And Trump's base would cheer. So would the Republican Senate, apparently.

One of the gun-toting nuts in Richmond last week said he was disappointed that there were no protesters against their rally because he had wanted to start a civil war.

Not one of your more "refined" responses, my friend.
But, yeah, it is all so absurd!

Thanks.

at them continually with every verbal and legal attack that he makes on them, creating an atmosphere that encourages others to make literal, physical attacks on them.

Muslim ban, detention cages, remain in Mexico policy, Neo Nazi "fine people," etc.

I agree with what you are saying in the OP. Absolutely.

If a rabid dog attacks you and your family, you kick the shit out of it, until it can no longer pose a danger. This applies to both four- and two-legged dogs. In November, we kick the shit out of them at the voting booth. We don't need to question if they had rough puppyhoods, or why else they might opt to viciously attack. Just kick the shit out of them.

We need a blue wave so big that the numbers will make history. So big the asshole trumps dirty tricks, or Russian hacks will not be able to steal this election.

Somewhere around 100,000,000 voters did not vote in 2016, for one reason or another. We need to get those voters out this year.

There will also be millions of new voters who are just now old enough to vote or who have seen what trump is really like, and now want to vote him out. Every vote counts and not voting can not be an option.

They know that Republican policies are not going to help their future. And most of them don't hate all the people the Trumpers hate. They've grown up with gay friends and friends of other races and religions. Many of them have traveled. They've seen other countries. They know about gun controls and national health care. They understand science and know that we are coming very close to the point of losing this earth to climate change that will eventually destroy the environment and its ability to sustain life.

We need to push to register people under 30 to vote and really push for them to get out and vote.

the Republican era would come to an end.
Any voting group, be it women, youth, or minorities, that voted above 70% would rule.

My son is 25 he didn't vote in 2016 because like so many, he simply figured Hillary would win. He thought, like others that trump could never get elected.

He had come back from working in Idaho, where he was registered to vote, and he is now registered in Washington state, and ready to vote. He favors Warren, but he also said no matter who wins the nomination he is going to vote for that person. Many of his gaming friends friends on line feel the same way.

get their oppressive college loans dealt w/. Tons of sound bites are unfortunately out there in the real world to get these kids on the side of democratic candidates who do care about these kids and their massive student loans. One point that I want to make (IMHO), if we help these kids, in turn, they'll make able to contribute more to society quickly instead of being mired in these massive, oppressive loans made by FOR profit fake schools.

DeVos Held In Contempt Of Court For Enforcing Loans On Defrauded College Students.

Student loans: Betsy DeVos rule change means college students must fight for loan forgiveness.

Throughout her tenure, DeVos has slow-walked debt-relief claims from students, including veterans, who were saddled with massive debt for worthless degrees from schools that misrepresented their programs and placement rates and then, in many cases, folded. Far from cracking down on that fraud, her department helped perpetuate it, once approving $11 million in federal aid to ineligible colleges.

I gave up trying to "talk to them" or "reason with them" or "discover why they're upset" in 2017. It's hopeless. They are hopeless. They are simply racist, evil pieces of shit who care about absolutely nothing but themselves. They are beyond redemption. The only alternative is to crush them and their champions at the ballot box. And in the process destroy the entire Republican party. To use McConnell's own words...to root them out root and branch. I long for the day when one of these Rethug rubes can't get elected register of deeds in bum fuck Nebraska. When the word Republican has the same connotation as nazi.

Show up next November like our lives depend on it, because they do.

electronically rigged starting in 2000.

We now are at a point where adjusted election results can happen in real-time to determine the desired winner. Steal a few votes here a few votes there and no one will know with an auditable system.

This didn't happen overnight it started in 2000 and the GOP has been tweaking and field testing the system in every election since then. Combined with all the other VOTER SUPPRESSION programs the GOP has put in place they are in my opinion at a point where they can dial-in an election wins anytime they want or need. Until we recognize that and FIX IT we will continue to see our democracy eroded point by point, election by election.

Someday in the not too distant future, we will see election results like those in Russia. "Putin WINS with 97% of the votes."

We need to do these things.
1. get rid of Citizen United which opens the door for foreign interference in our elections.
2. implement publicly funded election. Eliminate the need for the candidate to beg for funding and get BOUGHT by rich donors.
3. get rid of ALL voter suppression programs. Including gerrymandering district.
4. implement TERM LIMITS. Congress should not be a life long career to become millionaires.
5. return to paper ballots. At the very least an auditable electronic system.
6. scrap the electoral college system. Combined with computer modeling it makes stealing election easier (2016).
7. decide the winner based on who wins the popular vote.
8. implement HARSH punishments for ELECTION FRAUD. Voter fraud is a GOP myth.
9. re-implement the Fairness Doctrine (see details below).
10. fix the laws that protect a sitting president from being charged for crimes while in office.
11. fix the Impeachment process. It is broken.
12. abolish the SCOTUS lifetime appointments.

I'm sure there are more things that need to be fixed but this is a start

The FAIRNESS DOCTRINE

In 1949, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) published a report that recommended what came to be known as the “Fairness Doctrine.” As explained by the Congressional Research Service, the doctrine “consisted of two basic requirements” for anyone given a TV or radio broadcast license:

(1) that every licensee devote a reasonable portion of broadcast time to the discussion and consideration of controversial issues of public importance; and

(2) that in doing so, [the broadcaster must be] fair – that is, [the broadcaster] must affirmatively endeavor to make … facilities available for the expression of contrasting viewpoints held by responsible elements with respect to the controversial issues presented.

Where would we be without Nancy Pelosi, Diane Feinstein, Steny Hoyer, Elijah Commings, etc. etc. etc. We, the voters have the right to impose term limits on those congress critters who are not doing the job we expect them to do. I hope to see many of the senators replaced in November.

I certainly agree the Supreme Court should have a term limit, maybe 10 or 15 years.

Voters SHOULD have the right to term-out their own representatives/senators. If all the other tweaks of the system take place, it should be easier for incumbents to be retired.

Absolutely the EC needs to be tossed in the garbage. Its original purpose is suspect, and it should NOT be a method of voter manipulation.

Either that, or retire the "one person, one vote" "propaganda" tool. Because if we continue to trot it out as a virtue of our democracy, it is toothless, and fraudulent.

The first goal is a tsunami-like GOTV effort for this November. The second goal is to make sure the votes are counted accurately. ANYTHING electronic can be hacked. PAPER BALLOTS are the only sure-fire method of voting, with ABSOLUTE TRACKING OF BALLOT POSSESSION. It CAN be done.

Then the tweaking can start.

They can vote for another candidate.

I am not in favor of term limits for members of Congress. The worst of the obstruction doesn't come from the long-time members; most of ii comes from relative newbies who are hard-core right-wing ideologues (e.g., those who came in during the Tea Party sweep, or those elected on Trump's coattails). I wouldn't want to see the term of the likes of an Elijah Cummings be limited to a set number of terms, for example, and the most effective members of Congress have typically been those who have been there for a long time.

justices. Do we really want a possible Pub President nominating the planned retirement of those justices? We don't have equal time of any Party candidate in the Presidency. In fact there were only 2 Dems to serve 2 terms since Truman! To me it sounds like we'd be inadvertently stacking the court in Pub favor.

But that doesn't mean it is necessarily the right thing to do.

I have never seen term limits benefit the majority on the left. They do seem to benefit the right where they have been used. Not everything that sounds good works out well.

I fear the definition of "responsible" is no longer what it once was.

[link:http://

Link to tweet

?s=20|

minority districts.

etc. etc.

Excellent post. We need to dismantle the building blocks of their power.

Is what drives his base. It’s astounding how deeply rooted that is in America.

Husbands on farms but couldn't inherit or own property or their own earnings.

Trump feeds it to his followers. It would be nice if we could just ignore it and watch it disappear like a puff of smoke, but I doubt that is possible.

and the M$M media can't look away.

It's all for the ratings, and one thing Trump knows is how to drive ratings. Like the great showmen always knew, nobody ever lost money by underestimating the taste of the American public.

on MSNBC. And that's Bannon told us in 2017.

She was crying because one of his policies had come home to roost and was hurting her family. In tears, she said, "He's not hurting the people he's supposed to be hurting."

I have no idea how you break through that kind of ignorance and hate.

You can't break it. They are totally "all in." I do believe many would kill for him, and I'm afraid it's coming right up. Very much hope I'm wrong but don't think so.

Forty years of unchallenged hate radio is a huge part of this problem. The dems/left have been stupid to ignore hate radio and yet we still do. We are so far behind the 8-ball in the damage hate radio has done it is stunning. Hate radio is why grown men wear tee shirts that read "I'd rather be a Russian than a Democrat." Now it's morphed into Fox and social media and it feels like the dems don't even have a marketing department.

and half the country is just soaking it in as gospel. Goebells would be so proud of the deplorables and the success of their propaganda media outlets.

I wish a billionaire would do something about it- it is the foundation of it all.

...shitty attitude.

Shame on her.

Proof. THAT’S why they love him. Because they want people who aren’t like them and don’t look like them and don’t think like them - to hurt.

To wish hurt upon someone. Upon someone you disagree with, or isn’t just lockstep with them on their thinking and their worldview. And to vote for them FOR THAT REASON. To vote for that person because he’s told you (or made you believe) that he will hurt the people you don’t like.

Um - that’s not why I want to vote for Joe Biden, or Elizabeth Warren, or Pete Buttigieg, or Steyer or Bloomberg or Klobuchar - so whoever gets the nomination will have the power to go hurt the people I don’t like.

And full disclosure here - true enough. I don’t like some of the people who follow trump. I don’t like the racists, the jingoists, the sexists and misogynists, the people who would undo or roll back all the progress we’ve struggled over decades to achieve on behalf of what Scripture says Jesus called “the least of these.” I don’t like those regressives OR what they stand for. And I’ve certainly made that clear HERE.

But I do not wish harm upon them. Especially since many of them who would, or already DO, wish harm upon me.

I believe there is such a thing as karma.

And I don’t wish harm on trump, either. But I do hope his own karma will catch up with him for all of those he’s hurt, and insulted, and deceived, violated, and cheated, and lied to, and broken.

The one thing I DO wish on him is defeat in November. But then again, maybe that’ll be his own karma starting to come back on him. Wishing justice to prevail upon the unjust? That’s not wishing harm or ill or evil on someone.

That said, there also is the Harry Truman quote in response to the famous exhortation “give ‘em hell, Harry!” He’s quoted as replying: “I give ‘em the truth, and they think it’s hell.”

but I wish that they would be the recipients of the policy changes that Trump is seeking. Maybe at some point their own health will "trump" their hate, at least for some of them. Let the rest of them be raptured.

Tolerance is intellectual in its nature, while fear is instinctual. We have to put effort into learning tolerance, but we are born with instinctual hatred. Hatred is self-preservation in its most primitive form, while tolerance is self-preservation in its highest form.

It is far easier to follow instinct than to apply intellect. We are wired for the former, and we mst put a lot of effort to acquire the latter. When a charismatic leader comes along and tells you to follow your instinct while rejecting the intellectual "elites", it is a compelling message. We've seen this scenario repeated again and again throughout history, usually not ending well.

Compulsory education on every level, for everyone, everywhere, at all times, is the only way to make sure intellect triumphs over instinct and democracy thrives.

And Republicans - it's the opposite. It's about opposing the 'other'.

Democrats have to put their efforts into inclusion.

While love is a natural instinct.
Hatred leads to "heart" dis ease and is rooted in fear.
It is true that the 'flight of fight' response is instinctual but I believe were are naturally good and fear is taught.

Both are instinctual. Tolerance and hate is where intellect, despite instinctual urges, is applied to defy instinct.

There is nothing instinctual about applying intellect. It is all learned.

Its all they know. I think we need to make sure they are exposed to other ideas, other cultures, learn that acceptance and kindness are good things.

My younger brother, much as I love him (he does have very many redeeming qualities!), is a rethuglican bigot. I have been pleasantly surprised and encouraged that his daughter is a liberal Democrat like her aunt, and she married a like-minded guy. She is now pregnant, and I have every confidence that the kid will be raised right. I believe she learned her independent thinking by going to college (Masters degree in Sociology), and being out in the wide world. My brother never left the area, and his in-laws and people he works with have similar mind-sets. The small town where we grew up was racist and narrow minded to the core. Apparently, that held more sway than our Mom being a life-long Democrat (she loved Hillary Clinton!)

I'm not sure that even compulsory education can train them to develop intellect over instinct.

States can control what is taught in their schools. That's a scary thought, isn't it.

states is the scary thought they set in place to begin with.

50 different school systems, 50 different budgets, 50 different ways to frame children's learning to reflect parochial views. That's what we now have.

"When you have plenty of good strong hating you don't need hope because the hating will be enough to nourish you."

William Faulkner - 'Absalom, Absalom!'

they must take out before it destroys them. When the collapse of the Soviet Union and end of the Cold War "took out" Russia, big RW powers systematically turned that fear on their internal enemy: the liberalism our liberal democracy was founded on and the Democratic Party that protects it, and them.

We're living the results of 30 years of systematic demonization of the liberal America conservative voters, and too many on the left also, no longer understand is critical to their own security and wellbeing. And a huge part of the traditional American way they long to return to.

United we stand, divided we fall. Divide and conquer the electorate.

from the MSM. There are enough enemies to deal with, lets not shoot the messenger. That is a right wing response.

These things are not mutually exclusive. The MSM loves Trump and they love all the ratings he brings. I’m not the first bloke to note this BTW. Not right wing at all.

If you have ever read anything I’ve posted you will see I’m far from right wing.

We all know the MSM is feed by people tuning into the source. Just like every time anyone opens Facebook the till goes ca ching. This is an unfortunate result of a free press. Our whole election system is a cash cow every two years for those who benefit most from that cash flow. We all know the solution is to take money out of the election process. Without this source of income I am sure the MSM will other means to titillate our optic nerves and capitalize.
It is what we do with the information available to us that gives us power over it all. We need that information, no matter the source, in order to make decisions.

It’s bad because Trump has shown the MSM they can make big money when a charlatan emerges.

country became fixated on the HUAC hearings. Must remember it took a respected member of the MSM to put and end to it.

You watch, they get ratings, ratings mean $$$.

I think the ...ooooo!, shiny and new!....has long since worn off when it comes to most media outlets. This time around will be very different. The Mary Louise Kelly incident is just another case in point.

That is what you stand for...that is the russiapublican party plank...to 'piss off and own the libs'... Oh no it's not you say...then tell me what the hell it is. They got nothing.

When I hear someone say something to the effect that they enjoy being an irritant to Democrats more than anything else ("it'll make their heads explode" or "own the libs".....), it just makes my heart sink. That's not patriotism. That's not even supporting policies. That's just sheer hate. It's a desire to win at all costs, even if they don't even really want what they're saying they want to win.

It has become an "us v. them" culture with them, and they are too damned stupid/stubborn to see what damage it's doing.

I just want to add, I recently read a post by someone here on DU saying, in effect, that they were enjoying being an irritant to another poster. WTH! We SHOULD all be on the same side.

So true. There is no way to win with these people. They are like drug addicts.

replacements to satiate these animals. No one will serve up the gile and vileness like their ugly idiot does.

I suspect that waiting in the wings are people who will make Trump look at least halfway decent. Look at how Trump has made Bush look better. The next Republican president ( or Trump after the Senate does nothing to him) may very well be the last president as he will destroy America and the GOP will cheer him on

and they love him for it

he went down the escalator. The only thing different is that it has gotten much much worse and unless we can overcome some of this it will get much worse than this.

The fear, hatred, and culture of victimization are all amplified daily on fox.

In 2015/2016 I kept waiting for them to take the multiple off ramps, they never did. His base support barely takes a hit, and only short term, for outrageous policies and tweets. Cage some kids, take a short term one or two percent hit. Then I thought back to 2008, the Repukes had trashed the economy, blew up Iraq, EPIC FAILURES! They were in a free fall for a very short time. Then they threw Palin at us and rallied around her hate. Obama is a militant Christian/Muslim, he is using Chicago Thug techniques on the bankers, on and on. Clinton takes them down a notch after Papa Bush, then they threw Newt at us and rallied around the hate.

They have no core belief other than hate of liberals. Hell the same people who were outraged over Kap taking a knee, said it was disrespectful of the military (a standard they have been using for years) have said squat about tRump tweeting a go ahead for the Turks and Russia to over run our base in Syria. tRump put US troops in danger, the Russians rip down our flag, the ultimate disrespect to our Military, yet silence. tRump claims wounded warriors had a headache, again silence.

A recent poll had 43% of Repukes supporting tRump if he shutdown media that was critical of him and his policies. Now he has insinuated such, but hasn't tried it. I guarantee you that if he did it, Repuke support would shoot up to close to 70%. Imprison political foes, jail Libs for being Anti-American, the majority of Repubs, close to 75% would support him. And here is a hint, the 25% who don't have the fucking guts to state their support, they are just like Mitch, Collins, Murkowski, they would find some lame ass reason to support the position while feigning mild outrage.

One good thing, it appears that most here have come to the understanding of how deep the hate runs. If we make it through 2020 we must always remember how low they will go.

They are afraid to be thought to give "libtards" any advantage at all. That is why they will be crucified if they flip.

You ask how we shut off the water - I don't know.
But that doesn't mean there isn't a way, so we must do everything we can think of and then some until we do.

I have been trying to understand the group that loves Trump and this says it better than anything else I have ever heard..of course they will deny it but how can Trump make a country great by spreading hate? as some once said. "they hate democrats more than they love their country"

and over them. There are more of us then them.

Has been since day one

His entire campaign was based on racism and fear mongering.

GOP-grand old party- old old pipes- main line pipe burst no emergency response crew. Swamp becomes lake by massive flooding -gop drowns out. Sometimes an accident isn't necessarily an accident .