We are fucked.

[kentuck]

We are all supply siders now. We have set a precedent that cannot be undone.

We support taxcuts to get our economy going over whatever other processes available.

We support unlimited war and indefensible defense budgets.

We support massive deficits if it helps the wealthy.

We support cuts in social programs if it helps the wealthy.

Do not deceive yourself. There is no one looking out for you.

We are screwed.

[sasha031]

1. it's depressing, so much for hope

[spotbird]

2. Or change. nt

[howaboutme]

17. This is what happens when

the Wall Street money people own both Parties.

[DainBramaged]

3. Could you explain in detail please.

:hug:


:sarcasm:

[WinkyDink]

21. Link??

[myrna minx]

4. I am so incredibly sad. n/t

:-(

[DirkGently]

5. We are replacing reason and rationality with the political equivalent of religious bumper stickers.

It is no longer relevant to the debate what is true. Or what works. Scientists, teachers and reporters are enemy heretics to be shouted down. No one blinks when it is posited, over and over and over that "You don't raise taxes during a recession." Even on the wealthiest people, who aren't actually IN the recession, and who include those who ARE wealthy BECAUSE of the reckless, blatantly dishonest practices that caused the whole thing.

Statements like that are no longer followed with an explanation. We can't end ridiculous tax cuts for the richest people in the country because ... ? (crickets).

It's not even ideology anymore. It's religion. Fact-free dogma chanted from the sidelines and cheerfully repeated by leaders and "experts" as though it was real. You know things are bad when the leader of the Democratic Party worries about being a "tax and spend liberal." Because that's a real thing, now, like trickle-down economics and "fighting terrorists there so we don't have to fight them here."

And we know we are doing it. We are chaining ourselves to anvils and jumping overboard because we have decided everyone is entitled to their own version of reality and we can't agree that a temperature graph going up means the temperature is going up.

[Alameda]

6. NO no no no...I do have hope! and you won't take it away from me.

how bad it was during the depression...then we got the New Deal! I will not give in to hopelessness....

[krabigirl]

7. We are not. I sure am not. I do not support these things.

[Poboy]

8. This OP needs a recommendation from me. Recommend.

[Catherina]

9. We are

:( but we can reverse it if we refuse to lie down and take it.

[mod mom]

10. Totally deflated.

and angry :mad:

[underpants]

26. I agree

this is nonsense the whole thing

[Scurrilous]

11. Brilliant!

You should take up punditry.

Perhaps HuffPo could give you a column.

[leeroysphitz]

12. No we aren't, no we don't and yes we are. n/t

[robertpaulsen]

13. Um, we've BEEN fucked since 1980.

12 years of Reagan/Bush/Quayle supply-siding, regressive tax restructuring, warmongering both overt and covert, Guinness Book of World Record Deficits and ketchup-vegetable social programs.

8 years of Clinton being, in the words of both http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x1898420">Alan Greenspan and http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/and-now-for-the-other-republican-convention">Michael Moore, "the best Republican President we've had".

I think what happened on December 12, 2000 was the death sentence for America. What happened the following year on September 11 was just the funeral pyre to commemorate it. How the hell do you recover from eight fascist years of the Bush/Cheney Imperial pResidency?! Every misstep initiated by Reagan/Bush and entrenched during Clinton was put on a steroid growth program by the neo-cons. We are way, way past the point of no return. As Alfred McCoy put it recently, http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175327/tomgram%3A_alfred_mccoy%2C_taking_down_america">"the question is not whether the United States will lose its unchallenged global power, but just how precipitous and wrenching the decline will be."

If there was a time we could have been "unfucked", it was 1980. We truly stood at a http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2010/10/october-surprise-30th-anniversary.html">crossroads then with a clear choice: Carter offering an energy future rooted in conservation with an outlook toward building an infrastructure based on renewable energy, or Reagan offering an energy future rooted in all-out consumption of oil at all costs, even if it put us in the position of having to go to war to get it. America chose the red pill, and we've paid the price ever since. The meme that Reagan's strength defeated Carter's weakness is entrenched in the Official MSM Annals of History. It is only a small part of the system President Obama is a prisoner of, but it's an important part. And until we have a candidate who can articulate that the http://americanjudas.blogspot.com/2010/02/primal-forces-of-nature-vs-real-primal.html">system is the problem and must be replaced, then we are condemned to repeat the mistake of 1980, one way or another.

[glitch]

15. Absolutely correct about 1980.

Was hoping for a hail mary, I guess that is human nature, but it ain't gonna happen.

The best plan now is to try to navigate the end of empire (before it kills off the planet completely) as best we can.

Make our communities as resilient as possible, which is a good idea even if we're wrong.

My gut told me in 1980 and again in 2000 that we were missing major jump points. There may not be another in time.

My only consolation is I could be wrong.

[Swamp Rat]

18. "Was hoping for a hail mary"

same here... D'OH!! x(

[walldude]

23. I third it...

Barnum was right....

[Swamp Rat]

24. Fuck it.

Guess I'll get high and listen to Pink Floyd while I still have food and electricity. :smoke: :hi:

[walldude]

29. Oh shit, I saw THE WALL LIVE last week....

It was.... GODLIKE. To say it was the best show I've ever seen would be a giant understatement. Waters is absolutely brilliant and in top form. He took the meaning of the album and turned it on it's head to show the Walls that divide us all. I laughed, I cried, I cheered and sang along. Dude, if you have the opportunity to see it, DON"T MISS IT.

[Initech]

19. Exactly, this is a country run by and for millionaires and billionaires.

We, the rest of the country get constantly thrown under the curb. Shit, I'm suprised these assholes haven't tried to bring back 1790's era politics where their class was the only one allowed to vote. It's pretty clear we don't matter.

[deaniac21]

14. .

[Initech]

20. He looks like Will Smith from the Men In Black movies in that photo.

[EFerrari]

25. The Onion is going to use that someday. n/t

[bigtree]

16. like a drumbeat

how droll.

[David Zephyr]

22. ...and without a kiss.

No argument from me.

Now tell me why my back is sticky and my butt hurts...

Here's a serious K&R for truth spoken.

[autorank]

27. Personality, personal style, "trust" - are all gone from US politics k*r

It's about time. Vote your interests, not your heart.

[Rex]

28. Looks like a lot of people agree with you. All those recs and over

at the 'rah rah' Obama lovers OPs? None, ziltch but bless their little hearts they keep trying.

[blindpig]

30. Who is we?

That ain't we, that is the ruling class and it's bought and deluded supporters.

This is an opportunity to achieve clarity, to see things as they are.
Having achieved clarity, abandoning hope, we can appraise the situation and at accordingly. The only thing we got is us, and that's all we need.

[hatrack]

31. Politics in America has become a cargo cult

nt