I've been staring at the TV and asking myself HOWW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN IN THE US?

[napi21]

I'm almost 80 yo and though there have been diff. problems over the years, there's never been anything like this. I dont ever remember thinking we could loose our Democracy! Did DT really cause all of us to HATE on another? Or was this hate unrest always there & he gave the OK to show it? I never remember considering moving to another Country, but I do think about it now. Will electing Biden be able to make it stop? I'm ashamed of what we're doing now.

[StarryNite]

1. It's frightening.

[Phoenix61]

2. It's always been there.

Hiding, lurking in the dark, covered in shame. Twitler told them they didn’t need to be ashamed anymore. They could be proud of their hate and shout it from the rooftops.

[TwilightZone]

4. Agreed.

He gave them a license to be overt. We should be mocking them (and him) off the stage, but that's not happening.

[BKDem]

15. Mocking them doesn't seem to be working.

They need to be dragged off the stage. We need police that will enforce the law.

[tblue37]

29. Too many cops are on their side.

[BKDem]

30. It's a serious problem.

[TwilightZone]

31. Mocking works on Trump.

It's one of the few things that does.

What I meant was that we as a society should be mocking them out of it. We should treat them the same way that Germany treats neo-Nazis groups. Instead, they're given a stage and a megaphone by Trump and the right wing.

[redstatebluegirl]

16. He let them out from under their rocks.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. Bad educations.

I think that's ultimately the problem, combined with the right-wing propaganda machine.

[Shermann]

5. Republicans will learn if Dishonesty, Denial, Demagoguery, and Division is a winning strategy

Those are the Four D's from the 2016 playbook (with a few minor updates for 2020). They will study and they will learn. So things will get better or worse, but the song won't remain the same.

[Srkdqltr]

6. I know people who I would never have guessed were racest were.

Others who had a disdain for other than "American " particularly middle eastern or latino. Makes one wonder about people.

[relayerbob]

7. It's always been there

Reagan started (or at least strongly accelerated and intensified) the anti-intellectual, anti-education riffs in the GOP, and Newt's Contract on America cemented the partisan divide. The ability to accept Sarah Palin as a viable candidate proved that ignorance had finally opened the door to a Trump. Sadly, I predicted a fasist win in 2016, in late 2014, and called it for Trump in Spet 2015, when he was still in single digits.

The only real question - have enough normal republicans awakened from their slumber to get things back on an even keep within the next ten years? Or do we lose now and plunge the world into darkness completely.

[Totally Tunsie]

8. Just this one *man*, this disruptor, this narcissist, this Caligula,

was all it took to change the course of our country.

Nations have fought wars against us to attempt to do what this clown has done with his Executive Orders and his hate speeches, and yet he prevails.

Tick tock, donnie.

[empedocles]

9. From 1968 to 2008, the hate forces controlled the WH 28 of those 40 years,

which may have mollified the hate forces.

When the Dems put a black family in the WH, courtesy of the '07-'08 markets crash, the hate forces were angered to 'rise again'.

trump could smell that, and with all sorts of corrupt help, especially putin-traitortrump, was able to get into the backdoor of the WH.

The white vote still favors trump and all his garbage, but just a bit - 51 to 49 it seems.

There is reason for hope in all of this - I think.

[sakabatou]

10. The hate was there and he gave it the OK. Then he poured gasoline on it, then lit a match

[jalan48]

11. I'll never forget Oliver North sitting before the Congress wearing his military uniform, bedecked

in medals, telling the country he broke the law for the good of the country. Instead of being locked up he was hailed a hero by many. I think Reagan and his cabal helped set the stage for what's happening today.

[stillcool]

12. I'm doing the same thing...

it is other-worldly, but has been for a while. I don't know why I expect things to change, when nothing has changed. I guess this is the last gasp of the white man's world we've been living in all along. We were warned, that it was going to get bad. Expect anything, and everything. But I never fail to be surprised.
Eye on the prize.

[JHB]

13. No, it's not simply DT. This is the product of more than a half century of...

...conservative/libertarian zealots organizing to finally bring down the New Deal, the income tax, and all their other pet "socialist" villains so they can restore America to its golden age, the Gilded Age. And there are plenty of rich people and industries that may not have that specific goal, but since the zealots goal means lower taxes for them and pretty much elimination of regulations on them, they're happy to sign on.

There's no shortage of places to count as "the start" of this, but for convenience I'll say the 70s. Previous "Conservative Movement" organizing combined with the Powell Memo laying out a strategy for corporations to fight regulations, the start of conservative activists using early forms of data mining to identify hot-button issues they could use to get people angry enough to single-issue vote, and then use that single-issue voting to break up traditionally Democratic constituencies (i.e., divide and conquer over abortion, guns, "stabbed in the back" narratives for losing Vietnam, etc.).

By the late 80s, conservative media such at talk radio was on the rise, exploiting the same hot-button topics to drive listenership. And once you privatize the "two minute hates," limiting them to two minutes ceases to be a sensible business plan for the people in that line of work, so for over a quarter century we've had the country blanketed in RW propaganda that has zero interest in "dialing it back."

Trump just pushed the buttons his audiences had become addicted to being pushed, and the zealots had another chance to push through their agenda while the pushing was good, just as they'd done under Bush.

[barbtries]

14. i just had to go into my son's room

to rage at him for awhile. In TX Biden had to cancel a rally and one of his escorter's cars was HIT on the freeway and the police did nothing! Here in NC a group of protesters peacefully marching were pepper sprayed by the POLICE!

WTF

[TreasonousBastard]

17. You and I both remember the race and Viet Nam standoffs that tore the nation apart, but this...

worse. Reagan made it OK to be stupid and uneducated and Gingrich made it almost mandatory.

I have a cousin who has two doctorates in aviation engineering and worked with NASA in his teens. He was appointed to a Congressional advisory commission on space study-- basically explaining to Congress which end of the rocket to point up. Gingrich dissolved the commission, and many more like it, admitting that such commissions too often got in the way of getting stuff done. Stuff he wanted done. There is no reason to consult experts in scientific fields when all you want to do is throw money at your business buddies.

There was a time where we looked to the future and fought over the best way to solve such things as racial biases in injustices. The better of the conservatives admitted there was a problem, but couldn't go along with the recommendations. But there was slow progress.

Now, the hard lines are redrawn. No one on the other side even wants to admit problems exist, unless we caused them.

We remember the shock when "Silent Spring" came out, and we fought to clean up the planet. A bloody fight indeed, but we won a lot of the battles. Now, we have the incredible sight of a President pushing for coal! Refusing to study, much less ban, so many chemicals. And it goes on...

Newt-- this is the nation you cursed us with. Die in pain and roast in hell.

[Ferrets are Cool]

22. Good post

[SMC22307]

18. Decades of right-wing media brainwashing...

trashing liberals and 'the left.' More and more have been taught to hate us. Just look at Fat Nixon and Republicans attacking Democratic cities - they've taken the attacks to new heights. Threatening to withhold aid to blue areas? It's all out in the open now.

[SMC22307]

19. Decades of right-wing media brainwashing...

trashing liberals and 'the left.' More and more have been taught to hate us. Just look at Fat Nixon and Republicans attacking Democratic cities - they've taken the attacks to new heights. Threatening to withhold aid to blue areas? It's all out in the open now.

[demosincebirth]

20. 77k votes.

[Ferrets are Cool]

21. Electing a decent President will not be enough to make it stop.

Trying and jailing the ones who allowed it to happen will be a start to turning it around. Unfortunately, this country will never be free of hate. JMO

[Buckeyeblue]

23. I think historians will be answering that question for quite a while.

[The Genealogist]

24. Decades of RW propeganda spewed on hate radio and FAUX news

I think our first RW hate station where I am started up 30 years ago this month. Not sure what the landscape looked like elswehere at that time. Fast forward a few decades, and now there are several hate radio stations on AM and FM locally. All day and night, RW propaganda. Add to that a large number of RW propaganda stations that tout themselves as religious broadcasters. A few years later, FAUX news and its propaganda joined the circus. Then, the internet is full of it. Decades of hateful rhetoric, reinforced every minute of the day.

[bdamomma]

25. This has been planned

for decades, the time was ripe for Putin and those repigs in the Senate for a total power grab. Now we the people have to get our power and our country back again.

VOTE your life does depend on it.

tRump is killing Americans and does not care, he will do anything this is a given to hold onto power.

We must not let this happen.

[bucolic_frolic]

26. ReThugs have more in common with international oligarchs than with America

It will be a difficult dance to reverse this mess and revive America. There are many moving parts. imo, Biden needs broad and firm goals, and good public servants to delegate duties to. Some things will recover quickly and well, some will take years. Keeping the economy moving is hard. We've moved from manufacturing and consumerism to home gigs and home building. We only innovate in medicine and tech. Our workforce chases the 401K dream so they can take cruises and cocoon like true couch potatoes. We still don't even patch potholes well, and few want to do the work.

[Mr.Bill]

27. We have spent decades letting our elected officials defy the law

and not be held accountable for it. We re where we are now because Richard Nixon didn't die in prison. The worst thing a President Biden could do would be to not appoint Justice Dept. officials who will come down on these bastards like a ton of bricks.

[Martin Eden]

28. Without a common enemy we can be manipulated into turning against each other

The divisions have always been there. The promise of E Pluribus Unum has never been fulfilled.

I apologize in advance for the following bit of grammar nazism, but one of your words is my #1 pet peeve:
Loose rhymes with juice.
Lose rhymes with booze.

[Yeehah]

32. That's how I felt during the run-up to the Iraq invasion

The telescreens were blaring pro-war propaganda and polls claimed war support at 90%.

Meanwhile, our enemies responsible for the 9-11 attacks escaped into Pakistan, where they found safe haven.

[Klaralven]

33. 80 and you don't remember the McCarthy hearings, the '60s race riots, the Vietnam war protests?

Admittedly, it has been more placid the last couple of decades, mainly because our attention has been focused externally on the War on Terror, rather than on the internal dissension.

[BarbD]

37. Going to be 83 this month and vividly recall the "Red" scare of the '50s as I grew up in Milwaukee.

The House Committee of Un-American Activities ruined many lives. Race riots, the fight for desegregation, Vietnam, America love it or leave it, the greed of Wall Street. We've seen a lot. The common denominator is that up to now we're lucky if half of the eligible voters did their civic duty and showed up at the polls. Apathy and disinterest takes its toll on democracy which is not a spectator sport.

2020 is different. I believe the American people have been prodded awake by the criminality of the republican party led by Trump.

We are pissed and passionate this time around.

I celebrate that we are getting out the vote. Hurrah!

[napi21]

41. Oh, I remember the 60's & the protests against Nam. I don't remember Americans hating each other

like it seems now. The Black Lives Matter is not as violent as in the 60's but it's similar intent. Yes there's the War on
Terror, but it's not even close to the protests against Nam. People were dying every day in Nam. Today it feels much more political. Neither side will even talk to the other without it becoming a fight!

[warmfeet]

34. Learned ignorance.

Some have figured out a way to sell ignorance and magical thinking to those most susceptible to its power, for the sole purpose of acquiring power and wealth. As a species we have much to learn about reality and the acceptance thereof. Unfortunately, many will be casualties of this learning process - this could include our Democracy itself. Work your ass off to help prevent this - we can only wait and see if this will make the difference.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

35. This country was built on bones. Its framework is white supremacy. Its riches, paid for in blood.

It will be like this in one way or another until we reckon with our history.

[onetexan]

36. We're a 40/60 nation. The racism & bigotry has been there in the ugly underbelly of the US. The Con

emboldened and legitimized them. Yes, Biden as president will make it stop in that his Dem AG will make sure the racists will be arrested & locked up. This will retard their numbers to some degree. We must be vigilant and ensure we protect our democracy and our black & brown citizens. We are all Americans, regardless of our skin color.

[spanone]

38. years of the ru$h limbaughs, lies, fomenting hatred of gays, people of color, women, democrats...

hate in general, fear, ignorance. then the election of BARACK OBAMA...then trump...the uber hater and on and on and on and on and on....

[BobTheSubgenius]

39. Reading or hearing snippets like this make me very sad.

Not least, because the apprehension is real and well-founded, and, on my best day, I couldn't do one iota to make it better.

[Snackshack]

40. Yes...

The hate has always been there. DT brought it out into the open and has certainly added to it but racism has been around forever.

Electing Biden is not going to make it stop. This kind of hate is a generational thing much like religion is. In the last few hundred years things have improved but we still have a few generations to go before it is gone...provided life as we have come to know it is still possible on this planet in a few hundred years.

[Blue Owl]

42. K&R