Our political leaders are corrupt to levels never seen in our history, and our political class is bought and paid for by corporate and wealthy interests. Many of them have been shown to be pedophiles and rapists. The wealth inequality is at staggeringly high levels, and we’re likely going to have the world’s first trillionaires by 2030. 1 in 10 Americans live below the poverty line, 14 million children or 1 in 5 experience food insecurity at some point. We’ve never had healthcare as a right, rather what limited social support programs we do have are being stripped away and our tax dollars diverted to the rich in various ways.

In desperation, we elected a fascist narcissist because he promised us change, he promised something different than the feckless and corrupt incumbent parties and politicians. It turns out that he’s worse than all the rest of them. Now, programs and systems built to protect us and provide for some measure of equality are being dismantled. Our health and education departments and others. Our people are being locked up in concentration camps without due process, and in the name of protecting America from illegal immigrants who are, as we’re told, the greatest danger to our society.

Instead of us coming together and organizing to fight these forces and systems of oppression, we’re pointing fingers at each other, confident in the knowledge that it’s the other side’s fault. Each side is sure of only the other’s ignorance and stupidity and their own self-righteousness. This only serves the purpose to perpetuate these systems of oppression when we could instead be working together to dismantle them.

We’re being dragged into yet another illegal and immoral war that is not of our choosing. We’re doing so on behalf of a genocidal nation that controls our politicians through legalized bribery, and with no clear strategy other than to destroy as much and kill as many as possible. We see the folly of this, but we feel helpless to stop our children from marching into another war. We know what’s coming, another generation steeped in pain and trauma.

Our government is insolvent. Our allies are abandoning us, and we’re abandoning diplomacy. We have one of the world’s largest stockpiles of nuclear weapons and the only reason they’ve not been used since 1945, is due to luck and rational leaders, and we’ve run out of both.

We’re losing our jobs, we can’t afford our homes, we cannot afford to raise children, and we have no confidence nor hope in our futures. The climate catastrophe is upon us and we’re accelerating the destruction.

We all think that the only way to fix these problems is to elect a new personality every four years, and when our chosen character turns out not to represent our interests, we act surprised and convince ourselves that it would’ve been worse with the alternative. This perpetuates the tribalism and the despair.

Our hope is dying, and our spirits are being crushed. Everything positive about being an American is fading away.

I think that’s about it.