Before 2016 I was definitely in the camp of looking at both major parties as well as any third parties. I was voting for who I thought was the best despite whatever party they were in.

However, 2016 really opened my eyes to what the Republican party is. They are a party that isn’t allowed to have different ideas. You follow the party line and do what you are told or you will be kicked out. Even republicans I thought might have cared for this country would have taken a stance but they didn’t. They tucked their tails and bent the knee.

I will never ever vote for a Republican. I can see clear as day what they are now and it isn’t good. They aren’t able to hide who they are anymore.

You can have debates in the Republican party. You can in the democratic party. Which unfortunately makes the Dems a weaker party because it isn’t a cult you are allowed to have a different opinion. The democratic party is basically all the sane adults that are left. It’s not just the “left” anymore it’s those in the center or those who didn’t go far right with the Republicans. The Dems will spend the next year attacking each other and fighting within the party because they aren’t unified and told what to think by one leader. So not all Dems will turn out.

It seems voter like to dismiss everything the democratic party does if they don’t line up with them completely on every issue. The voters find one reason to vote for Republicans and ignore the rest of party line.

Yeah and being really confident about a win worked in 2016 didn’t it…

I do have hope because it’s hard to live without it. I’m probably a little jaded because I live in a predominantly red area. I’ll just keep voting and doing my best to get others to vote as well. Also planning on going to some school board meetings soon if it works with my schedule.

Yes I have offspring

I hope people remember what it was like and what was done under that president and what that party has done lately. I worry people have either stop paying attention or have grown apathetic. That’s what will lead to trump again because we have to come out in large numbers to counteract all the Tom foolery they’re going to be up to.

I hope you are right and this time we can get a least some justice for all the damage and crimes he has done.

I’m not throwing in the towel I’m just looking at the facts of what happens to rich white men in this country. He has found a way out of everything. People have been saying he’s goong to prison since 2016. They don’t call him Teflon don for nothing. I hope to see him pay for his crimes but I think it’s more likely he cheats to become president again and then it will all just go away. He also has the backing of the supreme Court and the Dems have a really hard time holding seats in Congress because we aren’t playing a fair game.

Oh I am far from apathetic. I am fucking pissed off and nothing will stop me from getting to the voting booth along with my SO. However, I am not optimistic for the USA or the world at this point. I hope I am wrong but as far as I can tell we are headed in the wrong direction all over the globe. Millions and millions of people are turning towards authoritarian governments. You have a very very loud minority in our country that wants to install a christofascist government and Im pretty sure they aren’t going anywhere and will do anything for power.

You are correct I was mostly adding that because that aids in their ability to steal power away from the majority. I guess I could have just said cheating as that is a good blanket term for what they do.

I’m calling it right now. We missed our chance to kick him out of office we are going to miss our chance to see him answer for his crimes. He will be elected president through cheating, gerrymandering, and anything they can try. After that we will only have elections as a facade and we will be ruled by a right wing oligarchy. Probably will resemble Russia in the most part. Ukraine will be given to Russia and the us will help make that happen. Israel will get even bolder because the Christian right want to bring on the apocalypse. A new world order will be born with China and Russia at the front. This made possible because they will succeeded in neutering the us by helping install a useful idiot in trump and all the other Republicans that are on the pay roll. Buckle up because shit is about the get even worse. We haven’t even started on how right wing governments are absolutely terrible with dealing with any outside threat because they are so fucking corrupt. Climate change is going to devistste the entire plant and these right wing ass holes will only make it worse and worse until it’s way past redeemable. The wars that are going to start over territory and resources will be like no conflict this plant has ever seen.

The police auction is going to be lit.

“We can kill brown kids, give the rich a tax cut, and help Russia… It’s all coming together” -The GOP

“WE NEED MORE HUMANS FOR THE HUMAN CRUSHING MACHINE” -GOP

I didn’t see anyone in the above comments saying Muslims are rapist. Obviously deeming an entire group of people to be rapist is not only wrong but blatantly racist. As far as I was reading people were just talking about the reports coming out from the festival attack.

I believe people were talking about the reports coming out from first hand accounts of survivors. If you want to dispute those claims that’s fine but you shouldn’t go around calling everybody racist because they are discussing the news that they read. I would try to just warn people to be careful of what they are reading because there is going to be a lot of misinformation and fog of war going on.

I get getting angry though I’m sure you have had to deal with some nasty people and comments all your life and that just isn’t right. This is a really touchy and controversial topic and it’s easy for conversations to turn into yelling.

You are being way too sensitive to the fact that they’re Muslim and not the fact that they’re terrorists. People are upset that the terrorist killed and raped people.

Yoskovich managed to survive, but a report from Alerta News 24 contains allegations that some women were raped in the rave area of the festival, next to the corpses of their friends.

These are the articles that people are referencing about the rape allegations. This seems to be coming from somebody who was at the festival and survived. Were you at the festival and survived and have a different first-hand take?

They learned from the best over in Russia.

Yeah I get that sorry about the name calling I’m just burnt out with this shit and angry. I guess it gets old always watching the Republicans fuck up left and right but the Democrats have to clean it up with little to no praise.

He literally goes on the news and trys to blame all this stuff on Democrats and then he needs them to save his job. Democrats are just supposed to bail them out of their inability to do anything correctly.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Yeah maybe the Democrats should step in and save the Republicans one more time. Then they can go on network television and continue to blame Democrats and give them no credit for keeping the government open.

Maybe they feel like it’s time Republicans finally deal with the consequences of their actions. Maybe some America’s will wake up and see for themselves how dysfunctional that party really is.

However, in retrospect we will probably find out you’re right and that whatever we get after this is going to be worse than what we had. The enemy you know is better than one you don’t.

Stop blaming Democrats for the inability of the Republicans to govern. They made this mess and I’m not going to sit by while some dumbass like you tries to blame everybody but them.

I get what you are saying and I think everyone is just so angry and that makes them defensive. The only path a lot of people see is thru the system we have and making change with in it. So the best path to that change is the democratic party and people are sick of hearing the argument that they are just the same. They aren’t the same at all. However just because the other political part is irredeemable doesn’t mean we can’t be critical of “our” side. The Democrats are an obvious better choice but they still have a lot of problems that need to be addressed. We just need to make sure we keep what democracy we have and work to make it stronger.

You basically contradict yourself in the first sentence… They’re fine with gay people existing as long as they’re not gay? The mental gymnastics you’re going through in this whole thing would be hilarious if it wasn’t scary how many people think like you. First off you don’t even know what group I fall into when it comes to civil rights so it’s pretty presumptuous of you to assume my civil rights aren’t being hampered. I’m honestly sorry you have lived a life that has put you on a path to hate and I hope one day you can see we are all humans and we are allowed to be different. You’re allowed to not like it but it’s not your place to tell consenting adults who they can love. That’s a you problem not an us problem.

I was just giving you an example of something evangelicals do such as protesting planned Parenthood clinics. I don’t see how picking up a sign would change an evangelical to just be an activist and no longer be an evangelical Christian. Possible for them to try and fill both roles at the same time.

Once again presuming that I don’t want to know something. It seems to me you’re the one with the blinders on. You claim religion doesn’t inflict damage and pain? Because people do? Yeah those people do it in the name of their religion… I feel like it’s hard to have a conversation with somebody who seemed to have slept through all of their history classes. I also never stated that religion can’t be positive in somebody’s life. Spirituality can be very good and very beneficial for some people and that’s great and I’m happy for people who find some kind of relief in the world that we live in. What I have a problem with is religious people trying to push their ideas on others and using their gods as an excuse to commit atrocities against those around them.

It doesn’t seem like you and me can see eye to eye on these subjects because we’re not looking through the same lens. I’m sure we have other areas we could agree on and could make progress on. However, when it comes to having empathy for other humans I think that’s where we fundamental differ. We could make this world such a better place for all of us.

Dude… Evangelicals don’t think gay people should exist. Don’t think anybody in the LGBTQ+ community should exist. They want to strip us of our fundamental civil rights. That’s a little more than annoying. Yeah I described the ideal of what the separation of church and state should really mean. I don’t know why you’re pointing that out. We all know that’s how it’s supposed to work but that’s not how it is working.

I’m also not sure what you’re saying when referencing describing what evangelicals are doing. They don’t leave people alone they harass them. All you have to do is go drive by your local planned Parenthood and you’ll see a bunch of evangelicals Not minding their own business. If you look across our entire country you can find endless examples of evangelical people not minding their own business and not letting other people live their lives.

I don’t understand anybody who can look at any religion and not see the damage and pain it has inflicted on humans across time.

It might be annoying to you because you’re just another flavor of Christian but for the rest of us we are telling you that’s not the case.

…Or here’s an idea all religious people can be free to practice their religion as long as it hurts no one and doesn’t infringe on other people’s rights. It’s simple really. It’s a huge world out there and not everybody’s going to believe in the same things you do and you just have to get over it. Don’t push your shit on other people. We don’t believe in it and stop trying to make us. Mind your own business and stop fucking up the world for the rest of us who just want to live peacefully with our families and friends.

It isn’t annoying at best evangelicals are mentally ill