Talk me down. For the love of God, talk me down.

[Mr. Ected]

I've been like the rest of you the past several months. Waiting for the next shoe to drop. Absorbed and inflamed with each morsel of news of collusion with the Russians, of imaginary wiretaps, of the decimation of our democratic principles, of the stench of cover-up.

Throughout this, I've had the feeling that, with enough effort, the truth would come out, and good Americans, less informed than we are, would eventually catch on to the fact that their vote had been a vote for a Russian plant, that Congress was acting on behalf of its party allegiance and not on the behalf of its citizenry, and that every single one of them needed to be outed and punished to the maximum extent possible by law.

For some reason, I no longer feel this way. My zeal has given way to a sense of hopelessness.

Perhaps the "fact" that 91% of Republicans still support Trump had something to do with it. Perhaps knowing that the next move up FOX's sleeve would be to assert that the IC was in fact the culprit, assigning partisan motives to them that don't exist, simply to confuse fact with fiction, just as Trump has been doing since initiating his campaign. I'm afraid that the media doesn't have the stomach to follow up on Rachel's daily discoveries. Let's face it, the evidence is piling up, it's damning, but there is no outrage, no sustained coverage, no Breaking News moment.

Yes, I'm losing hope. I yelled at my wife last night because she told me her mother, a Trump voter, had said that what is happening in Washington today is the same as always, that this wasn't anything unusual at all. Something about the willful ignorance of that statement from an otherwise well-informed person was enough to throw me over the edge. The Trump voter still doesn't see what we see, and by the time they do, we'll ALL be stewing in our miserable juices.

Can anyone - ANYONE - help to persuade me otherwise? Please?

[libtodeath]

1. Repukes want the destruction of our country so thet can install thier theocracy.

That is what it is all about.

[luvMIdog]

11. exactly

[sinkingfeeling]

2. I can't help you. Feel the same. I was hoping to have 6 to 8

months to settle my affairs here and get out of the USA, but now I'm afraid I won't be allowed to leave and enter Europe.

[Marengo]

16. Who or what will prevent you from leaving the USA?

[Zoonart]

3. Wish I could talk you down, but...

I am running up against the same wall. Every time I think, this is it, he cannot possibly get past this point... the goalposts get moved.
Who will take him out, the people? That is what it is coming down to. The Congress will not act and constitutional removal from office requires their cooperation. It will have to be we the people... or the generals, IMHO. Neither option will be easy or without great cost to the nation.

[Vinca]

4. That 91% number bothers me, too.

My first thought was that maybe it's time to split this nation into 2 countries. Give the deplorables what they want, just don't subject us to it. Remember, blue states are primarily donor states and red states are primarily taker states. The only problem is that we'll have to build a big wall to keep them out once they figure out they really don't have decent roads, schools, healthcare, etc. if there's no government collecting taxes to pay for it.

[adigal]

18. I just said the same thing downthread before reading your comment

We in the blue states give more money to DC. They send it to red states, who have gerrymandered the Congress so that they have more power and take our $$ and give tax cuts to millionaires. Then they deny us services, such as healthcare and Medicare, that WE pay for.
Screw them. I really think the only answer is going to be to split.

[janterry]

5. I can't

Having lived through the 'W' years, I remember how certain I was that he could be stopped. And yet, he was elected to a second term. The only thing to do is hold on and expect that the ship will right itself eventually. In the meantime, you can find me on deck (near the lifeboats).

[Demsrule86]

6. It is early days yet...and 90% of GOP won't get him back into the White House...

We need to keep the pressure on him...he is completely corrupt and will be shown unfit to serve.

[liquid diamond]

7. I'm sorry, but I feel the same way you do.

trump is bulletproof thanks to his mindless supporters and the republicans having control of all 3 branches of government.

[Bettie]

8. I'm in the same place

I'm hopeful for 2018, but that is so far away and they can and will do so much damage before then.

Plus, by then, he'll likely have started a war and people will re-elect his congressional minions out of misplaced "patriotism".

They will never get rid of him, they love having a shiny object to have people look at while they take a sledgehammer to the nation.

[AgadorSparticus]

9. Just wait. I have hope that pieces are moving and things will change.

You don't want quick. You want good. Just look at the Republican healthcare repeal act. They are under the gun to have something so they threw this pos together. It is complete garbage. Just wait. I think this will become an albatross for them. Eventually it will hurt them considerably with voters. Not their stupid, delusional base. But it will cost them independents, moderate republicans, and libertarians.

I truly think they will regret this.

Just wait for the reality of this to catch up. Don't look for fanfare. Listen for the silence from the usual suspects.

[RedWedge]

10. Apologize to your wife and get involved in local politics.

[Maraya1969]

12. This helps me sometimes. You know when you have a flu it has to get worse before it gets

better? Maybe our country needs to go down the toilet for a while so that people start to realize how horrifying the republicans are and how they might just want something different.

I think we need to address the pro-life thing by showing just how anti-life republicans are because I think that the evangelical group votes on that one issue.

And also maybe this is the time that we need to re-organize so we can come back stronger. Rachael Maddow talked about how after Obama was elected the Tea Party organized and that is how they took back congress and the house. Now we have more groups and our protests and resistance is much stronger than the tea party.

I really believe Trump is going and maybe the little pricks under him will lose some of their balls.

I think several years ago some countries in Europe had adopted really harsh austerity measures. And now I think they have come back.

Everything cycles.

[DinahMoeHum]

13. I don't know where you live, but. . .

. . .you really should be involved in local politics and join up with your local Democratic Party committee/club. You get to really know the players in your area and learn where the power wires are pulled. you also get first knowledge of who is running in various offices.

If you want, PM me for more information.

[Mr. Ected]

14. That's sage advice.

I live in what has been called the reddest county in the state of Georgia, which says a lot. Our governor and lieutenant governor are from this county, and a local attorney, Ashley Bell, was a member of Trump's transition team, has recently been appointed to a position in the State Department. It's been years since I've seen a Democrat run for office in my area. Hell, even the County Coroner runs as a Republican.

The Democratic Party is weak here. I am well known in the community, but if my party allegiance was known, my business would cease to exist. I have been reluctant to speak my mind for fear of a backlash. You know Republicans. They are merciless if one does not walk in lockstep with them.

Nevertheless, I will make it a point to engage at the local level, even in a clandestine manner to begin with. I've never felt as compelled to demonstrate my patriotism as I do right now. What we are experiencing is NOT the same old, same old in Washington. We are not simply battling a different ideology than our own. We are fighting forces that did not emanate in the USA, but are being implemented by a party and their constituents who have brainwashed, and been brainwashed, over the course of several decades.

If the tables were turned, Democrats WOULD be accused and tried for treason. This isn't a joke. It's time for each and every one of us to defend America, not with muskets, but with constitutional fervor.

[cwydro]

15. Hardly seems fair to yell at your wife.

I mean, for something her mother said??

Dude, get a grip.

[Mr. Ected]

19. Yeah, totally out of character and something I apologized for immediately

It was a heat of the moment thing. Her mother is a lifelong Democrat who voted for the Felon in Chief. I've become exasperated listening to her mother's ridiculous excuses as to why she would cast a vote for that man. When my wife said that her mother tried to excuse the turn of events with regard to Trump's Russian connections as if it was something that happens with every administration, I lost it. Yelled at her as proxy for her mother.

I don't know if I can "get a grip" until that man is sitting in a jail cell.

[adigal]

17. I don't know...I honestly think the blue states may make a run for it. Not even kidding

If we do try to disentangle ourselves in many ways, I hope we can have a time period to let the crazy Trump voters move to red states and the sane and intelligent move to blue states.

I don't know how to put this Humpty Dumpty back together. I don't even want to - I don't want conservatives gerrymandering the country to take our blue state tax dollars, give tax cuts to millionaires, and screw us all on entitlements WE fricking pay for.

[Fluke a Snooker]

20. I want to join you. The GOP has got to go

This is an untenable situation. There is not a single country in which the Republican Party could even exist outside of the US, and the only reason it is allowed to fester is because of this archaic, white-boy "states-rights" rules that prevents democracy. If you eliminate the republican party, then we would eliminate all reasons for war, for strife, and we can finally end capitalism and advance our progressive agenda so all humans will be finally free. Yes, Matilda, the Republican Party IS the one force that spawns the Trumpsters and the Bushies and the Reaganauts, and without that organization, we can fluke snookers all day long but somehow we will all end up on the wrong side of the blue day in and day out.