A Ray of Hope Amid The Doom And Gloom...

[Soph0571]

This is what MUST happen.
At this point is it maybe a little bit...

But there is nothing wrong with unicorns, rainbows and rays of hope.

[safeinOhio]

1. Glass is half full

Like how you think.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

9. If you are an engineer then ...

... the glass is twice as large as it needs to be.

[paleotn]

22. 2/3's full....

Safety factor. Overbuild and you have less risk of overflow.

[PJMcK]

49. I hold a different perspective: the glass is full

Half is liquid and half is air.

See, it's full!

Optimism in the morning.

[Funtatlaguy]

2. Could be that. Or could be AINT NUTTIN GONNA HAPPEN.

[Cosmocat]

12. Sadly it will be closer to this than the OP

We MIGHT get the POS out of the white house, but the GOP won't go away cause this country can't stop indulging its complete lunacy, and as long as the republican party is not put in a LONG timeout by the people of this country we are fucked.

[bucolic_frolic]

39. We keep indulging them because they are entrenched

We need, or more often want, the products their businesses produce. How many of us source from Democrats, as if we had that choice, not very often. We have a few farm choices in some locales, but usually it's the supermarket. And with that comes all those companies that supply them, and the real estate owners, and the shareholders. You can't disconnect from the loop. And it's the same with most products.

[paleotn]

24. If nuttin happens....

I'm calling for secession. Sure Putin wins, but I refuse to go through the rest of my life with Alabama and Mississippi attached like lampreys, sucking our blood and fucking things up for everyone.

[Johnny2X2X]

3. The hardest part hasn't even started

Trump is a maniac, when he loses the election he's going to call for violence and a civil war. It's no coincidence he admires Erdogan so much, Erdogan already executed a plan Trump wants to try. He feigned a coup and arrested hundreds of thousands of his political opponents. That's what Trump will try to do if he loses next year, count on it.

Trump and his cabal of crooks are robbing the treasury blind, it will take a crowbar to get them out.

[Drunken Irishman]

4. There is no guarantee it ends this way.

Trump is still too popular for anyone to be convinced it'll end this way.

The other scenario, which I don't think is as likely, but is still possible, is this:

The Democrats impeach, the Senate fails to convict, Trump proclaims his innocence and in Nov., 2020, he ekes out another surprising win on the backs of the states that got him the presidency in the first place.

We can't just assume it ends good for the Democrats.

I remember the whole Scott Walker recall affair. I remember everyone convinced the second there was going to be a recall vote that he would lose. Walker not only won, he turned around and won reelection two years later.

Never underestimate stupidity or partisan politics.

[Turin_C3PO]

23. I don't think

a Trump win is possible if his approval rating stays in the 40-42% range. I just don’t see it happening. Of course Democrats need to show up at the polls in large numbers.

[SCVDem]

5. Dump does not get it.

If we have a violent civil war, I want his orange target of an ass on the course standing out against the green.

War means no more golf and your courses become military posts.

Hunters wear orange to be seen!

Feeling lucky, punk?

[marieo1]

6. Bombarded by this clown

Oh, I hope and pray so. I have never been so depressed about our political system in my life. We try to live decent lives all our lives and then we are bombarded with this clown. He and his cohorts are exactly the kind our parents would not let us associate with as kids and were warned against. Now we have to live with this nastiness, criminality every day of our lives. It is disgusting. I want to know, how did these kind of people ever get so much power? We were told as kids, it didn't matter how much money we had, it was more important to be a 'decent' person.

[calimary]

8. But since then we've all been instructed that money is speech

(and corporations are people) and both simply MUST be entitled to freedom-freedom.

[lagomorph777]

21. I propose we pay the SCOTUS slime who voted for Citizens United to be paid

in SPEECH. It's the same as money, right?

[progressoid]

7. Nope.

No handcuffs. Plus I'd say 20-25% of the country will think he's innocent and will keep the wound open for years to come.

[NCLefty]

48. I have a tiny amount of hope for jail from NY crimes but you're right on that last part.

And they will romanticize the era, just like some descendents of the confederacy still do.

[the_sly_pig]

10. The problem is that 4 in 10 US citizens are anti constitutional....

Christo fascist, bigots. And that is not gonna heal. Ever. History tells us that these deep divisions are handled differently.....

[Duppers]

17. Afraid you're right.

And they pass their brainwashed bigotry and stupidity down to their next generation too.

[EricaGriswoldAuthor]

11. I believe it will

Millennials hate republicans, they will never send one to the governor's mansion let alone the White House. It might take a while but perhaps the millennials and get z and and perhaps even the millennials kids can get them all out.

Also, most regimes that detest the will of the majority do not last. American Revolution, The French Revolution, the Russian revolution, etc.

They will pay for their crimes.

[Still In Wisconsin]

13. It won't happen. Trump will stonewall, lie, scream, tweet, sue, hold rallies, campaign, fling mud,

and before we know it, it will be election night 2020. It will come down to Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Arizona. I like our chances, but with all the Russian help he will receive and Republican voter suppression operations, it will probably be very close. Again. There's a real chance that Trump will not only NOT be forced from office before his first term ends, but also that he will be re-elected.

The chance that Trump gets away with ALL of this is very good. Our democracy is in a weakened state.

[denvine]

14. Oh please, please, please be true!

[PatrickforO]

15. God, I'd like to think that, to believe that. I really would.

And it COULD happen that way.

But there is a huge amount of embedded corruption in our federal government. The MIC is stronger than ever, big pharma and healthcare are putting billions on the table to keep us away from a national system, the plastics industry and big oil are paying pseudoscientists to lie about the dangers of plastics and carbon emissions, and we have the NRA too! Not to mention the 'christians' who have sold their souls to an amoral, sociopathic party simply because that party pays lip service to 'right to life.'

Unless the sun really comes out, and people see all these squirming maggots for what they are, and realize the problem can be ended by us voting and then remaining engaged in government at all levels, then we run the risk of getting rid of Trump but leaving the corruption intact.

Which is why I like the Squad so much, as well as Katie Porter. They aren't beholden to anyone and are telling it like it is. Because the only thing that can end this rampant corruption is to shine powerful spotlights on it so people can see just how it works, AND have a political plan to end it. It is time for a new Square Deal, a new American Reform Movement.

[paleotn]

29. If enough of us are convinced it won't happen that way...

then it won't happen that way. Self fulfilling prophecies suck.

[PatrickforO]

32. I have always believed that there are forces in the world for good that

are independent of human will.

[Enoki33]

16. tRump's greatest threat to democracy is his uncanny ability to change

reality, and that he is a master manipulator of the people who so ignorantly believe those lies. He intends to fully utilize that when he is rejected at the polls. He will not go quietly. The entire GOP is caught in a trap made of their own cowardice. For my own sanity l have to believe good people who are the majority will eventually prevail and our nation will survive as was intended.

[scarytomcat]

20. we will eventually prevail

but it may be to late to survive

[paleotn]

27. master manipulator of "some" people.

There, fixed it for you. And apparently not even a majority of people.

[Politicub]

18. Yes! Hold on to Hope.

There are more of us than them. A blue tsunami will wash away the garbage.

[groundloop]

19. NEVER think that the repub party is doomed.

The Watergate fiasco was most certainly the end of the repub party as we knew it. Gerald Ford issuing a pardon for Nixon only added to repub problems. But yet Jimmy Carter held the White House for only 4 years after Gerald Ford was defeated.

Then, Saint Ronnie's Iran Contra problems most certainly would bring down the repub party.... yet it didn't happen.

Repubs are extremely good at making sure all their members toe the party line, and on top of that they have a vast amount of wealth to draw on and to protect. Also, don't forget that our system of electing a president (electoral college) has a built in bias that leans repub.

[Sugar Smack]

25. Oh, Soph-

[Soph0571]

28. Best scene ever - walking towards a new beginning!

I HOPE!

[Sugar Smack]

31. I LOVE the final beach scene!

But what's a Pork Tornado??

[Soph0571]

33. Hahahaha

No bloody clue!!!!!

[ornotna]

42. Pork Tornadoes

[paleotn]

26. If we give up hope....

we should all start speaking Canadian. Sorry, no time for the doom and gloomers. Otherwise, your fears become a self fulfilling prophecy and I won't stand for that. Die on your goddamn feet folks!

[Crunchy Frog]

30. We'd still be left with the 40% of the voting population who are batshit crazy

And will fall to the next demagogue to come along.

And the Electoral College, and gerrymandered districts, and Senate that heavily favors underpopulated red states.

I wish I could believe in a happy ending, but at this point I just can't do it. Would love to be proved wrong though.

[Soph0571]

35. May I point you to...

My Ray of Light, My Unicorn and My Rainbow... *cough*

[Crunchy Frog]

36. Yes, they are very nice. I'm just being my cynical old self.

[Soph0571]

37. Would not want you any other way love!

[LonePirate]

34. Would love to see him in cuffs. Doubt it happens unless it is on state charges.

[joost5]

38. This feels like book 3 of Lord of the Rings before the One Ring is destroyed

There’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
— Sam Gamgee

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till.
— Gandalf

[BlueWI]

40. A vision is needed too.

Defeating Trump is essential. What's the Democratic vision for the country that can make defeat more likely and motivate a cross section of voters? A more public effort is needed to pursue this

[Mr.Bill]

43. Only one thing. Consequences for those who did wrong.

We tried it the other way with Nixon, The Reagan gang, and W, and that's how we got here.

[BlueWI]

50. I agree to a point.

Accountability and safeguards are needed to rein in the habits of secrecy and the unsavory relationships that put Trump in office and Republicans in the majority.

But is the the desire for justice and good governance sufficient to motivate a majority of voters? How do we frame this issue, along with other priorities, to build support for an agenda of change?

Maybe tonight will provide some clarity.

[Collimator]

41. The Revolutionary War. . .

Our Civil War, and World War II were hardly inevitable victories. There were plenty of dark times amid lives torn apart.

Somehow, we prevailed and muddled along in our flawed march to democracy and justice for all people. We will keep making mistakes, arguing over interpretations of basic ideals and sliding backwards a step or two.

However, we will move forward. And I speak not only of America, but of the human race, which I love despite our many imperfections.

[IronLionZion]

44. It will all work out in the end, if it's not working out

then it's not the end. or something like that. People need to have hope to keep on keeping on.

For Freeper trolls lurking about:

[oswaldactedalone]

45. It's perpetually Fitzmas

and until someone shows me something different, it will always be Fitzmas.

[ramen]

46. The range of responses in this thread is fascinating.

I have no idea which side to agree with. I do hold some degree of 'optimism' that people will finally throw their hands up and reject the politics of wannabe nazis, because we all should. I also worry about the depth of entrenchment of the cult of 'personality' surrounding the traitor in chief, because of the whole 5th avenue effect. He has been right about thst part thus far.

[Demovictory9]

47. Kick