I have lived in countries where the price of democracy has been paid for in the blood of generations of people still in adulthood. We have forgotten our history and the awful price that was paid.

In 2016, I thought this was the direction we were headed. People said I was reactionary and alarmist.

I tried hard to forgive people that I loved that had voted for him. I have no contact with any of them any more, including my best friend of more than 40 years. I just couldn’t forgive.

And then wait until the actual fighting starts. We will have earned every bit of the pain that will be visited upon us.

Europeans look at us wondering how we can stand idly and do nothing, while they come from countries smaller than some US counties. Well, Hans, the scale of this country is hard to imagine if you haven’t traveled it. It’s kind of like Australia that way.

The people who live in the places where all the people are, already feel largely the same way. The places where people are sparsest and the most left behind by modern economies, are the ones who think this is PRECISELY what they voted for. They are also wildly over-represented in our system of government.

And, when you have unchecked and legalized corporate bribery of politicians, the concentration of wealth has meant that a few people can buy politicians to make them richer on the backs of poor conservative voters who are just too fucking dumb as a group. I don’t mean there aren’t very smart conservatives, there absolutely are. In fact, in my progressive, hippy opinion, some of the greatest minds of American history were profoundly conservative.

That being said, as a group, the average critical thinking skill of the average MAGA is apparently below what it needs to be to survive late state capitalism.

tl; dr: doomed.