America is broken.

Incapable of being fixed. Agree or disagree?

I have high hopes for a good dem president in 2009 but I think the machine is too big to sustain itself.

I agree that it won't be fixed without a major restructuring, probably on the order of revolution, but then I think it was broken well before 2000. I'd set the date of its demise back during the 1940s, maybe earlier.

and also a lot of education.

We need to kick out the corporate lobbyists, change some rules, enforce the ones we have, make the elections transparent, hold the media and the politicians accountable for every lie they tell, and above all be more informed, aware, and active as a nation.

Hmm. Ok, I change my answer to "maybe"

Although, being fixed could be possible.

I say 'probably' incapable because time is running out.

And being fixed would take time (of which there isn't enough in the status quo).

Perhaps we should think in terms of rebuilding it anew.

It can be fixed if enough voters decide to fix it.

I have had this argument with my sister for years now. I say, 'we've got to make it work,' not for me, but for my kids. My oldest son is great with French, and I tell him to keep his options open.

Broken...ten years? Fifteen? When we start losing coastal cities and the interior can't support the refugees? Then you'll know what broken means.

and he's sittin' there scratchin' his ass without a clue as to how to put it back together.

There are a shitload of Democrats waiting in the wings, any one of them has a tool box and the knowledge to effect the needed repairs.

Come on, JAN 09. The sooner, the better.

It depends on a lot of stuff. Plus, I think the problem is far larger than just the US. I think the corporations have pretty much fucked the entire world.

I've been thinking about this a lot, and going on the history of the last three centuries and studies about the innate neural and personality differences between liberals and conservatives plus some more information I've taken in through my life - I think that we're slowly evolving past stupid shit. The people who still mostly use their reptile brains are a minority now, but they're also mostly the ones in power. Probably because being incredibly selfish and cruel and lacking any empathy or mercy helped their ancestors achieve power and they've been breeding with other powerful families since, and yeah...hey, it's just a newly formed not very sophisticated yet theory.

If we can get them out of power, there's hope. The future is still going to be rough, but there's hope.

If their boots keep stamping on our faces until we've run out the clock and our destruction of the environment and overpopulation comes to bite us in the ass at full force, then yeah, things are going to suck pretty bad.

As for how to get them out of power - I'm still thinking on that. We've all come up with a lot of ideas. It's just getting the majority of Americans to accept those ideas that's the hard part, especially with a media extremely skilled in propaganda shouting us down and shutting out our voice.

Just use your voice whenever you get the chance. It's a start.

:)

a good old-fashioned revolutionary war would be just as cathartic as it was the last time it was tried.

Spent part of the weekend with my rightwing/fundie baby brother. He used to save his fury for the likes of yer gays, scantily clad mtv vixens, would-be gun confiscators and other godless hordes.

Frustrating, but I never could stop loving little bro because he's smart, funny as hell, and when he was 8 he spent his allowance at Thrifty Drugs on my birthday to buy me some pool-chalk-blue Maybelline eyeshdow for my very own cosmetic enhancement. That debt is incalculable and can never be repaid.

We had a silent agreement to avoid talking politics over the past several years ever since his guy George got in. But lately there have been a few comments from him, indicating a certain level of disenchantment with George. Saturday he shared the revelation that "I think they're just trying to distract all of us by getting us riled up about gay things and racial things and when it comes right down to it, while they've got us fighting amongst ourselves they're stealing our money and getting richer while we get poorer."

Yes, this is a former "values voter" saying the most important thing after all isn't whether Suzie has Two Mommies, but whether those mommies will be able to support their kids working a low paying McJob with no benefits. And referencing that our government is currently a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate america.

When angry white guys see the light, it's not necessarily a Jesus thing. And if enough of these angry, disenchanted people who formerly supported the GOP are feeling anything like my brother, I have to think the country can be fixed.

:D

America is broken and won't be what it was again. But it can be something new and just as good, if not better.

I think we're in a deep hole that we won't be able to crawl out of.

I'm not going to give up just because we can't go back the way we came. There's no question that things have to change, though, and they are going to. One way or another.

It's going to take a lot more than a lousy President to put me down on this country. America has been kind and good to me and my family, and allowed us opportunities we would not have had elsewhere. In this country, one can still dream. We should never take that for granted, because it's one of the rarest things a nationa allows its citizens to do - particularly thew lower classes. With a little dedication, a Democratic President and Congress will soon be able to build on that.

America may have a cold or flu, but it's far from broken.

in a "Bobby Brady played ball in the house and broke the vase" sort of way.