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I’m fed up, just like you. The hatred that is fuelled by “that man” I can’t name is spreading like a wildfire in dry brush. Where were these people hiding? And what’s up with the Nazi assholes? Are they really hoping to re-kindle a Hitler regime? That picture scared the crap out of me. It’s so impractical to say we’ll just move out of the country. We can’t. We need to stay & fight. Do we stand a chance? Not unless they put that POS low-life animal in prison. I’m tired of entitlement. I’m tired of not making a difference. I hate what’s going on more than anything I’ve ever experienced. God help us.

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We all wish we had the answers. That's what connects us, and that's what keeps hope alive. We're not alone. There are good people on our side and many of them have clout. We can't keep quiet now. And talking about our frustrations and our anxieties is a necessary part of knowing we all have a stake in this.

The state of our country affects us all, and we have to figure out ways to deal with it. Sometimes that takes soul-searching. We shouldn't be afraid of that, either.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here.

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I keep hoping and waiting for the pendulum to swing back towards sanity, towards community, toward the light. Some day. Here in Texas, I probably see more of the nutjobs and crazies than anywhere else in the country besides Florida. I don't know what to tell you. It's insane. Our electrical grid is crashing, schools are being demolished, hospitals are overrun, guns are everywhere, our Attorney General is an unrepentant crook, and people still insist on voting Republican. Part of it is tribalism, part of it is ignorance, and part of it are the megachurches that definitely should be taxed. They're unabashedly playing politics and no one's calling them on it. During our Snowpocalyse, many people and businesses reached out to help others. You know who didn't? The megachurches.

I'm angry. I'm frustrated. I'm exhausted. I cannot even tell you how it feels to not want to smile or be friendly to neighbors because I either know they're Republicans or I suspect it. I don't want to have anything to do with them. I used to play pokeno with women on my street. Now I wouldn't be caught dead there. It's so hard. Now that our son is off at college, we're looking to move. Texas is drowning and we don't want to go down with the ship. As for the rest, I just don't know.

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The problem with insanity is that there are no guidelines to deal with it. Mass insanity is even worse. If we can't stop them with reason or by shaming, we'll have to use rule of law. We're not savages. Our battle isn't going to get physical. Not on our side. But we have a history of ignoring those things that threaten to overwhelm us.

It's how the Republicans gained so much leverage they could throw someone like Trump at us and half the country would go along. We saw it coming with the Tea Party and the wacky rise of Sarah Palin, with the corruption and monetization of religion, with the never-ending misogyny and racism permeating every part of our culture.

We watched the Republicans, starting with Reagan, decimate unions and steer our jobs overseas, we watched them hoard billions while the middle class withered and died, and we watched them blame the other party for every bit of it. They did it successfully while millions of us could do nothing but whisper into the wind, 'This isn't right!'

Now they have to pay for it all. The Republicans did this. But again--who is going to listen? Who is going to make them pay? That's where my frustration hits its peak: Even after all this time there are still no answers.

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Who's going to stop them? That's the question. I've been so DAMN frustrated by our Democratic politicians. While I liked Obama, he didn't play hardball with the GOP. Perhaps he couldn't; I don't know. But it sure seems like too many Dems just let things slide that we shouldn't have, hoping the other side wouldn't get too bad, that they'd play by the rules. Well, that's what happened in Germany and we see how that turned out.

I'm not a fan of violence. I'm usually of the opinion that there are much better ways of dealing with conflict, ones that don't leave lasting scars. But I don't know anymore. Was the Civil War inevitable? Could we have stopped Hitler without WWII? I'm hoping Biden and his peers can stop the Ukrainian situation before it turns into a bloody disaster. Maybe he has a plan for the restoration of our democracy too. I sure hope so. Because I've got nothing. We saw a preview of what this could look like on January 6.

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I agree. Throughout all of this the Democrats have foolishly decided to blind themselves to the obvious realities and have, instead, tried to deal with it as if this is ordinary politics. It's far from it, and, while some of them, like Adam Schiff, Jamie Raskin, Amy Klobuchar, and a few others in congress get it, Joe Biden still doesn't.

Joe remembers the good old days and spends so much time yearning for them he ignores what's right in front of him. THIS Republican Party is not THAT Republican Party. The only similarity is the name. He's dealing with vicious, ruthless powermongers who laugh at his attempts to bring them over to his side.

It's maddening that we have to keep standing on the outside watching all of this, shouting through a window that's closed to us, but we can't stop working to change that. Dammit.

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I feel you Misty and agree with everything you said above.

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