There is no way this is sustainable for FOUR YEARS

[butdiduvote]

We can't have four years of the media and the White House taking turns provoking and trolling each other, four years of a new outrage every single day and a new protest every single weekend, four years of waking up wondering what childish tantrum he had on Twitter while you were asleep THIS time. What do you predict will happen? The media will give up and just report on all of the absolutely not normal stuff as normal? The outrageous behavior and claims stop once the novelty of their new shiny government toys wears off? The GOP grows a spine, admits tRump's presidency is too destabilizing and unhealthy for the entire world and impeaches him? The resistance gets tired and retreats to focus on things that aren't politics to preserve its collective sanity?

There is no way the next four years of my life can be like this. I don't think I would survive...literally. I wasn't old enough to really care about politics during the GWB era, so maybe I just feel this way because this kind of sustained, relentless outrage is new to me.

[madaboutharry]

1. I feel that too, like I can't live like this for four years.

But we don't have a choice. We can't become complacent. Otherwise America is lost.

[Lanius]

2. Deep down, Trump is an insecure, angry little boy

I wonder if he resigns in a year or two the way things are going?

[Hamlette]

11. I thought the same thing. He might get fed up.

Clinton had a rocky start and hired a republican (gasp) to help right the ship in 1993. It worked (but for that impeachment thing). Problem is, Trump's ego is too big to allow him to openly consult with anyone or take their advice. He may end up saying we are a bunch on ingrates and quit.

Yesterday when Yemen said we can't do any military staging there I thought, sooner or later, even Congress will recognize he is making us weaker. While I don't expect many of them to opening oppose him, if we keep pushing back, they are going to be pissed.

Anyone in Salt Lake check the SL Tribune. Jason Chaffetz' town hall meeting Thursday Feb 9 had to be moved across the street to the high school auditorium (Bingham I think). Go, raise hell.

[MontanaMama]

3. This is exhausting! There hasn't been a morning since the 8th of November

that I have gotten out of bed unworried or unafraid about what fresh hell went on while I half slept during the night. I know I'm not alone. I'm with you on the relentless outrage thing...but what choice do we have? Our only other option is to turn the other cheek and we can't afford that. We must practice self care and do our best to have each other's backs when one of us is down. It will take every last one of us giving all we have if we're going to survive.

Sending you a DU heart for strength, love and telling your truth.

[butdiduvote]

4. Aw, thank you for the heart! I didn't deserve that hehe.

You're right. The part about us not having a choice is the most frustrating part. This was forced upon us by people we have to interact with every day.

[sheshe2]

5. No choice.

Do it. The stress is hard yet what is the alternative? I have no intention of laying down to die. We have fought this before and we will fight it again. You are young it is your turn to help.

What makes this time unique? It is not just our losing our right to vote again. It is not just about PoC losing the support of a justice department that said their lives mattered. It is not just LGBT losing their human rights to a marriage and family. It is not just about an immigration policy that will round up our citizens and either deport or send them to camps. What it is? They want to strip of us our safety networks, they want us to die painfully. They want to take away our dignity. They want to take our humanity.

I sure hope you have the strength to help us, this is a critical time.

RESIST!

[butdiduvote]

6. "I sure hope you have the strength to help us."

I don't, and I wish people would stop guilting me for that. I will try because I'm stubborn and have too little self control to just turn away from it all. But I don't have the strength. Not unless daily thoughts of wanting to die is an indicator of strength.

[sheshe2]

7. I am tired too.

We have to do it together or not at all. Thanks for trying, we will do this somehow.

[struggle4progress]

8. It's probably not sustainable for six months

[sarcasmo]

9. In no way sustainable mentally or for my liver.

[meadowlander]

10. Just remember that there's 150 million of us

and you can take a break if you need to.

I got through the Bush years with strategic unplugging.

Show up and fight when you can. Turn the TV off and take a walk when you need to. The sun will still shine, birds will still sing, etc. even when the country is going to shit.

Get to know your neighbours. Even if they're Republicans, they're probably not fundamentally evil people and you probably see eye to eye on more than you think.

These things come in cycles. We put up with Bush and we got Obama and both houses of Congress in 2008. The universe owes us big time in 2018 and 2020.

[pat_k]

12. "I don't think I'll survive"

I don't know where it will all end. The damage DT (and reight-wingnuts in congress) do in their assault on the environment, rule of law, customer protections, safety nets, civil rights, and on and on, is going to cause a lot of people a lot of pain and hardship. Bearing witness to the destruction will take its own toll. I expect to see a sharp increase in stress-related illness. Some of us will not get out of this alive.

All we can do is our best. For my own mental health, I have to tune it ALL out for days at a time. Whether tuned in, or out, I keep my sanity by focusing on ONE thing. Right now, that one thing is finding and helping anyone who is organizing efforts to lobby to filibuster Gorsuch.

Hope springs eternal. Things will turn. The question is how quickly? Here's how I described what I think we are facing in another post:

The nation is sick. Over and over, we've had a choice: make some serious lifestyle changes that will vastly improve our health, or take a cocktail of various poisons (some of which make you feel good for a while).

There are some exceptions, but in general, the electorate goes for the poisonous cocktail. (With the concoction offered by DT and Reight-Wingnuts in Congress being the most poisonous to date.)

The question is, how long will it take for the symptoms to manifest? Soon enough for the electorate to recognize what's happening, stop taking the poison, make those lifestyle changes, and get healthy? Or will the poison act 'silently," until there is a massive collapse, and a long, painful recovery?

[Amaryllis]

13. There are all kinds of people fighting this on many fronts, very creatively. Check this thread out:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028618321
It will make you smile.

[DFW]

14. Trump seems to have a giant inferiority complex

The slightest negative comment sends him into a fuming rage, and fills him with a need to retaliate. Acting presidential is not an equivalent to acting like a spoiled brat who, deep down, knows he never really earned what he has, but hates being reminded of it by others.

I was talking with an Israeli friend over the weekend. This guy is ex-Mossad, ex-Army, speaks Arabic, can't stand Netanyahu. He thinks Trump is outta there with a year and half, maybe less, but asked me if I thought Pence would be much better. He's also an arrogant prick who never really accomplished anything of substance on his own. He's just better-spoken, that's all. Not much comfort. So was Dick Cheney.

[StarryNite]

15. It's different this time

The GWB era was bad but this is much, much worse. It's truly like living in the Twilight Zone.

[3catwoman3]

16. It hasn't even been...

...4 weeks yet and it feels like effing forever.

[Dave Starsky]

19. No kidding.

I honestly don't see how this can last four more weeks, let alone four fucking years.

I feel like I've aged five years in three weeks. Every morning brings a fresh anxiety.

[world wide wally]

17. Trump fatigue anyone?

[Egnever]

18. Not that I don't agree with you but...

I think this thread is a good indication of how soft we have become as Americans. How comfortable in our democracy. We have had a good run of relative peace at home(9-11 aside).

We have all including the world depended on America being a stable if quirky country for a while now. Much of the world wakes up every day to much worse than Trump yet they persevere. We will persevere as well. The courts seem to be holding for now. People are mobilized. All we have to do is flip the house or the senate in two years and he is neutered.

Granted a lot of damage can be done but fortunately we do have a constitution while he can do a lot of damage he can only do so much. Already they have backed down on a couple of things as long as people remain motivated his damage I think will be limited.

America is resilient.

[CrispyQ]

20. A lot of the things I feared would happen under the Bush administration, didn't.

This feels different, though. In the years since Bush, the GOP has managed to gain control over a majority of state legislatures, along with all three branches of the federal government. The damage they are about to do is going to be immense. For those who say we will recover or survive, I hope they are right, but I am not so positive. There is an arrogance in America, that 'it can't happen here.' But it can & it is happening.

House Republicans Just Voted to Eliminate the Only Federal Agency That Makes Sure Voting Machines Can’t Be Hacked
Republicans would make it easier to steal an election by killing the Election Assistance Commission.

https://www.thenation.com/article/house-republicans-just-voted-to-eliminate-the-only-federal-agency-that-makes-sure-voting-machines-cant-be-hacked/

In a little-noticed 6-3 vote today, the House Administration Committee voted along party lines to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission, which helps states run elections and is the only federal agency charged with making sure voting machines can’t be hacked. The EAC was created after the disastrous 2000 election in Florida as part of the Help America Vote Act to rectify problems like butterfly ballots and hanging chads. (Republicans have tried to kill the agency for years.) The Committee also voted to eliminate the public-financing system for presidential elections dating back to the 1970s.

“It is my firm belief that the EAC has outlived its usefulness and purpose,” said Committee chair Gregg Harper (R-MS), explaining why his bill transfers the EAC’s authority to the Federal Election Commission.

Thirty-eight pro-democracy groups, including the NAACP and Common Cause, denounced the vote. “The EAC is the only federal agency which has as its central mission the improvement of election administration, and it undertakes essential activities that no other institution is equipped to address,” says the Brennan Center for Justice.

This move is particularly worrisome given reports that suspected Russian hackers attempted to access voter-registration systems in more than 20 states during the 2016 election. Moreover, the Presidential Commission on Election Administration set up by President Obama in 2014 outlined an “impending crisis” in voting technology and the Brennan Center found that 42 states used voting machines in 2016 that were at least a decade-old and at risk of failing. The EAC was the agency tasked with making sure these voting systems were both modernized and secure.

[TrekLuver]

22. This is different....this has a sinister edge to it. It feels different because it is. I go to bed

every night thinking that this muthafucka will come undone one way or another. As long as you are alive there is hope. KEEP HOPE ALIVE.

[TrekLuver]

21. Then you will need to force yourself to unplug from the madness from time to time. I'll

take about 2 nights per week to not watch the news obsessively. I also shut off DU for the most part because this is a news channel...many busy bees combing the net and putting it all for us to see here nicely. So I encourage unplugging and I also use humor daily to deal with this. I also use it to point out the bullshit to the Trashpot lovers. I'm rife with Sarcasm. I will also stay off twitter for days at a time or else it's down a rabbit hole. You'll be OK...tune out from time to time but don't drop out...we need you.

[ElkeH]

23. It is all part of their plan

The chaos is meant to..

1) Have Trump act as a diversion and dominate the news cycle while the rest of the Republicans can do their thing with as little news coverage as possible

2) Wear down the media and have them eventually normalize this behavior

3) Wear down political opponents, politicians and voters alike, until they retreat to a place of apathy