When did we so manifestly lose control of our country?

[cilla4progress]

Yes our power and stake has been waning since the 70s. But for the 1st time it feels that no shame, no dishonor, no crime, no treason can bring down the incoming regime.

I struggle to fight the urge to check out entirely until this thing either blows over or we are all incinerated.

[CrispyQ]

1. After Reagan.

The right funded think tanks & bought all the radio syations, while the dems ran as fast as they could, away from the word liberal. Thirty- five years of 'we suck less' strategy, & 'vote for the lesser of two evils' advice, & here we are, with prez-elect, Trump. This is what happens without a true opposition party.

[Willie Pep]

8. Pretty much this.

The Right funded an alternative media and alternative academia (their think tanks) and developed a powerful narrative that explained why things seemed to be getting worse in the 1970s. They blamed things like stagflation on big government liberalism and labor unions. Unfortunately, many Democrats agreed that the era of New Deal liberalism had passed and accepted some aspects of the Reagan Revolution.

The Democrats are not alone in this. Most center-left parties in the industrialized countries moved to the Right by the 1980s. The center-left didn't have a coherent answer to the problems of capitalism in the 1970s and at the time many people saw theories like monetarism as correct or at least useful in dealing with the problems facing Western economies at the time.

Now we are at a point where the neoliberal order is breaking down and we are due for a swing back to the Left, I think, but unlike the 1930s there has been no resurgence in institutions like labor unions that provided the impetus for positive change. This is why I still think we need a stronger labor movement despite all of the problems that unions have now. Even in their weakened state I don't see any other institutions that are capable of presenting a narrative and program that working Americans need.

The Democratic Party always needed to be pushed in a more liberal direction, whether by unions or by the civil rights movement or whatever. That is not a knock on the Democratic Party, it is just the reality that political parties are only as strong as the institutions and movements behind them. A weakening labor movement has been a huge blow to the Democrats and this explains why the Republicans are so intent on destroying unions.

[KittyWampus]

16. On the other side of the aisle we have the Clinton model which allowed the Democratic party

apparatus to atrophy.

Happened under Bill Clinton. Howard Dean at the DNC pulled the party back from extinction and then Obama listened to the Clintons and put their cronies Kaine and DWS in at the DNC and we slide into this current hell.

I voted for Clinton in this past primary and National election. But I had grave misgivings about how she and her husband approached party politics.

[JI7]

2. it goes back to the media based on everything i see

they seem more on reality tv level than actual news reporters.

check out foreign news to see the difference.

and then there is the changing demographics in the country that many white people do not like.

[True_Blue]

3. When Fox news came along

And talk wing radio. The people that only get their news from these sources are completely clueless about what's going on in the world. This is why need a free press.

But this Russian coup had to be a long well thought out plan. I wonder how much of this country has already been infiltrated by Putin. I suspect most of the MSM. I never thought this could happen to America.

[nancy1942]

4. I totally agree with your opinion.

[pangaia]

5. Putin has been into trump since at least 1990.

[Tatiana]

6. Ding, ding ding! You hit the nail on the head.

Fox News -- they brainwash the public and they are everywhere.

As far the Russian interference, I'm sure they have infiltrated every major political system we have in this country. Definitely the mainstream media. Also, I think some of the provocateurs during the Democratic convention may have been Russian plants. At this point, I have to assume the DNC is compromised, as well.

[True_Blue]

7. I suspect you're right

Even the FBI was in on it.

[RealityChik]

9. Final Blow - Repeal of Key Sections of the Voting Rights Act...

by the Supreme Court in 2013. The original law protected against discrimination of voters by requiring individual states to get federal permission before changing voting rules. The Supreme Court declared those sections obsolete because there is no more discrimination so it was no longer necessary, right?

We all know how THAT worked out for us. There have been attempts by Dems in Congress to restore those sections, but they rolled over and gave up the fight like they always do. If we don't fight to restore integrity and transparency to our elections, we may as well pack it in and move to whatever country would be willing to accept us. As of Election 2016, we are now teetered on the edge of oligarchy. What's next...dictatorship?

[MiniMe]

10. When we elected a black man as President, twice!!

The repubs still haven't gotten over that.

[Cha]

11. Whenever the US media was taken over by the rw that required

manipulation and manufactured "news" for their agenda.

I have no idea when that started.. I stopped in November 2002 after watching for 2 years.

[cilla4progress]

12. So where and how does it end?

Do we wrestle it back, or do we become a Russian substate? How long does that take? Does it require a bloody revolution?

Rather than it being an internal battle, it seems to me that the groups around the world who oppose fascism and corporate rule should band together against our overlords. We have the tools. Families, intellectuals, and yes, working people, need to seize our strength and peacefully overthrow them.

[Orsino]

13. We let money vote.

And acted surprised when it voted for itself.

[Zo Zig]

14. Take your pick...

Assassination of Lincoln
Assassination of Kennedy
No impeachment of Nixon
Election of Reagan
No impeachment of Reaguns
Bush v. Gore
Citizens United
Election of Dump?

[JCanete]

18. Mostly agree with you. If Russia did directly mess with our machines, that's one thing...if they

Last edited Thu Jan 5, 2017, 04:24 AM - Edit history (1)

blackmailed people in anyway, that's something to be concerned about also, especially as it pertains to compromised politicians in power...

but if all they did was generate fake news, hell, we're already neck deep in that shit from our own news media. Russia's is a pale-full by comparison.

[JCanete]

20. If nothing else comes of this...I'll definitely be leaning that way myself. I'll hold my cynicism

til the inauguration though...not that I expect that to get derailed in any way, even if there was some big discovery.

[Rex]

17. When Reagan took office.

IMO.

[Joe941]

23. Yup. this.

[Paladin]

21. Cumulative: Reagan + right-wing media + black president.

It just added up, over time.

[kairos12]

22. I agree with your assessment.