned. He knew government inside out, plus he was tough as nails; knew how to wield power for real. Can you see Trump dealing with sixties-type protesting OR bowing out when he could have run for another term? He'd have been a raving lunatic early in his first elected term.

[mountain grammy]

16. Right behind you at 68

Closer to 69, and I completely agree. It's the corporate media doing the bidding of the 1972 Powell memo.

[yardwork]

19. That's it. The 1972 Powell memo and the Southern strategy.

How do the Republicans get away with it? Racism.

[nolabels]

38. The Southern strategy was only a tool used in the larger war.

Nixon used it to gain the office, but without the cancer made with a type of fascist capitalism they could have never delivered the goods to prime the pump.

The pump and dump has been used on the entire USA. We in USA are in the dump cycle and the Ubers with their Corporate hierarchy are in their heyday in their effort to rule the globe. You will not hear about it, they have taken ownership of most places that might talk about it. With the relative abundance of available substance those people that might have some wherewithal to speak out about it have been placated for now.

When times get tough things might change but then again, it will be too late to back to where things were.

The entire blueprint, or plan if you need started here

The Powell Memo: A Call-to-Arms for Corporations | BillMoyers.com
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjo_YbNlsvQAhXiyVQKHYJfCeoQFggbMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbillmoyers.com%2Fcontent%2Fthe-powell-memo-a-call-to-arms-for-corporations%2F&usg=AFQjCNGyJl9kruGTGT_ZCtojT58PYpJ87g&sig2=YfFd5OCgTFCdqQrPl6T4_g

[world wide wally]

17. This is apparently what altogether too many Americans want

They think it's somehow a sin to not vote Republican

[yardwork]

18. I've noticed all this too.

[INdemo]

20. Our Democracy took a extremely damaging hit in 2000

and never recovered and now I doubt we can really define the U S Government as a Democracy at all.

[Initech]

21. And Trump is going to break it beyond repair.

But that doesn't matter! He's going to make America great again!

[PasadenaTrudy]

22. Glad I didn't have kids n/t

[Dworkin]

23. Agreed

shraby,

I'm a Brit aged 68 and totally agree with your analysis, which I think applies on both sides of the pond, as a general conservative strategy.

Its what they do.

D.

PS - For us it was 1979; I remember it well.

[mgardener]

25. Well, I'm only 61

But I agree with you.
Democrats are too nice.

[RKP5637]

27. Many democrats need to grow a spine. Far too often democrats move more rightward than standing up to

republicans!

[RKP5637]

26. In my years I've watched americans become more stupid right into today's Idiocracy! n/t

[spanone]

28. K&R...

[Fichefinder]

29. Here's how we fight it: Flip your district!!!

"All politics are local" - Tip O'Neill

IF you can't find someone to run, run yourself. There shouldn't be one uncontested seat in the nation.

[CK_John]

31. Are you ready to back "Fitit" infrastructure bonds like we had in WWII..

[jimlup]

35. Pretty much exactly down the middle...

That's what I've seen as well.

[The Wizard]

36. Republicans always say government is a failure, and then go about to prove it.

They are anti Americans.

[benpollard]

37. Democrats need to get away from identity politics

Hillary should have gone after Trump's criminal enterprise.

He committed fraud with Trump University. He bribed the Florida AG. He scammed the tax system and paid nothing in taxes for who knows how long. He refused to release his tax returns. He has business dealings with Russian oligarchs. He stiffed 100s of contractors. Trump is nothing but a con-man. He lies 72% of the time.

Hillary should have reminded people what happened the last time Republicans had control: the Great Recession, massive deficits, the 9/11/2001 attack, two wars, the politicization of our justice department, widespread corruption...

Instead, Hillary focused almost exclusively on Trump's misogyny and violent rhetoric. While those things are important, they're not the primary issues people care about.

Democrats never seem to learn how to fight.

[TheKentuckian]

39. At some point one has to consider the possibility it isn't an accident or a pantsing

[tavernier]

40. Obama must seat a SC justice due to repug negligence.

Hillary.

[barbtries]

41. you're right

you are so right. republicans totally fuck up everything, and millions of people are totally blind to these facts. my fear is that the whole kit and kaboodle disintegrates. then the people will rise, but how long and how much unnecessary suffering in between. i suppose this is why i am so disheartened.

[patricia92243]

43. This is the best description of the republicans that I have heard EVER!

[MadDAsHell]

44. "Republicans divide the populace into ethnic, and moral sections."

This is a huge issue, and one that unfortunately the latest Democratic campaign tiptoed into as well. The Democrats don't try to divide along these lines, but we're certainly guilty of trying to cater along these lines.

We have to stop looking at elections as a conglomerate of racial minority issues, women's issues, white men's issues, etc. and trying to tailor specific messages to specific demographic groups. There are plenty of issues that are important to ALL people: personal security and terrorism, healthcare and how we pay for it, jobs, etc.

[hamsterjill]

45. Very well said!

I've noticed all the same things in my 57 years.

I don't know how this all comes to a full stop. I know that having a populace where many cannot add two plus two has resulted in a lot of non-thinkers who tend to follow aimlessly that which is thrust in front of them rather than to make a decision to be "for" something.

In full fairness, I find non-thinkers in all age brackets, too.

[shraby]

46. In response to the education.

I think one of the largest mistakes in education is creating a Federal Department of Education. I think that was done in Carter's term. He meant well, but what happened is it became the political football we see today, with the children losing big-time.
Home schooling is prevalent (and we can see how that works for the most part). Charter schools are being pushed which leaves poorer school systems at a huge disadvantage.

We didn't have much of a school when I was going, but it was smaller (250 children K-12), but the books were there and we did learn for the most part.

The teachers knew all the children, the children knew all the teachers, the children knew one another. There's a lot to be said for that. Then it was consolidated with a neighboring county, the upshot was horrendous. Promises made to encourage the consolidation were not kept, the town went downhill without a school in it, the children from our town were discriminated against even though we had a white area (it was a more wealthy area the school was built in).

With all the disparate minds trying at the federal level to make things better for local schools just doesn't work. They need to rethink the whole federal thing and bring the school decisions back to the local level where it worked very good for around 200 years.

[dmosh42]

47. Like you, I was also born in 1942, and I have noticed how 'ideological' people have become. As a....

young fellow there was many immigrants, mainly from Europe.(50s & 60s) Many of them were not learned people, but I was surprised hearing so many of them who understood which politicians were on their side,
and who were the phonies. These days so many people watch Fox news and want to be "conservatives", but couldn't tell where the Constitution was signed or even what it means. We have become a nation of
"dumb fucks" and it pains me to see many of the European nations express sorrow at our sad state of affairs.