For those of you in your 50s, 60s, 70s, or beyond, can you recall being more angry at your . . . .

. . . . elected representatives than you are right now?

In fact, I feel like I'm an American only by accident of birth. There's no pride anymore.

and Ronald Reagan. I don't remember feeling such intense loathing for members of Congress as I do now, though -- with the exception of Newt Gingrich. I really hated that fat prick. Still do.

Aside from the war, Nixon was a raging liberal by today's standards.

and the bush years

We now are reversing.

Astute observation! :D

were we "advancing" during the Vietnam War?

were we advancing when there was not even a debate over whether gays should be in the military or when Clinton agreed to DADT?

were we advancing when no one could imagine an African American as president?

Is it a reversal to have three women on the SCOTUS for the first time?
Is it a reversal to have the first African American attorney general?
Was the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act a reversal?
Was the extension of SCHIP a reversal?

You're going to get splattered if you paint with a broad brush. Are we doing as well as we should? No. Are we in some sort of full scale reversal? Of course not.

and tightening its tentacles ever more.

Corporate control of government and almost every aspect of our lives is nearly complete now.

Did I go to bed worried that I would lose my home? NO
Did I go to bed knowing that if I got sick, really sick, that I would lose everything I had worked for? NO
Did I go to bed thinking that at 55 I would be unemployable? NO
Did I go to bed wondering how much longer I can live in America? NO

Feels like full scale reversal to me.

nor have I ever been so disillusioned with a good number of my fellow citizens who voted for some of them...

I guess I feel considerably more helpless at this time than I ever have before

The weight of reality is heavier than usual and knowing that it's probably going to get heavier with the new Congress doesn't help.


I seem to have misplaced my hope somewhere....:pals:

Re "I guess I feel considerably more helpless at this time than I ever have before."

It's almost gone beyond anger with me, and I'm someone who gets angry very easily. What gets to me is the helplessness, the despair. I feel like there is NOBODY, absolutely nobody, with the power to actually *DO* anything who is willing to do anything to keep the U.S. from becoming a third-world country. All of our elected representatives with only a few exceptions are on the side of the corporatocracy and the war criminals. But it's Obama's capitulation and betrayal that hurts most of all.

I like you:)

I live in Tennessee, which is so full of republicans you can't move, so yeah, I am pretty sick of them. But honestly, I am pretty sick of some of the Democrats, our President included. These folks just roll over and play dead.

If this state decides to become part of Jeebusland, we need to pick a new state.

I'm thinking Vermont or Colorado...

I grew up in Chattanooga (Red Bank), & you are correct about it being BLOOD RED, especially now. When I was growing up Chatt was about 50/50. I'm now on other side of Nashville & my little town was solidly blue 20 yrs ago, now mostly red w/small blue center. We just lost some of our state Dems in Nov.
You are point on about Dems rolling over, if not looking the other way. Fodder for spin-off party if they don't change & fight for US!
My next move.....leave the state.....maybe the country.

:hi:

I can't recall any politician my parents were so proud to see swept into office in Nov of 08.

Today I can't recall them ever being so pissed of by a President either.

1968 Democratic convention and nominee...

#0 = Tricky Dick :puke:

#1 = Jimmy Carter (lost my job because of him)
#2 = Reagan - double barf after 8 years of governorship besides
#3 = * #1
#4 = * #2
#5 = a growing concern at the very least

now I just don't know.
They aren't even running from the corruption - bragging about it as an ideology instead.

Not to mention disillusioned, betrayed, and all-round screwed (w/o being kissed).:hangover:
:hurts:

Edit: spelling

and absolutely nail spitting furious that they failed so totally to rein in Stupid and Cheney (unitary executive, my ass, you'd think Congress would reassert its own power).

But the antics of McConnell and Kyl, especially, have me the most deeply angry I have ever been. These men are so in love with their own want list they're willing to see this country's position in the world totally destroyed if they don't get every bauble they want.

To me, that's treason, especially since McConnell said his main ambition is to get Obama out of office, to overturn the first legal election since 1996.

A sane country would never allow these men to continue in public office.

must have caused my lapse in memory. During his reign, widespread layoffs in our very industrial area sprouted up like wildfire. Just like Bush, he was a puppet-in-chief (or, rather, the first president I unmistakably knew to be one; I've been feeling extra disillusioned lately).

The main news networks would follow the doings of the President and the local news would follow the Governor. Legislative activities would be mentioned, and papers and magazines would have stories about legislation. But you found out relatively little about individual Representatives and Senators, except for the leadership.

Now you see their smirking faces all the time.

when he was in town.

and there were channels locally to find out what they were doing if you were involved in politics. in our local paper there used to be a section telling you what bills were up, for starters.

these days i find it harder because it seems everything's speeded up. no way can you keep track unless you do it 24-7.

BUT...never have seen anything quite like it nationally..ever..

elected a tea party candidate over the incumbent moderate Democrat. This is a mostly blue collar area, so I do not know why people voted against their own interests. But many people around here are not too bright.

Spouse and I are old, but we worry about our children and grandchildren.

. . . so much hype about our social and political condition these days. It's been much worse than it is now.

We've made a great deal of political and social progress in my time. There's always been an ebb and flow to the political balance of power, but the rightward tilt hasn't changed in decades. Despite some brilliant flashes of democratic majorities, we really haven't had a progressive majority of legislators, or an aggressively progressive president or nominee in that time. I've always understood that there would be an uphill battle for the things I want, and, as I've aged, I've come to realize that there is always going to be something to fight for and defend.

Society is experiencing the consequences and effects of its own indulgences, neglect, and impulsion. There is both decline and revolution happening around us. We need to remain emotional about all of that.

today while watching the weasels on C-Span, got SO MAD I almost punched the tv.
When I heard Schumer begging his "dear old friend from Tennessee" to just agree to not raise taxes on anyone making under 1 million, I gagged.
Earlier, on the House floor was a republican yapping about cutting out the Govt Printing Office in order to save 15 million over ten years - this is a priority!
The House and Senate operate for solely for the lobbyists of corporations who run this country - and if you ain't one of them, they sure don't work for us. Documentary by Alex Gibney, "Casino Jack (Abramoff) and the United States of Money" tells the story very well.

America was wasting the lives of its youth and the lives of a great many more Vietnamese trying to hold together the ideas of French colonialism.

That was the worst so far in my life. That was out in the streets time for me.

At least nowadays we're fighting for oil. That was for nothing.

McCain and Vile Kyl - need I say more?

At least Clinton and Carter had slightly better congressional leadership. This crew belies belief.

But the flat out corruption does seem to be worse now. Elected official seem less responsive now and that is aggravating. But, I'm not angry as much as disgusted right down to my sneakers.

I couldn't believe he got elected president. I was pretty angry back then, but I thought it was just a passing thing and that we'd get back on track after he was out of office. It's only been one disappointment after another since then. The only thing I'm really grateful for now is that I was never a big Barack Obama fan, so I don't feel as let down as some of you probably do.

Like I always say -- expect the worst, and you won't be disappointed.

I've never really attached to a politician in that way. She was in up to her eyebrows both times and devastated both times.

Never.

58,000 lost their lives in Vietnam.

Or when we assisted in the murder of Allende in Chile to install the dictator Pinochet.

Or during the biggest clusterf*ck of all, Iran Contra. (We're still feeling the blowback today.)

I could list a thousand things that make today look like a picnic.

All of them reflect on American military policy since the Eisenhower administration (I'm surprised you left out the Korean War) but that's not important right now.

What is important is that America's economy has been completely cratered. This has little to do with past wars and conflicts. Of course these were wrong.

The real problem is the hollowing out of the American economy over the last thirty years by Republican economic policies.

Give me a break. And maybe a bit of respect? I'm not the one who peed in your Wheaties, and I didn't insult you.

Thanks.

or "boy oh boy." I wasn't calling you "boy" and apologize if that was your impression.

corporations, banks, and wall street. We, The People, have been shoved to the side.

But I'm just as angry now. The Democrats can (justifiably) blame the thugs so long before it begins to sound meaningless. We have a Democratic president who has executive powers to do the right thing, along with a majority in both houses for two years; if the thugs get their way with Social Security cuts & the $700 billion tax giveaway to the wealthiest, I will be utterly disgusted & will support another candidate in the 2012 Democratic primaries.

Stop the damn wars & stop catering to the super wealthy to balance the damn budget!

even when they had a majority.

But I've never felt so betrayed and regretful about a LOST OPPORTUNITY.

I was never a wholehearted Obama fan, and I said several times during the election season, "We need an FDR, and we're going to get a Tony Blair."

Although I'm not sure that even old Tony was this much of a sellout.

I don't think people who did not live through the era can truly understand what it was like to have a draft -- and an inequitable draft at that -- sending boys by the tens of thousands to die in a war everyone hated and knew was hopeless. There is simply no comparison. And every day in Congress, senators whose sons (it was only sons who were drafted) were exempt continued to call for the sons of others to be sent to the jungles. The anger was immense.

But I will add for most angry at my government and elected officials: Iran Contra. It was a total shock to me. More than Watergate by far. Nothing can surprise me after that.

And then there was discovering our role in the murder of Salvador Allende in Chile, and the installation of Pinochet.

. . . . and I am more angry now.

Much more angry.

Back then, even at the worst of it, I thought there was some hope for change.

and while those were horrible, we had hope, as you said so well.

Now I have no hope. The "leaders" are corrupt, the people are stupid, the media is propaganda and the country is circling the drain.

"I don't think people who did not live through the era can truly understand what it was like to have a draft -- and an inequitable draft at that -- sending boys by the tens of thousands to die in a war everyone hated and knew was hopeless. "

ITA with you. I think for some of those too young to remember, they see the progressive legislation passed when LBJ was President, and don't think as much about how they would feel had they, or their brothers/boyfriends, etc., been subject to the draft.

who wasn't touched in some personal way by that war. My little cousin was killed two months in just after his 19th birthday. One of my good friends from high school came back totally changed and ultimately overdosed on heroin a few years later. Another good friend, the valedictorian of our high school senior class, fled to Canada after he graduated from Cal Tech to avoid the draft and became a world-renowned physicist who couldn't come back to the United States until the amnesty.

The draft is what made Vietnam different from Iraq or Afghanistan.

until recently. I am in my 60's and I think of myself as a yellow-dog Dem, or at least I did. But I'm a Kennedy Dem, not a triangulator. I had hard core cognitive dissonance with Bill Clinton. I loved him on one level, but he always left me feeling vaguely uneasy and like I was being played. I was so excited about Obama and had very high but realistic hopes. I now feel completely duped and I've had it. I am sick of always getting the shitty end of the stick.

Bill Clinton-it has been a serious love/hate for years now.

And yes, I feel duped too. Thanks for saying it so succinctly.

At this point, I look around and see nowhere to turn. An organic movement towards the values we had is going to have to emerge from the people.

I don't have to type it now.

I feel very similar.

In many ways I love him. There are also many ways I think he could have done much more. Much more. I think I've always given him more of a pass than perhaps I even should just because he fought back against the Right Wing machine so effectively.

I was hyped about President Obama when he first took office, but I just don't think he is an effective political player. Even if you assume the best of intentions, he is still walking into too many punches.

Edited to add: Obama was the stealth Republican candidate all along, and it would have been the same story with Hillary Clinton if she had been the nominee. I am just now coming to realize that.

She wrote a book about it which I read. I also love Hillary and I would have voted for her as a woman, and a brilliant one at that, but for her method of triangulation. I'm a liberal Dem with Dem values, which sadly, is not a Clinton Dem. Obama, it seems, has repackaged and relabeled Clintonian triangulation, put it out there as "wise pragmatism" when it's actually triangulation on steroids. I didn't vote for another round of this crap. I voted for what I was told was the Democratic "real deal."

Things are pretty tame and easy going now compared to the '60's.

Berlin Wall, Missile Crisis

At least Nixon had guts and intelligence. He could also size up his enemies. And he knew how to manipulate the enemy to sabatogue their positions or destroy them.

Obama needs to read about what it takes to be forceful. I recommend he listen to all of Nixon's tapes for 'inspiration'. :sarcasm:

I really enjoyed seeing that crook leaving the White House in what was Marine One. I was livid at Gerald Ford for letting the crook off the hook. Then there was Reagen, Bush I and Bush II. I was pretty ticked off during those terms of office. Bill Clinton ticked me off here and there but things were looking up and I felt some optimism.

Right now I'm just plain disgusted. I'm now represented by two Republics even though I didn't vote for either of them. My state governement is now in the control of the Republics and that scares me. I hardly recognize the political party into which I was born. In my youth they would've been Republics.

I'm glad that President Obama is in the White House because the alternative would have been a nightmare. I'm disappointed too. Maybe I was expecting too much of him.

Even though he wiggled out of it because jerry ford pardoned him, he still had to take some pain and shunning and public disgrace. He still had to go into hiding. Which made those times BETTER than these. Think of all the felons and outright war criminals who are freely strolling down Main Street USA without having to face ANY consequences, penalties, shunning, public disgrace, or a loss - of ANYTHING (job, position, privilege, prestige, national podium, etc.).

I'm 57. I don't remember it anywhere near this bad. I NEVER thought I'd look back on richard nixon - fondly. At least he had brains, and guts, and shrewdness, and he knew how to fight - yeah, hard and dirty but he knew how to FIGHT. And he wasn't afraid to put up a fight! And he didn't start EVERY chess game by handing his queen over to his opponent before even a pawn was moved forward. I want someone who knows chess and poker. And who isn't scrambling all over Christendom like some naive Pollyanna trying to figure out how to make the bad guys like him - when deep down everyone knows (and maybe he does too if he's not completely in some pie-in-the-sky denial) the bad guys will never like him, they'd rather see him in the trash heap. I just hate that ours is the guy who just keeps getting played and keeps getting played and keeps getting rolled, over and over and over and over and over. And the opposition ISN'T going to reward him by letting up, or being "nice" back to him or giving him a win here and there just for good sportsmanship's sake or "in all fairness" as everyone likes to say in the media nowadays. It's all one-sided with these guys.

I despair in that we have a frickin' HARVARD FUCKING GRADUATE here. On paper at least, that certifies that Obama is NO dummy. Shouldn't he be able to see and to recognize, and to know in his bones that these are a bunch of street thugs in nice clothes who play dirty and who play for keeps and who are NOT to be trusted?

They're SCORPIONS. He's dealing with SCORPIONS.
Remember that parable about the scorpion that couldn't swim and the fox or some other animal that could, and the river that had to be crossed?
S: Oh Please Mr. Fox, can you give me a ride across the river?
F: Um, no Mr. Scorpion, you'll sting me and I'll drown.
S: But NOOOOOOOO Mr. Fox. It's not like that at all! If I sting you and you drown, I'll drown too. Why would I want to do that?
F: Well, okay, that sounds reasonable. I'll go ahead and compromise on that. Climb aboard.

Then they get halfway across the river and guess what happens?
And as they're both going down because the fox has been stung and is paralyzed and can't swim anymore, the last thing he can do is stammer - "but WHY??? You said you wouldn't sting me!"
S: Oh well! Hey, I'm a scorpion. What else do you expect me to do?

MR. PRESIDENT - THEY'RE A BUNCH OF SCORPIONS!!!!! You're dealing with SCORPIONS!!!! Whom you should NEVER trust as far as you can throw the US Capitol building, and whose word you should NEVER take at face value, much less believe.

And he still does. Time and time again. Even as the evidence mounts beyond any doubt. He still wants to play Pollyanna with the scorpions.

No. I've NEVER seen it this bad. A president who seems to be very eager to keep playing the patsy.

And you bet your behind I'm discouraged. I'm discouraged as all hell. Moreso than I've ever felt before.

:banghead:

It's true that he wouldn't have raised the white flag before the battle began. He wouldn't even admit to being a crook until a ton of proof of that fact hit him between the eyss.

You would have to be a real sucker to keep extending your hand to those who continue to bite it. If there's some kind of strategy there I'm missing it.

He even talked about it in his Inauguration speech - reaching out an open hand, but not just for the privilege of having it repeatedly spat on, or smacked with a sledge hammer. So much for that, I guess. He must never have heard the old ditty - "dance with the one who brung ya." He seems so much more interested in chasing after all those who not only didn't "brung him" but want to turn out the lights and bar the door when they see him approaching, or physically eject him if he gets in - after they rough him up a little to teach him a lesson.

:banghead:

As I am at ALL the elected Congress critters and Obama right now.

I pretty much feel the same way, too - that it is not worth spending my time and effort on politics since politicians will screw the average person every time.

stinkers over the last 50 or 60 years.

I didn't grow up to assume instant gratification. I saw messy years but knew it would take a long time for things to heal. This point in time is no exception.

It's just way out there now...

Now their spinelessness as a group has me completely baffled and very angry.

The few pols who would like to look after our interests our being stymied by their own party.

Bernie Sanders, I feel, is looking after working class/poor/middle class interests as well.

Maybe a few others, but the corruption and infiltration is damn near complete.

Vietnam war era.

I can imagine that if you were a drafted soldier who didn't believe in the war at all and you were stuck over there in the jungle with people shooting at you, that would probably have been a worse time than now.

I have a different perspective, having been a hippie flower child war protester. I was angry back then, too, but I always had a feeling of hope that we could "change the world." Maybe it was just the idealism of youth, maybe it was the drugs, but it really seemed possible then that things could get better. These days I don't know what's going to happen. I keep trying to be hopeful, but everything is so corrupt and the people seem so powerless.

Part of me just wants to hunker down and lay low. The old "tune in, turn on, drop out." I can find joy in the little things around me and just shake my head over the rest.

I'll keep voting, of course, and most likely for Democrats, but do we really know if our votes count at all? I think our elections are all for show, something to placate the masses. The real power never changes.

but my only brother spent time in Vietnam and came back a different person. I was a hippie flower child war protester as well. I have to remind myself often that regardless of what goes on in DC, the sun will rise and the sun will set and I can go on living my life, like you, finding joy in the little things.

We went through a lot of crap and for some reason many of us continued to believe we could change things. But even the most idealistic and optimistic of us hit a wall at some point and realize the deck is loaded and we're just feeding a pot we will never win.

What makes this worse is we are in TWO wars & we've had our economy gutted by outsourcing, GATT & NAFTA & over-extension of credit allowed by repeal of Glass/Stegal Act.......oh, & our population has been severely dumbed-down since then. :hangover:

I'm fifty.

I wore a POW/MIA bracelet from the time I was twelve. It cracked in half when I was twenty. "My" guy never came back. In other words, I learned early that maybe the government didn't represent me, and certainly didn't care what happened to him.

I was so mad during the Bush years that I worried I wouldn't survive the experience. However, that anger is a drop in the bucket compared to how I feel right now. I knew what to expect from that son of a bitch; Molly Ivins laid it out for anyone who could read in "Shrub". This one? All I can say is that there is someone here who bet me a beer he was different. I'm still waiting for that beer.

I have no idea what I'm going to say to our nephews and the other children we know when they are old enough to talk with about what the last 30 years have been like in the United States.

I can't even imagine what my Democratic, union member parents would have to say about this whole thing. We are second generation Americans. They brought me up to be so proud to be an American, because, in their view, America was still the land of opportunity.

There are no words.

:cry:

I feel that way because we have no future. By the time I reach my 50's, we'll be living in a country that has worse poverty than even Haiti.

Unfuckingbelieveable.

(Oops, I'm ony 49.)

it's been a pretty steady progression - and these are just the things that I KNOW about. I'm sure that I missed several salient points that outraged others that would also enrage me were I reminded. I could update the list when more Wiki revelations occur. But these are just those that I remember being aghast about at the time, not just in retrospect. Come to think about it, I have been very angry for a very LONG time.

In chronological order ...

- consistent imbalance in policy towards Israel and the Palestinians (beginning from the founding of Israel)
- CIA-backed coup in Iran
- Vietnam
- Reagan tax cuts and just about everything single other thing that happened during his two disastrous administrations
- abolition of the Fairness Doctrine (yes, I know this happened during Raygun's tenure, but it deserves its own special mention)
- backing Islamic fanatics in Afghanistan against the USSR (ditto about its own special mention and it occurred before the abolition of the FD, but what on EARTH were we thinking?)
- Iran-Contra (also deserves its own special mention)
- confirmation of Clarence Thomas
- Gulf War I
- almost everything else under Bush I
- ceasing investigations into Iran-Contra figures when Dems returned to a majority in the Senate
- failure to do anything effective when genocide was occurring in Bosnia until way after most of the horrors had occurred (and yes, we knew "exactly" what was going on there at the time it was happening)
- behavior of House & Senate Dems towards Bill Clinton that led directly to the 1994 takeover of the House by the Gingrich crew
- impeachment of Bill Clinton (any Dem who voted to begin impeachment proceedings (House) or to impeach (Senate) has had my everlasting scorn since)
- first major assault on the welfare safety net under Bill Clinton(!)
- ANY Dem colluding in the stolen election of 2000, most especially Lieberman who had already earned my undying scorn as noted above
- 9-11 and the phony "commission" to investigate it
- invasion and occupation of Afghanistan
- establishment of "Gitmo" as we know it
- Iraq War Resolution
- invasion and occupation of Iraq
- any Dem, including John Kerry, who did not challenge the stolen election of 2004 (what happened to the USD 10 million legal fund to do exactly that?)
- TORTURE (sure, it was happening before but this is when it was out in the open for all of us to see)
- the removal of Federal prosecutors who would not conduct politically motivated prosecutions
- just about everything single other thing that occurred during the Bush-Cheney cabal
- Dems removing impeachment from the table
- Bailouts of the financial system - with NO strings or accountability towards those who had knowingly caused the disaster in the first place
- Obama and Dem majorities in the House and Senate consistently capitulating to outrageous Republican demands. This last began way back when and is ongoing ....

1999 -- Bill Clinton going along with his Goldman-Sachs buddies and repukes like Phil Gramm to sign the Commodities Modernization Act which overturned FDR's Glass-Steagall

In retrospect, however, it was BAD. And Phil Gramm - y-e-chhh!
:hi:

NOT necessarily in chronological order:
-JFK assassination & subsequent cover-up, including Warren Commission & "Magic Bullet" theory (thanks to Specter)
-Hanging chads & resulting coup in 2000
-S & L scandal of '80's (a test-run for our current financial cratering)
-Linked to S&L scandal--pedophilia sex club & no one investigating
-October Surprise--another form of coup
-Making abortion (& therefore, women & children) fodder for political positioning
-Ralph Reid, Jerry Falwell, & their ilk assuming high-level positions in affecting govt. policy
-Fake oil shortages
-Watergate

I'm sure there are more.

As I read you list & mine, I can only come to ONE conclusion..................:cry:......................we only have ONE political party in the USA.

Time for pitchforks & torches? Or progressive party? :shrug:

angry at a lot of others.

I think I'm angrier now because we have had the majority and acted like we were the minority.

would elect an African American president? Would even be debating whether to allow gays to serve in the military. Would have three women sitting on the Supreme Court? Unbelievable indeed!

(Oh wait, that's not what you meant is it....)

prospect and the country has been bought and sold lock, stock and barrel to a handful of fascists.

They are not even bothering to pretend they are "liberal", and they obviously have no use for anyone who is...till election time.

I am beyond anger, well into disgust.

I have voted for Democrats since 1968, and I am thinking of retiring from activities in politics till someone comes along who actually represents ME. I see no one like that who is likely to run for office anytime soon.

mark

I used to chide those who didn't vote and because they said that it didn't matter. I always countered with every vote counts, people died so we could vote... yada, yada... Now, I feel they were right and I was a fool. I have lost all hope and will not likely vote since I live in a solidly (stupidly) red area and since the Dems continue to disappoint.

My first campaign work was for Bobby Kennedy in 1968 :hi:

Against the State Department's wishes.
Against President Carter's wishes.

He was my Representative in the House and those hostages were used like politicals pawns by Ronnie Raygun and George H.W. Bush.

I knew Raygun was going to use the Iranian hostage crisis against President Carter in 1980, and he did!

FUCK NO!

And the media outlets that push the lies and false impressions that can make having republicans in charge seem like a good idea to people who can't think for themselves. The corporations are in full control at this point, as the greedy lead the stupid to their own doom.

What passes for representatives today are people who say anything to reach the first rung on the graft ladder.
Once they're in, they're made, in the traditional "Mob" sense.
They need only represent the interests of the last disloyal Rich or Corporation that cut them a check.
Even if they get run out for it they have a sweet fat pension, courtesy of the betrayed voters.
Lobbyist money has made Washington into an acid cesspool capable of corroding anyone's integrity.

The iraq war vote, the impeachment of Clinton, and virtually everything they did during the GWB years come mind.

I'm not so angry at the representatives as I am at the leadership of the party acting like sheep and the GOP is the sheep herder.

recovered from it.

but I've never been so disappointed in our party as I am now. Maybe my expectations were too high but this non-stop lurch to the right that has been going on for the last 20+ years worn me down. There is simply nobody in congress who is willing to fight for liberals anymore and I feel an opportunity has been utterly wasted the last 2 years.

BTW- will be 50 on the 20th.

1968, 1974, 1982, 1987, 1991, and a few others.

Before the vote I wrote my Repuke congresswoman urging her to oppose it. She of course voted for the Iraq War Resolution and sent me a reply letter stating that 9/11 demonstrated how dangerous WMD were in the hands of terrorists. I wrote back excoriating her for treating a constituent like a ignoramus who didn't know that the 9/11 terrorists were armed only with box cutters and that Iraq had absoluteoly nothing to do with it.

My anger and disappointment was multiplied when so many Democratic leaders like Hillary Clinton and John Kerry also voted for it. Kerry -- given his rise to the national spotlight as a leader of Vietnam Vets against the war -- should have been our leader in the Senate making a stand against the insanity of invading Iraq on the basis of what was already obviously a pack of lies. Had John Kerry made that principled stand but it passed anyway, he would have been in a much better position in the fall of 2004 to take the White House from the Worst. President. Ever.

The Vietnam war was just as abhorrent, but the Tonkin Gulf resolution passed when I was only 7 and I was unaware of it at the time.

were willing to COME TOGETHER for the greater good. We came together to fight POWER, but now we BLOG and do all those "things" we think will make a difference. Sign petitions, make phone calls, join certain smaller groups, try to be activist, and yet... HERE WE SIT!

I've tried to get others motivated in this very RUBY RED county and it was a disaster! I don't use the word HOPE and haven't for longer than I can remember. But I do use the HOPELESS, and that' exactly how I feel!

No, even during Nixon and the Viet Nam years I NEVER felt so ALONE! This is the WORST I think I've seen!

And what is even worse... we here at DU are voicing our dissent more each and every day, and still it seems we are BEING IGNORED by TPTP!

I don't think they even care and what's more I don't think they intend to be of ANY help! On EITHER SIDE of the aisle! I've begun to think that perhaps if it WAS Repuke in office at least I could BLAME THEM for this instead of the Democrats I have supported for so long!

TWO PARTIES... same policies and acting almost in lock step together, save a few bold souls who give us a shout out, then we realize their CLOUT is minimal!

:eyes: :crazy" :WTF: :shrug:

And I have seen what I thought were really bad times before this era.
Now Everything is dumbed down the people,politicians,media,I have never seen it so bad.
I have come to the conclusion that there is NO intelligent life left in our species.

Obama, he's doing what I expect from a dogma spouting friend of McClurkin's. He's a cynical man and a mediocre politician.
Reagan era was far more emotional for me, as it was a funeral every week, and Ronnie and the rest of the majority silently sitting on their hands as the health crisis of our time grew out of control. Most of the straight world cared not, did nothing, and to be blunt, while many of you got out last year and demonstrated against Insurance Companies, we were doing that in the 80's.

When we invaded Iraq in 2003.

Well, I was pretty fucked up over the Bush v Gore decision but the justices were appointed not elected, but still.

to bamboozle us. It doesn't matter if it's to get them elected or pushing a war. Since Nixon's pardon, the Iran-Contra BCCI corruption, now the illegal invasion of Iraq and torture. Each politican guards each others' back, and we, as a people, are poorer for it. Because the "rule of law" does not apply to them, only to "we the people." And, the more they are allowed to get away with corruption, the more embolden they become.

Their corrupt policies are to further enrich global corporations and the mega sociopathic wealthy, leave the rest of Americans poorer and more disillusioned. That's why the teabag movement is nothing but a corporate funded movement using the frustration and anger of some bigoted and historic clueless people to "catapult" their owners agenda. They apparently know nothing about why we have regulations for safe working conditions or decent wages or safe food, water or banking regulations. They apparently don't remember about robber barons or those who preyed on the people for profit. And, a very unbalanced corporate media doesn't help.

I've said before, those who are wealthy and still care for the welfare of the people, need to put "there money where their mouth is" and buy a large interest in a major network, because we need to actually know what's going on in the world instead of stories about cats up trees and other local garbage. Or news that are really infocommercials.

It's mainly about the "rule of law" being ignored for those who perpetrate greater crimes against the common good for all. Of course, they're more than willing to apply it to someone there attempting to get rid of, especially someone, who is actually representing the people. That's why Jim Hightower said that he made sure he accounted for every dime and made sure his department was in order working in Texas, because he was publicly speaking against corporate corruption. Someone actually for the people, they'll attempt to bring down in a heartbeat, even though they may be the most corrupt bastards on the face of the earth.

I feel the same way.

Guess what? It was such a secret it was what, 5 years before the US pulled out?

I'm 57 and for most of my adult life my elected representatives have been a repub president, two repub senators and a repub congressman. I now have, for the first time in my life, a Democrat as president, two Democrats as Senators, and a Democrat as my Congressional representative.

Do I wish they could be doing more? Of course.
Do I understand that they are better than the "elected representatives" I've had in the past? Absolutely.

Never did I believe I would see the country I grew up thinking held a true American dream for everyone, turn into the corporate fascist state it is today, with the complete cooperation of the Democratic party and even our President. Would not have believed it until I saw it.

I also was angrier when young against both LBJ and Nixon.

As to Representatives, I live in a republican area and have a representative, who used to an example of a moderate Republican. I voted against him, but have known that it was useless. He was pretty good on the environment and was one of the republican Congressmen who stopped drilling in the ANWR in 2005 when the Senate couldn't stop it. He is what he is - I most always disagree, but he does represent the majority here.

As to Senators, I love Lautenberg an other than his inexplicable vote on the "torture" bill, I have no cause to be angry at him. As to Menendez, frustration when he puts holds on related things over Cuba policy and some of his foreign policy votes (including the same torture bill) is a better descriptor than angry.

That leaves Obama - and though there are disappointments - I thought he would move the US to a more moral foreign policy and there are times where it seems he could have really used the bully pulpit to counter RW lies better, I think he has done pretty well given the impossible situation he came into. So, no anger there.

Or even backed the Black Caucus in its objection.

I was fucking livid when they allowed Bush/Cheney to wage aggressive wars on innocent people.

Now I am disgusted, resolute and implacable. It's different.

the Republicans stop torture prosecutions in Spain, I'm starting to think being a politician is not unlike being in the mob . . . without the heart. Even Tony Soprano threw a few bucks at the poor folks once in awhile.

I even tried to do my small part to change things. I marched carried signs. I allowed myself to be arrested at 15 for the crime of demanding voting rights for all. We knew the police were planning to arrest the kids, so we had a choice to be arrested or stay home.

So, yeah. I've been more angry.

Yes, it was...interesting being in college that year.

...but those resulted in more disillusionment, I think, than anger. Now I'm just pissed off. My government no longer represents my interests-- in fact, it's values are in direct conflict with my interests. However, I also realize that what we're seeing now is just an extension of the course we were on throughout the Vietnam war and the war against the poor in latin and central America, and that I was simply not paying attention as well then.

used to love politics starting with JFK; was so involved, too. Now I feel nothing but disgust. Hope is gone.

was when my representative was Barbara Lee...

And for a while before that, George Miller (although he has disappointed lately)...

When Carter was elected (only he could have nearly lost just two years after Watergate) along with an overwhelmingy Democratic Congress. They had a better start than Obama/Reid/Lieberman, but by 1979 everyone on the Left hated them, and in 1980 in came Reagan and out when the Dem majority in the Senate. Obama's political skills on the Hill seem about the same (near zero) as Carter's, which is baffling since Obama was in the Senate. Perhaps never before now have the Dems collectively bungled a sweeping mandate for change, though.

if you're in your fifties, you had the dubious pleasure of ronald reagan, prob. the most evil man who ever wore a smile

he was the first of the evil straw heads, that made it OK, to have a truly stupid person in charge so that the rich could loot the country

not much older than that, and you're talking people who voted for nixon, and if you ever wanted to hear people
foam at the mouth with hate, when nixon got caught in his web of lies, i remember people so angry that their
voices would just shake w. hate...maybe they really thought he had a secret plan to end the war in vietnam, they didn't
realize the secret plan involved the threat of nuclear bombs in southeast asia, and don't get 'em started on
watergate, which was just sooo cheezy

these days, we're used to cheeze, cheap chiselers like the reagans and the bushes, but people were TRULY disappointed back then

any current disappointments you may feel can't hold a candle...

i'm actually surprised at the obama anger, i don't get it, to be honest

there have been times

more angry???

time tempers much,
but remember being very peeved.

I think we've turned into whimps!

Brief respite for a few months, with gradual anger returning to pre-2009 levels and surpassing it because I now know there is no hope to be had from either side of the aisle.

And what gets me the most is that folks like us have been screaming about The Monster for decades, and The Monster just gets stronger. The things I hear coming out of the Republican Party Leadership literally turn my stomach.

but have seen it coming a long time. Carter was the 1st vote I could cast for president, and we've been in a slow motion train wreck ever since Reagan took office.

:grr:

The anger is still there but the fear and hopelessness have taken over.

Though that's a bit overbroad. I usually don't go around angry at all of them en masse. They have to be individuals doing something specific. And often they aren't my representatives, but some other state's representatives.

50, here.

Never been so mad in my life.

Probably not even when Bush was officially in charge.

because the reason I'd be angry at my democratic representatives if they passed repug deregulatory policies that screw the people. Or if they refused to maintain the "rule of law" against the most heinous crimes. Activities that wind up hurting "we, the people."

We know Iraq was a bogus war sold to us with the help of PR and MSM. The war profiteers, like Blackwater, Halliburton--were wolves to the slaughter. Money is still unaccounted (our money) from the war-and war profiteers have been richly paid (with our money) with little or no accountability--and poor services. These same corporations have done more harm than good, not only to our soldiers but to the population. But, the war had nothing to do with an ideological purpose, but to steal resources and leave a bigger footprint in the middle east. Just read the PNAC agenda. And, these cretins care nothing of draining the treasury or harming Americans, as long as they make a profit.

When I think of "death squads" I think of Reagan, Poppy and Baby Doc Bush, Negroponte and others, some, who were resurrected after Iran-Contra BCCI scandal. If they had been properly prosecuted, they would not have been allowed to rear their ugly heads. But, Clinton wanted to move forward-so it is the people who suffer for not indicting criminals.

Clinton's BJ was a sideshow where millions of our money was used to find anything on him (just like any investigation on Obama)--one woman who refused to lie was jailed without due process. Our justice system has already been corrupted. All of the grandstanding of hearings for the masses was a diversion from other things, like harmful policies being passed (deregulation) and foreign policies being initiated, by the repugs and some dems.

What I see is a bunch of self-interested, sociopathic, pro-corporate fascists, who could care less about the people, unless they can milk more money out of them or use them to extend war for their best buds' corporate interests. And the more we lose, the more they will find ways to keep the plebes in line for the oligarchy.

They don't have to pretend anymore, who is running the show. So the misguided teabaggers better decide if they are going to fight for their global corporate masters over the well being of the nation and their families. Because the "new world order" isn't about UN black helicopters rounding up american citizens, it's about global corporations ruling the world, becoming so big that no government will be able to control them. That their influence and needs become more than any citizens'. For some of the worst harm they may do, little or no justice will touch them. Any leader who puts the interest of his/her people before business interest, have been dealt with, and we, as taxpayers, have paid that blood money.

Read the "Shock Doctrine" by Naomi Klein and "Gangster Capitalism" by Michael Woodiwiss.

Look, I don't get as mad when I'm punched in the nose by someone I expect to punch me in the nose. I get pissed off when someone who I've supported, even given money to, thought of as a "friend" punches me in the nose.

That is a lot harder to forget.

of our government.

The wool was pulled over everyone's eyes from the beginning. Do some research on Shay's Rebellion and Whiskey Rebellion. Just the fact there was slavery and the killing of innocent Indian women and children should be concrete proof enough. But hey if you want more I'm sure you can find it. The only glorious days in this county and if you were lucky, was when you were a kid.

....representatives were actually "elected"?

why should anything change?

I was more angry when they voted to go into Iraq for the second time. If the economy wasn't trying to recover from the worse shape it's been in since the 50s, 60s, 70s, this thread would be crickets.

At this point I'm half-disgusted, half amused by the endlessly repeating farce of it all as any remaining sense of reality among the business and political classes spirals ever further down the drain.

Read a lot of history. It gives solace.

If you have been paying any attention to the world at all.

I was pretty angry in my 20s and early 30s. At 52 it doesn't make sense to me to spend any energy on raging at things I can't control. I have more important things to do.

I've basically just given up hope, as a Democrat and as an American citizen. I dread what my children are facing in the future.....

When my brothers were put through the draft.

When my neighbor got blown up in Nam and came back with 2 legs and one arm missing and he laid in shit in the VA hospital.

Yes when we were lied into the Vietnam war.

Then I was just as angry in 2000 when a AWOL pig was made President...and Congress let the Supreme Court pick our pres.

Then I was angry beyond words over 9/11 and congress did not push for an independent prosecutor to investigate the murder of my co-workers. And then Kissinger was named to lead a Commission.
I was fucking pissed that Congress did not seal the evidence of the murder of my co-workers. And I don't think anything ever made me angrier than the way 9/11 was treated by Congress and my representatives.

Then i was god damned angry when Bush started the bullshit build up to the War in Iraq, and started his war of lies and congress allowed it. Damn right I was pissed..Bush and congress lied and used the deaths of my co-workers to start a war of lies.

Then in 2008 I was damn pissed that my primary vote was stolen in my state and Mich...I was and am still boiling over it. My state lost its delegates.
The reason I am still angry is ..in 2004 I was an elected Delegate in my state..the 4th biggest state in the nation. And in 2008 we had our election robbed. I am still not over it and I never will be.
I will never get over my votes being stolen in 2000 by the repukes..and I won't get over it by the Dem's in 2008.

Now i seem to stay angry. Hard not to, when you see your nation and her people going down to fascism..and you see history repeating itself. We never seem to learn. We just wash, rinse, repeat.

I have little doubt what we are seeing with Obama was all planned and packaged, and delivered to us by the shadow Government.

I saw it when i went to Iowa and SC to work for and with the Dem party.

Nothing going on today surprises me one dang bit..sorry to say..not one thing.

In memory of 58,000....

was going to be okay, but it wasn't and it has only gotten worse, much worse.

edit: As others have said, I've been angry, worried and upset but never so down in the dumpster sad and without hope.

still a semblance of the American Dream alive in my heart. Now it's completely dead.

...because it was clear who they were - this time we were "bamboozled" by a corporatist disguised by a cloak of hope and change.

He's a neanderthal. Fucker never earned a penny on his own.

I was so mad, that I am STILL mad, whenever anyone brings up that bastard's name. And if someone praises Reagan, I rip their heart out, and hand it to them on a platter!

Nor did he cause AIDS.

If, when early research was being done, and funds were being requested for SIMPLE LAB EQUIPMENT by the CDC, instead of refusing the funds, and calling it a gay cancer. Had early research been given several months earlier a start, lives could have been saved. If you doubt me, read the book, "And he Band Played On," by Randy Shilts

I was so mad, that I am STILL mad, whenever anyone brings up that bastard's name. And if someone praises Reagan, I rip their heart out, and hand it to them on a platter!

I was so mad, that I am STILL mad, whenever anyone brings up that bastard's name. And if someone praises Reagan, I rip their heart out, and hand it to them on a platter!

... to the point of loathing.

The real question to me is if I have been as disillusioned. And my answer would be no. I feel I am way too young to be already such a cynic. Alas...

And that's just a few of the people, not to mention the laws being enacted and upheld.

Had I gotten pregnant I would have had to have a back alley abortion or travel to another state.

In 1968 a woman was arrested for running a marathon, I believe in NYC but it could have been Boston.

Blue laws were prevalent so you couldn't shop on Sunday in many parts of the country.

The ERA was busted again and again and again.

Sodomy was a jailable offense, and "sodomy" had a broad meaning.

It was perfectly legal to ask a woman what her interntions were regarding marriage and children before hiring her.

This list could go on forever. Yes, I'm angry about a great deal, but it's been better, and it's been worse.

were the low points politically. Economically, today is the worst. I am represented statewide, well, by Barbara Boxer and Jerry Brown. Locally I have a RW dick, Representative Buck McKeon.

pell-mell away crying " the Republicans are coming, the Republicans are coming", instead of standing up for what we believe.

Not at my Rep, though, he's cool.

I think people were angrier at Nixon, frankly. :shrug: Some of the current anger (at least of the tea party variety) is manufactured, I think.

I only have to go back to the previous pResident of the Whitehouse and those elected representatives that finished fucking our country into the ground.

Not feeling that same anger now. Just can't buy into this hysterical shit at all.

Figured out about 5 years ago that the political class is effectively owned by the ruling class. Why get mad at the employees, it's their bosses who are the source of our woes.

I have to work till I'm 79, two years before my own father passed away so some rich puke can live a life in leisure... I may not be as old as you folks, but I am livid.

and much, much angrier.

If you didn't live through the Vietnam era, your historical perspective is likely to be lacking.

More budget cuts and trying to take away my social security. The BP spill and the The Govt's negligence.

Right now I am going to guess that I will take care of my Mom for the next five years for no compensation due to IHSS budget cuts then apply to SS to find there is nothing there.

as blatantly as they are now.

In this day in age, we are all subject to more information from many more sources than at any other time in history.

One could make the argument that we are more informed.

Another argument could be that although we are getting more "informed" nothing says that those same sources of information are actually the truth or factual.

Yes, there is anger, but I think the anger in proportion to the problems is to be debated.

What I think needs to be studied is what exactly are people angry at?

No jobs? The failing dollar? Health care expenses? Ineffectual congress people? A president, who at times, appears to give us conflicting messages?

Those are all worthy of our anger.

However, there is a whole section of the population that displays an level of misplaced anger that is mind boggling. They are angry over: a foreign born president, the government having death panels, pick your favorite right wing conspiracy, etc.

Where does this information come from? It comes from a variety of sources, which only a few years ago, would have been deemed part of the ultra fringe, yet are now given play as being "serious news" because it plays to the easy answer lower common denominator excuse.

The information field is now so muddled with "experts", basically people who have an opinion (myself included), that are either not informed, partially informed or well informed. A good resume will make anyone look like an expert. However, as we all know, that is usually far from the truth.

Any conspiracy nut from the ultra right to the ultra left will have his or her say and his or her following who deem this person "sane" or a "truth teller". Look at Alex Jones. This man is a certified snake oil salesman, yet he went from a screaming
cable access conspiracy nut to one of the "informed" who "warned us all". He's just a broken clock. But yet, he now hobnobs with the other propagandists in the cult of personality, that frustrated people who want easy answers, worship.

So as a result, our sense of reality becomes skewed. While we on the left like to claim we get the truth, we are also subject to slants and opinions as well. Granted the right wing has more money and basically controls the vast majority of the main stream news. Propaganda varies and the rights deals in more of the emotional, visceral based information as opposed to basic reason type propaganda the left imposes.

The reality is that the truth about the nations anger is in our own fault of not demanding responsibility, transparency and accountability. We let everything happen. We lower our expectations, we lower our demands, we lower our reasons for living, we except better than nothing.

In essence, we are angry at ourselves for allowing this nation to slide so far down that a mole hill looks like Everest. And we get frustrated knowing that we could have stopped this sooner, but we instead chose to live the high life when the economy appeared to be doing well, but was in reality a paper job over our massive problems.

So here we all are, angry at something, refusing to realize it's our own fault and rather than taking stock, we vote in half wits who play to our emotions rather than to reason and truth.

We will continue to be angry and won't wake up until we hit bottom. Where that bottom is, anyone can guess, but I do know one thing, it will not be pretty.

Because when protesting the Vietman war, it appeared the will of the people was HEARD and more elected representatives were on actively working to end the unjust war in Southeast Asia,

WE had Sen. Ted Kennedy and others championing progressive social change.