We haven't reached our bottom yet....

[BronxBoy]

Next week I will mark 10 years on DU. And I continue to come to this site because I can get news I need along with insightful comments from a large community of posters. Those of us who have been here awhile have been through last night on several occasions since this site was formed.

I don't typically make these post mortem type posts mainly because what I would say has usually been said with more eloquence and precision by another poster. I also believe that in times like these, it's probably a good thing to be quiet and listen rather than to rush to place fingers upon keyboard. At least that's the case for me.

And from late last night until today, as I read post after post filled with anger and anguish that gushed forward from the slashed throat of what could have been, I knew that this community was filled with dread because of the looming consequences ahead.

I really don't have anything to add about what went wrong or what needs to be done. Far smarter people here have said it in far smarter ways. What I would like to comment on is the question that some many of us have asked since last night: "Why in hell do the people in this country continue to make decisions contrary to the well being of our citizens?" And to that I can only say that, as a nation, we haven't reached our bottom yet.

Many posters here have spoken of their personal experiences with the insidious nature of addiction. There are many differences of opinion of how to treat addiction but many different parties agree. Until the person with the addiction is truly ready to change, healing can not occur. And most often, this willingness to change comes only after that person has reached absolute rock bottom and they become tired of it. One too many tricks in parked cars. One too many stints in the joint. One too many times stealing from your family or abandoning your kids when they need you most. You deal with all that shit until the day comes when you say 'I can't take this shit anymore" Or you die. It's usually one or the other.

So we can blame the youth. We can blame the Koch Brothers. We can blame spineless Democrats. We can blame everything we can think to blame but the fact is, this country appears to not have reached the point where the majority of us are willing to take the steps necessary for our recovery. When you look at the landscape of election results from last night, you can only marvel and shake your head at the level of dysfunction present in the American electorate.

That's all I have to say. As a community, DU will pick itself up and dust itself off like it's done so many times before. We are in for a tough couple of years and it will hurt like a son of a bitch. But I do worry about our nation. Will we ever hit the bottom so hard that we do the right thing? Or will we just blissfully continue to saunter down that inevitable road to destruction? I truly hope that we can beat the odds. And with passionate folks like we have here, we just might. But at some point, no matter how well intentioned the care giver, the patient has to want to heal.

[jimlup]

1. Thanks I can certainly relate

Good post

[undergroundpanther]

2. some people are narcissists

And being a narcissist,authoritarian or psychopath means they'll never care,never desire insight enough to change,never heal and never stop abusing people,power,money,or social mechanisms. They cannot feel enough empathy to care,gain insight enough to care. Some people are just toxic to others and to the very foundations a democracy rests upon because,its who they are.

[BronxBoy]

3. So...

Do you think those folks are the true cause of what happened last night? I agree that these folks exist but are they the reason this country continually seems to elect a government that doesn't seem to give two shits about the citizens?

[undergroundpanther]

4. i think it is a big factor.

Observe the republicans,than observe our road raging,ignorance perpetuating,resentment fueled,vain, disconnected shallow self absorbed culture modeled to us by those whom we are taught to admire. The fact banks fuck over this country and get more money should say something to you about how sick this culture is.

[KingCharlemagne]

14. 1-4% of the population are walkiing around with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (the

fancy name for your garden-variety sociopaths and psychopaths); no treatment will work for that cohort. Can't remember whether pathological narcissism is part of ASPD.

Remember that the next time you're in a class or meeting with 25 people or more. Odds are, one or more the people there is ASPD. Scary thought, eh?

[Blue_In_AK]

5. Same analogy I've been using.

We'll either hit bottom and recover, or we will cease to exist as a functioning democracy. Right now, I'm not holding out a lot of hope.

[BronxBoy]

17. It is pretty depressing to think about....n/t

[apples and oranges]

7. We've hit bottom multiple times. Dems clean up the mess, then 2 years later

repubs get elected. That's how it goes, because repubs always stay on message while we attack and eat our own. One thing that's clear is we can't just assume that voters will see the truth.

[Jackpine Radical]

8. The country hits bottom, but

the individuals in it don't necessarily go all the way down with it--especially the wealthier ones.

Also, the connection between an addiction and a personal crash is more obvious and undeniable than the connection between voting for psychopathic pirates and experiencing the consequences a few years later, especially when the scoundrels control your information sources and are feeding you false information about the nature and causes of the crash.

[Electric Monk]

9. I think of it as the Lieberman lesson. Many Dems get it now too, but some have yet to.

Nader was not the biggest problem for Democrats with the 2000 Presidential election. Run some candidates that people will want to vote for and the GOTV part will happen naturally, instead of being forced.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. You should post more. One reason is that the Bronx is grossly unrepresented here and the other is...

... that you write very well.

[BronxBoy]

19. Thank you...

LOL....While my roots to the city run deep, its been many a year since this gray haired lad has lived in the Bronx.

I used to post prolifically but had to stop due...well....life. But I am grateful for those DUers who do post regularly especially when it comes to posting news and research and other stuff.

[Smarmie Doofus]

22. Of course, I meant "UNDER-represented".

Wow. Talk about inadvertently shoring-up a harmful social mythology.

>>>LOL....While my roots to the city run deep, its been many a year since this gray haired lad has lived in the Bronx.

I used to post prolifically but had to stop due...well....life. But I am grateful for those DUers who do post regularly especially when it comes to posting news and research and other stuff.>>>

Don't worry about that. I'll hold down the fort.

But your OP is a home run. ( Pun intended)

[MinneapolisMatt]

11. Very well said.

[onecaliberal]

12. Very well said.

Haven't even come close to hitting bottom. Psychopaths will never hit it. They run the finances of this country.

[byronius]

13. Well said.

I joined DU about the same time you did. The dearth of reason and critical thinking skills in the American electorate has always been the core of the problem, whether from purposeful destruction of public education or just standard primate programming. But I believe I will live to see a long-lived Democratic Supermajority and an American Renaissance, mostly because of emerging demographics but also because we've been through all this before, many times, and each time the urge expressed in the Constitution floats back to the surface and largely or incrementally advances the Spirit Of Democracy, a system that actually works quite well when practiced.

Other systems are not so effective. Good Ol' Boy Capitalism, for instance, or Concealed Longing For Monarchy, or for that matter, allowing Foreign Entities to engage in Dark Money and Buy The Refs.

Ups and Downs, Wins and Losses, but the trend is upward and accelerating. Many Americans are fiercely independent reasoners, as the founders fantasized, and I think it is now too late to stop the virus Jefferson wrote. People try, they try so hard -- but there's always a Smedley Butler in the way. And so it is with Citizens United, and the last desperate throes of this recent conservative wave. These people are actually willing to damage the nation itself, to retard growth as a tactic, and it has worked for them somewhat -- but there are people in the way, Bronxboy and Byronius, and we won't ever stop trying, will we? Not until death. Because that is what Americans do. That is what the virus does. It cannot be stopped.

They are fighting the fabric itself. The energy they expend in fruitless waste rots their enterprises and their lives. By all accounts, they've spent enough money that they should all be kings, right? Instead they're still stuck in this democratic hellhole, where people can still mock them in internet memes and force them to talk about things they'd rather not discuss. It must be so frustrating.

The grim backlash they're creating will come, it's historically axiomatic. And I believe it will be overwhelming and semi-permanent, like it is already in California.

[BronxBoy]

18. I agree....

And I have to wonder how long it has been like this. At what point did civic engagement become an afterthought in this country?

[AndyTiedye]

15. "Hitting Bottom" Doesn't Turn Wingnuts into Progressives

It only causes them to look for someone to blame. The Tee Vee and the preacherman tell them to blame us and they do.

[tabasco]

16. This is the new Citizens United era, in which money=speech

Propaganda works, so yes, things will get much worse.

[RobinA]

20. Agree Completely

I've been saying this since the Contract With America blowout. Things need to get worse...much worse. Full out crash and burn bad. And then we have to hope we still have the vestiges of democracy left to pull it out. Which is increasingly not a foregone conclusion in my book.

Problem for me is that retirement grows ever closer. My earnings have been modest, but I've tried to put myself in the best possible position with what I've got to weather whatever devastation might come, but predicting is impossible and I'm not wealthy enough to bury millions in the backyard where they would be safe from pickpocketing banks and corporations. At worst I should be able to move to a warm state with legal pot and spend my days on the steam grate (or park bench if it's a really warm state) smoking pot and watching the birds.

[99Forever]

21. The analogy, tho not perfect...

.. has much merit. And like the disease it comes from, this nation's "addiction" is indeed cunning and baffling. Great post, thank you.