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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThis is WAR
Where we are at as a nation is not a skirmish between different ideologies. This is not a parting of the ways between the right and the left. This is not a battle between Democrats v Republicans, liberals and conservatives.
This is WAR.
This is a war between truth-tellers and liars, between alternate facts and actual facts, between climate-change deniers and scientific evidence, between citizens who revere the Constitution and those who would trample it, between those who believe in freedom of thought and expression and those who believe in the suppression of any expression of thought contrary to any ideology they themselves embrace.
This is WAR.
There is no common ground shared by those who believe in GLBT rights and those who want GLBTers persecuted and/or prosecuted. There is no common ground shared by those who embrace diversity and those who want white supremacy. There is no common ground shared by those who respect all religions, or the choice not to be a believer at all, and those who want their religious beliefs to be the major influence on our government and its policies.
This is WAR.
We are no longer in a place where we can even pretend to agree to disagree, laugh it off, and get together for a couple of drinks. We are fighting an enemy who, as this last election has shown, want n*gg*rs at the back of the bus, want homos jailed, want immigrants ousted, want the Bible taught in place of science in our classrooms, want all social safety-nets shredded, and want people who cant afford healthcare to crawl off somewhere and die.
This is WAR.
The enemy has so little respect for our countrys standing in the world, they elected an utter buffoon to its highest position, making us a global laughingstock. They have so little regard for our nations well-being, they put a mentally unstable man in the White House. They have so little concern for their fellow citizens, they have sat in silence as totally unqualified people have been put in charge of vitally important govt departments, or been appointed to positions they have no understanding of.
This is WAR.
Fight it when you can and where you can, and by whatever means you can. Write/call-email your elected reps, spread the word on social media, call out the liars, inform the ill-informed, march, protest, sign petitions it all counts.
And remember there are more of us than there are of them.
Cha
(297,275 posts)and those sucking up to the blotus' autocratic version of NON reality.
KAC with her "alternative facts" and his toady spicerfacts.
Lifelong Protester
(8,421 posts)Raster
(20,998 posts)...because this is certainly an assault on our way of life.
world wide wally
(21,744 posts)flamingdem
(39,313 posts)and all of our history as a country of immigrants.
He simply can't get away with that
butdiduvote
(284 posts)Many, I think, are still desperately trying to view the current situation through a left vs. right, "politics as usual" lens, which is why you see so many dismissing liberals' concerns as mere "sour grapes" over losing an election or telling those who are genuinely despondent to get over it and rethink their priorities because it was JUST an election in which the other side won. Hopefully more people will catch up and break out of their old ways of thinking about politics soon.
I feel ill-prepared to deal with all of this myself. When I thrust myself full-force into Hillary's campaign in 2015, I had no intentions to sign up for this mess that has caused me to question everything I thought I knew about America and the world. I was ready to partake in some discourse about women in the workforce, expanding healthcare access, making college more afforable, etc. I wasn't prepared to spend my days ripping out my hair while the other side gaslighted the nation and foreign governments assisted them in spreading propoganda to turn progressive voters against one another. I don't know what to do or think anymore. I think that is the point.
calimary
(81,299 posts)LIKE your screen name!
I was a very active Hillary supporter, too. I have been since I first discovered her during Campaign 1992. I remember a few weeks before the election, texting my daughter about the larger meaning of breaking that last glass ceiling, what it would mean for women all over the world - that a woman would serve in the most powerful job on the planet. Today, I found myself watching that news conference with trump and Theresa May. I kept imagining how enthralling, uplifting, and totally inspiring it would have been to have seen a President Hillary Clinton standing side-by-side with the female British Prime Minister. What a statement that would have made. What a revolution for women world-wide. A signal that the eons of women being relegated to 2nd-class citizens, or not even citizens but mere property to be bought, sold, and bartered. That was my dream - to realize it hand-in-hand with my grown daughter. I would live to see it happen along WITH her. We'd both be witnessing this cataclysmic leap forward in human history!
I'm afraid I take this whole trump debacle too personally. That bastard and his weasels and flying monkeys STOLE that dream from me.
butdiduvote
(284 posts)Been reading for a while and finally decided to sign up!
I'm working and cannot give a lenghty reply, but I identify with so much of what you said. I had this whole vision about what my life was going to be like the next four (maybe 8!) years, and the Trumpies, along with everyone who didn't vote for Hillary because she was supposedly just as bad, deprived me of that. It was the one major thing I had that kept me going while the rest of my life was in shambles quite frankly, and now I have nothing left. I couldn't help but take this election personally. "They" took my "one thing." I could probably accept it if I felt that the loss was legitimate, that the other platform simply resonated with more people...but that is SO far from what happened.
calimary
(81,299 posts)Hey, I take this personally. As a woman, as a mother, as the mother of a daughter. As the mother of a daughter who married into a family of many more women than men. Our son-in-law is one of approximately a dozen cousins and he's the only male.
I think of my sisters, their new nieces, my brother's only grandchild - a baby girl, my nephew's only daughter - a baby girl. WHAT ON EARTH are we setting up for them? Besides, we now proudly have an avowed (and proud of it) sexual predator as a so-called president. Yeah, let's all enjoy how "wonderful" this jackass is.
My husband is now "marveling" in a discouraged, disgusted way - at how much shit trump has stirred up in a week. A WEEK! Only his first WEEK!?!?!? And he's picking a fight with Mexico. He's picking a fight with China. He's picking a fight with Iran - well there goes THAT nuclear weapons curtailment treaty...
And hey, working-class/Rust-Belt America, how do you like the idea of YOU paying for that wall, after all? And Mexico will somehow magically pay us back - "later"? And then if trump gets his way and imposes 20% tariffs or some such financial trickery to try and extract more money from them, that means all that made-in-Mexico crap you buy at Walmart is gonna start costing more - so YOU get to pay for that damn wall AGAIN!!! TWICE! DOUBLE! What's that little ditty - "double your pleasure, double your fun"? Yeah. YOU get to pay for that stupid-ass wall TWICE. And it won't work toward the stated goal you all believe in, with your blinders on and your minds closed and your reasoning and logic and objectivity turned off.
How do you like the "Art of THAT Deal"????
BlueMTexpat
(15,369 posts)and I hear you!
What we have today is literally war - not at all "politics as usual."
Some still have not "gotten" that.
But Nance Greggs clearly has!
butdiduvote
(284 posts)NBachers
(17,117 posts)This is an invaluable resource for contacting government officials. Yes, I know it isn't sexy, but it's part of the drudgery of government. These are the bullets we're shooting in this war.
Call, fax, email, write, visit offices.
If you're using the Contact Me form, or writing, you can look up a restaurant in their district, and use that address as your own.
Google search for postcard blanks and templates. Any office supply store has 'em.
Turn your handwriting into a font and print out multiples of hand-written postcards to mail out. https://www.buzzfeed.com/nicolenguyen/how-you-do-dat?utm_term=.ngwz0rM44X#.eiZxqaQEE1
I've just bought a fax modem so I can fax without printing documents and faxing them.
If we can post on DU, we can do all of the above.
TrekLuver
(2,573 posts)Stryst
(714 posts)Seriously, there were three politically motivated shootings today, including a mass shooting where the shooter was screaming about Muslims and F*g**ts and fired 240 rounds. They not only refused to allow us to control murder machines, they threatened to rape and murder anyone who wanted to touch their precious rifles.
When we said that the constitution allows freedom to share and express any belief that doesn't affect another person, they stamped their feet and declared that this is a "Christian" nation, right before they cluster bombed a bunch of brown kids. When any individual steps up and tries to defend the separation of church and state, those individuals immediately start receiving rape and murder threats, including to their children.
When we told them that their gas guzzlers and love of coal were destroying the world, they called us liars and locked the scientists trying to warn us up with years of litigation. Plus, the rape and murder threats.
Every time they get power, they hurt us. The mental health care system, the veterans care system, health care access, the fucking TREASURY. Generations of the little scraps we gather stolen, packaged, and delivered to a small cabal of oligarchs so they can buy another car that they don't drive, or another house that they don't live in, but are sure to hire plenty of private security to make sure no homeless get near them.
I am boiling with impotent rage and the only solutions I can think of are to run or fight. I'm not much of a runner. But I am a big fan of comedy, and this has been a tense day, so maybe a nice satirical video will ease all of our tension.
RelativelyJones
(898 posts)I understand he is trying to make an anti-elitist message but this was sick.
Stryst
(714 posts)Also, if you're so sensitive, why did you bother clicking on a video by TREVOR MOORE called "Time for Guillotines"? I personally don't find much offensive, but if someone posted a Hagee video, I would know NOT TO CLICK on that video, because it would probably offend me. If there was a video called "stomping kittens" I wouldn't click on it.
This is a satirical video about pulling down the power structure. Sure, it makes jokes about several forms of violence, as a means for conservatives and liberals to join together and pull down the house of cards that the oligarchs have built for us.
How is unity, and the people of our country coming together sick and wrong?
RelativelyJones
(898 posts)It has a child singing about killing, about wiping out "wives and children" and gangrape. Yeah, it's a laugh riot. Check out the lyrics. https://genius.com/Trevor-moore-time-for-guillotines-lyrics
Stryst
(714 posts)I find the idea of a priest and an abortion doctor holding hands while they curb stomp fascists is not only funny, it's inspiring as hell. Also, not a word about the shootings, but WHOA, someone posted a video that I personally find offensive. Oh, I'm sorry, you used the word "disgusting". I personally find your blase attitude about this disgusting. But your feelings were hurt, and I acknowledge that. Do I need to keep trying to make you feel better about not clicking with mainstream comedy, or are we done here? Because I've got beer to brew, and fascists to deal with.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)total truth....even some here can't stand the truth unless it's couched in nicey-nice language...you go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
concreteblue
(626 posts)"Every textbook said to bring you the bread
But guess what we got you instead...."
alterfurz
(2,474 posts)...they own the judges, and we got the proof"
Stryst
(714 posts)Thank you for exposing me to new music.
BigBearJohn
(11,410 posts)alterfurz
(2,474 posts)...in unvanquishable number --
shake your chains to earth like dew
which in sleep had fallen on you --
ye are many -- they are few."
-- Shelley, "The Masque of Anarchy"
Smickey
(3,324 posts)I love this visual.
GoneOffShore
(17,340 posts)Sitting and looking at the sea this morning at 6AM, because I could no longer continue to lie in bed and have thoughts tumble around, my thoughts turned to Kosovo and Rwanda. Two places that, last century, experienced genocide, engineered by authoritarian leaders.
How did they encourage their followers to take up rifles, bombs, machetes and cudgels against their fellow citizens? They told their followers that those people who shared the same needs, wants, and humanity weren't really people. They made them 'the other'.
And today, in the US, DT, Bannon, Spencer, Conway, et al, along with their various enablers are trying to do the same.
It has started in small and not so small ways and is a continuing project of intimidation: Targeting Planned Parenthood clinics by 'pro-forced-birth' advocates, targeting Muslim schools, going after Jewish community centers, LGBQT support groups, free speech advocates, scientists.
My prediction is that we will soon see DT's version of Kristallnacht. We have to stand strong for the weaker members of our society, otherwise we will end up like Rwanda and Kosovo. Because, the RedHats have decided that anyone different than they are is the enemy. They want 'the others' dead.
Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)I have always been an activist, but the current situation in our country has caused me to come out fighting in any way I can - clean or dirty - it matters not when opposing such truly horrible people as Comrade trump and his KGB style followers. For those who are not yet aware of the site, I highly recommend INDIVISIBLE, a place where you can get great information and ideas about fighting back using the Tea Party's own tactics, among many other great ideas. We must go grassroots on this one and hold our local Congressional Representatives responsible for their every vile act and allow them to see our claws and our teeth, shining with wrath. It means doing more than just sending a few e-mails. E-mails are just for fire starters. I have already e-mailed my 3rd district Colorado Representative, Scott Tipton (R) and requested to be a member of his next town hall meeting. I also sent a separate request for a special meeting here in my small Colorado town (pretty conservative) to discuss the Affordable Care Act and just what Tipton and Paul Ryan plan to put in its place, along with the consequences for Colorado's low income disabled and low income seniors who are almost completely dependent on programs like Medicaid and SSDI/SSI which Ryan and his cohorts want to put on the chopping block.
I've never attempted anything quite like this before but when I think of the terrible plight that the Republicans' strategy would place millions of Americans in (including myself), my courage only grows stronger - not weaker. I have to come up with a meeting agenda, a day and time, and the estimated number of attendees. And most important of all, I need to get the word out to everyone in my county. I've got to canvas my town, get support from local church and civic groups and encourage people to sit down and talk together and fight not ourselves, but our true enemy the Republicans who would destroy our democracy in favor of the upper one percent. I don't know how a woman with a brain injury is going to manage all this, but I can't help but believe that I'll find me some friends along the way. I'll also be sending off letters to the editor of all of Colorado's wealthy ski resort towns like Aspen and Vail in order to stir up a little guilt among the chic and the wealthy. They do love to do their good little deeds in Aspen and Telluride!
Tomorrow, I'll be calling out Colorado's Senators for a fight at the local OK corral at high noon. Wish me luck, everyone! I'll be damned if I stand by and watch my fellows die from lack of medical care/housing/food. We WILL make our voices heard, never doubt that for a moment. I hope you will all come join this battle for our one and only precious country and planet!
volstork
(5,401 posts)You are an inspiration! If we all take steps like this, we will prevail!
Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)Thanks for the words of encouragement, my friend. While Colorado is becoming a much more blue state than it once was, rural Colorado where I live is still determinedly red and run mostly by the big shots who affiliate themselves with the ultra-conservative Cattlemen's Association. But by golly, me and my friends out here are going to make those cowboys hang on to their hats. Just wait until this old mule gives them the hardest kick they've ever gotten! Together we are crazy strong!
volstork
(5,401 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,061 posts)last week and his staff posted it on his facebook page.
Good luck with your efforts!
Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)INDIVISIBLE is one of the best sites I've run across in ages. It gives a step by step plan to pin the Republicans to the wall using their own Tea Party inspired tactics. From the Introduction:
WHO IS THIS DOCUMENT BY AND FOR?
We: Are former progressive congressional staffers who saw the Tea Party beat back President Obamas agenda.
We: See the enthusiasm to fight the Trump agenda, and want to share insider info on how best to influence Congress to do that.
You: Want to do your part to beat back the Trump agenda and understand that will require more than calls and petitions.
You: Should use this guide, share it, amend it, make it your own, and get to work.
We believe that protecting our values, our neighbors, and ourselves will require mounting a similar resistance to the Trump agenda but a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness. Trump is not popular. He does not have a mandate. He does not have large congressional majorities. If a small minority in the Tea Party could stop President Obama, then we the majority can stop a petty tyrant named Trump.
To this end, the following chapters offer a step-by-step guide for individuals, groups, and organizations looking to replicate the Tea Partys success in getting Congress to listen to a small, vocal, dedicated group of constituents. The guide is intended to be equally useful for stiffening Democratic spines and weakening pro-Trump Republican resolve.
And it just keeps getting better. Check it out everyone, and spread the word!
https://www.indivisibleguide.com/web/
BumRushDaShow
(129,061 posts)Around my area, there are many who are trying to do their part by participating in the "Hate Has No Home Here" & "Hate Has No Business Here" effort with signs popping up all around the Philly area and immediate suburbs. Those printing and distributing the signs have literally been running out of them the same day they are being offered and there is a call out for more folks to get involved nationwide (the effort originated in the Chicago area). The image files are offered here -
https://hatehasnohomehere.wordpress.com/
The usage of the imagery allows for insertion of other languages to tailor to different areas of the country that may have a different mix of languages that are spoken.
Mountain Mule
(1,002 posts)Thanks so much for letting me know about "Hate has no Home Here." This is exactly the message I would like to send out to my small, rural, highly conservative community. I'm going to go out and buy new ink for my printer and print a few of those puppies up and distribute them appropriately.
BTW, thanks for the welcome! As I have mentioned in a post to a different thread, I've actually been around DU for a while now. I managed to survive the Great Election Day Hack and return from the dead as "Mountain Mule." I like my new user name better than my old one, so "Mule" it is!
BumRushDaShow
(129,061 posts)and I know a bunch of folks got caught in that nightmare and have returned like you with fresh accounts. I was actually on a jury for the lethal troll as its damage was propagating across the site.
I know that many around my area had been so frustrated that they still had their Clinton-Kaine signs out in a defiant protest and this new sign perfectly captures a meaningful move to the next phase to (per a tweet I saw yesterday) "Help Make America America Again"!
sagetea
(1,368 posts)Good Luck, brother!
Ho'
sage
ProudProgressiveNow
(6,129 posts)Hekate
(90,708 posts)brooklynboy49
(287 posts)We've been under attack for going on 40 years. Many people who cherish progressive values are first recognizing that fact. The Republicans hunker down and toe the party line while they use every weapon at their disposal to wage war, while Democrats (wrongfully and naïvely) play nice and seek bipartisan agreement and support for compromise measures. It's time to jettison that kind of thinking and support progressive measures -- and only progressive measures -- and dig in and oppose -- in complete unity -- all Republican efforts to nullify the New Deal, civil rights legislation, LGBT protections and women's rights.
We're under siege, and it's high time we recognize that fact and act accordingly.
GregD
(2,263 posts)I'm always impressed.
Paladin
(28,262 posts)davekriss
(4,617 posts)mcar
(42,334 posts)TrekLuver
(2,573 posts)lunatica
(53,410 posts)concord
(298 posts)Thanks!
heaven05
(18,124 posts)but the truth is truth. Even some here want it couched in nicey-nice language. I voted for this to stay..... on edit: you did not get alerted on....just a person responding to your OP....with truth...please excuse my confusion...I still like your OP....
spanone
(135,841 posts)asiliveandbreathe
(8,203 posts)IS this what you spent years in a pow camp for - is this what my dad WW11 fought for - my two brothers Viet Nam, my son RET. 21 years Navy chief fought for - for god's sake - DO SOMETHING!
Tks for telling it like it is NG
oasis
(49,388 posts)johnp3907
(3,731 posts)beaglelover
(3,486 posts)Dustlawyer
(10,495 posts)TPTB wanted Trump in for the same reason Putin did, $$$! They had their MSM give him the free airtime, their Republicans pass the voter suppression etc., to advance their interests much faster than before. Just look at the cabinet nominees.
They control our government and almost all in it. By allowing them to buy our politicians they get everything they want at our expense.
Until and unless we rise up enmasse and demand comprehensive campaign finance reform, take out the money and revolving door and bust up the media and banking oligarchies, we will continue our downward slide.
The social issues, while important, are a distraction to this root problem. Donald Trump is the king of distraction preventing us from seeing the forest through the trees.
When will we learn?
llmart
(15,540 posts)No more playing nice and getting along. As far as I'm concerned, this is all out war.
Yes, there are more of us than them and we all need to do whatever it is we can to defeat the orange GOP enemy!
gademocrat7
(10,659 posts)Thank you, NanceGreggs.
BlueMTexpat
(15,369 posts)My sheer rage at these goings-on has boiled over.
I will be on the phone every day, writing and calling.
I will also write and call GOPers, even though I come from a great blue state and my immediate Senators and Congressional Rep do the right things even without prompting. I'll just remind them of my support.
In my 70+ years, I have NEVER seen anything like this, although in the 1980s, I was afraid that the Reagan Era would lead to something like this. I would have been SOOO happy to be wrong.
bucolic_frolic
(43,173 posts)would never have stood for this bullshit either.
Thanks for rallying the troops!!!!
Initech
(100,079 posts)SleeplessinSoCal
(9,123 posts)The alt right. The Left in Protest, Terrorists, South America, France, and on and on.
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)A thousand times Yes. I've lost a couple of somewhat casual friends over this when I told them outright they were bigots. I didn't know they were before but the attitude was "Since Trump was elected, now we can say it"
You're absolutely right, Nance:
This is WAR
larry budwell
(50 posts)The Resistance is on. However, who is leading the way ?
livetohike
(22,144 posts)Fantastic Anarchist
(7,309 posts)... but I've had it with them. They're Suddenly Senile, forgetting everything they put Obama through, and are now bitching about not being given a chance.
If it's a war they want, then I'm pretty much ready to start swingin'.
Kablooie
(18,634 posts)He lives in an ignorant, paranoid, fantasy world and should never have been allowed anywhere near political power.
Thousands of innocent people's lives will be disrupted and destroyed because of one man's deranged delusions.
What is next? If he is allowed to remain I'm sure all our lives will be damaged before long.
This is going to get intolerable very soon.
He is going to have to be eliminated if America is to survive.
maryellen99
(3,789 posts)tallahasseedem
(6,716 posts)You've hit it out of the park...again!
deancr
(150 posts)This is the time when one must pick a side. This is not normalcy.
I've lost friends over opposition to this madness. One I've known for over 45 years. No regrets. I'll stand with democracy and common decency. WE will win because we must.
George II
(67,782 posts)byronius
(7,395 posts)This is it. We all have to stiffen up and fight in every intelligent manner possible, in every situation.
We're not only more numerous, we're right in all senses from moral to strategic. It counts. It just does.
colsohlibgal
(5,275 posts)There are way more of us and we need to keep pushing back hard and voting in record number including local elections and mid term elections.
F them, Trump, Bannon, and all their fans. You will never prevail in the end.
KewlKat
(5,624 posts)Puzzler
(2,505 posts).
Kath2
(3,074 posts)I am with you!!!
ancianita
(36,060 posts)Americans of all classes and colors are fighting for a more survivable form of capitalism.
Even with the last gasps of capitalism's land base wars (under religious or political cover) the 74% who didn't vote for Trump know that skill, autonomy and social solidarity will survive any divisive ideological attacks, no matter how elitist globalists try to control and "own" their world.
Non-men, non-whites and non-believers are not turning back and will not be turned back. They are not backward. Global capitalists are, and they're losing.
We are creating postcapitalist zones.