What is it like living as a liberal in America today?

[Locut0s]

Front the outside I must say despite some big improvements since Obama it still looks like it sucks. Don't get me wrong I'm not America bashing, America is a great country in many many ways but I'm still glad I live here and not there I'm sorry to say. Not that Canada is a bastion of liberal mindedness either. I'd still rather live in Europe given the choice, despite loving the liberal side of America. So what is it really like for you as a liberal living in the US? obviously this will depend on where you live, if you live in the SF bay area or in the boonies in Alabama.

Yes I know I'm exaggerating and that day to day life isn't any different than most other places. I'm talking just about where the political differences ARE apparent and make a negative impact on your life.

[grahamhgreen]

1. like living in a third world tin pot dictatorship, where war to avenge 3000 dead is more important

than 45,000 a year dying from no healthcare.

Homeless everywhere.

Filthy cities that are never cleaned. Except in rich areas.

Crumbling streets and infrastructure.

Everyone out of their minds chasing money because they are afraid they'll die in the streets.

Basically, it's greed gone wild.

But still, lots of good people fighting the good fight!

Georgia

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. If you think living in the united states is like living in a "third world tin pot dictatorship",

you have never been to a developing nation. Hell, you've probably never been to Mexico.

[grahamhgreen]

4. And you've never been to Clarksdale, Miss.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

5. Do you know what a 3rd world nation is? Do you know what a dictatorship is?

Because from your post, it seems like you do not.

[grahamhgreen]

7. A place where they torture people and let them die in the streets?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

9. No. Wikipedia it at the very least before you throw that term around.

[grahamhgreen]

12. A place where they steal elections and manufacture evidence to start wars and limit freedoms?

[SemiCharmedQuark]

18. If you told someone from a REAL developing nation that *you* lived in a developing nation

they'd laugh in your face.

[grahamhgreen]

20. Give the power brokers 10 more years... publishing to youtube....

[mwb970]

49. Um, what's with the bug up your butt?

It was a slightly exaggerated comparison. Calm down and let it go. It'll be all right.

[grahamhgreen]

72. VIDEO LINK! (and this is the GOOD side of town...) third world or not?

Home of the blues, BTW, please visit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spvQY9SGogw

[SemiCharmedQuark]

77. Not.

[donheld]

88. It's more like an undeveloping nation

seems like we're becoming less of a developed nation every day

[truedelphi]

35. And a place where the two "real political" parties

Both adjust a bit to each other, so they can serve their Corporate Masters while leaving us to our joblessness, homelessness, and uninsured ill health.

Meanwhile the progressives, who have the people's best interests at heart, are marginalized and called names by both sides.

[barbtries]

41. thank you

i didn't know how to respond to the OP but you provided me with the word. marginalized. that's how it feels for me being a progressive in this country.

[truedelphi]

40. Technically speaking, this nation may not be fully third world or

Totalitarian as yet.

But think bout the rise of the Third Reich. What put them in power? When both parties in Germany offered no real substantial hope for the middle incomed, who had suffered from the onerous banking policies of the small upper crust of the Banking Elite in Germany, when both parties failed the Germans, they chose an unknown and that man became a Dictator.

When people finally realized that the exorbitant fines that were part of the reparations of the Treaty of Versailles and that bankrupted their nation, the lower and middle class people in Germany decided on an unknown, one Adolf Hitler. And the fact that he put the blame for that nation's bankruptcy not just on the specific banking families, but on their ethnic designation as a whole, bothered some of these voters, but didn't bother others.

Already my local public access station has anti-Jewish documentaries labeling the fall of the World Towers as the acts of the "Jews."

What happens as our society continues? We thought Obama was offering change - he isn't. Every time that another person realizes how in bed this Administration is with the Banksters, we reach another step closer to our society losing hope and voting in some fanatic. My RW neighbor was so upset with Bush that he voted for Obama - but once Obama appointed Geithenr and Bernanke, he lost hope and joined the Tea Baggers.

To be a truly democratic nation, you have to support the middle class. But since congress and the President pay more attention to the Banksters, the insurance lobbyists, and now the MIC, the middle class is going to be further downsized. And we are not being supported, we are being eliminated.

If we get a shot at another election, and people are hungry, not just unemployed but hungry because war in Afghanistan has cost the nation its safety net of AFDC payments, unemployment and food stamps, do you think it impossible that we won't face some serious totalitarian times that people in Germany faced in 1932?

[clear eye]

87. The stats tell us we're closer than most DUers want to believe.

What do people think 1 in 4 children going hungry or on the verge, means?

We have to do everything we can think of to make gov't more responsive to people's needs.

As well as demanding direct remedies, we must push for structural changes, especially the option of publicly financed elections and secure elections, to begin to break the hold the interests of the mega-corporations have on our elected officials.

For these demands to be heard it will take grassroots issue groups joining together to create a critical mass to advance these underlying matters. Once the critical mass is reached, more intense tactics like the general strike will be necessary to get movement from the corporately financed elected Congress.

In answer to the OP, seeing these critical basic issues not addressed is pretty distressing. The situation is especially evident to Baby Boomers who are old enough to seen the long drift away from gov't responsiveness.

Of course there are worse places. I wouldn't want to try to get along as an ordinary person in Burma, for instance.

[paulsby]

23. bingo

i've been to nicaragua, for example.

spend a couple of days in nicaragua and get back to me.

this was nicaragua 20 yrs ago i might add.

people in this country (and this thread) who compare us to a "third world tin pot dictatorship" deserve to spend a couple of months in a third world hellhole to get a dose of reality.

fucking amazing

[LooseWilly]

32. Try going to East Oakland. Then go to Tapachula Mexico. There really isn't that big of a difference.

Except that Tapachula is more culturally "monochrome". And the Mexicans in Tapachula don't have to live their lives under the "tyranny of insurance companies and worry about lawsuits"... which can be pretty liberating, as long as you aren't hoping for a lawsuit to right an institutional wronging that government agencies aren't about to regulate.

I actually rather like both. It's the pretty suburbs of the US that give me the "willies"...

[Romulox]

66. Do you ever find a reason to cross the border into Gary, Indiana? Didn't think so.

:hi:

[SemiCharmedQuark]

76. Actually, yes. I took a couple of classes at Purdue Calumet, which is right by Gary.

And I actually used to live in NW Indiana. Sorry to disappoint you.

It's a depressed area. But that doesn't mean the United States is a Third World Country.

[Locut0s]

6. I'm the OP and hardly ever visit the US and I can tell you it's not that bad....

I've traveled I know. Lived in China for several years, been all over. We have things GODlike good here in the west by comparison.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

8. The hyperbole is ridiculous.

Comparing ANYWHERE in the U.S. to fucking Rwanda is like Pete Hoekstra comparing the GOP to the Iranian protesters.

[grahamhgreen]

10. I'll try to post a video of Clarksdale - it's shocking...

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. Is there an HIV rate of 24%? Genocide? Famine? A life expectancy in the 40s?

Infant mortality rate of 24%

[grahamhgreen]

25. Not all third world dictatorships are that bad - look at Cuba, of couse, we're better than Jibouti!

[lapfog_1]

22. shocking... ah no, I doubt it.

Here is shocking:











That's a third world tin pot dictatorship.

No matter how stupid some folks in our country become, no matter how fascist we believe our local, state, or federal government to be, it hasn't reached this point yet, not by a long ways. Doesn't mean we couldn't head that way, but we are no where near these images now, not even Katrina in New Orleans or the LA Riots or anything else.

[grahamhgreen]

28. Right, not yet! If you don't count our satellite states....

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/uncensored

[anonymous171]

19. HOLY SHIT HYPERBOLE. Also Afghanistan is not about vengence, it's about a pipeline. nt

[grahamhgreen]

30. VIDEO LINK! (and this is the GOOD side of town...) third world or not?

Home of the blues, BTW, please visit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spvQY9SGogw

[truedelphi]

34. What you said. That is really the reality.

It breaks my hear to think about it being that way, so I try to distract myself from it.

As long as I can be outside inwilderness part of everyday I am really fine -- but inside, with TV on and the news, I fele like I ahve lsot my bearings.

[voc]

3. For a brief time

there was a period when there was unity and hope. Other than that, ssdd.

[FrenchieCat]

11. This Liberal is doing fine.....out in the S.F. Bay Area.

However, I'm not sure why this place is still called Democratic Underground....cause there are few Democrats here, as this site actually doesn't really support but perhaps two democratic party menbers in Congress, and that's on a good day.

Skinner needs to change the name.

[Kurt Remarque]

13. very frustrating

business and government work together for the benefit of the rich. laws and programs from better days barely hold things together. money in politics makes progress seem extremely difficult.

still wayyyyy far from the suggested third world slur though

[jtylerpittman]

60. i think we are heading towards a third world country

[Xicano]

15. What's it like? Its a tragedy.

A tragedy is a catastrophe and you know it.

[Jamastiene]

16. Hell on Earth. n/t

[proteus_lives]

36. How can you stand the heat?

:rofl:

[Lorien]

47. So, you take the Bible literally?

Everyone has their own version of Hell.

[tblue]

17. Not great.

I live in the Bay Area. I don't know anyone, well one person, who likes Sarah Palin. I'm glad I live here where there are many, many liberals, otherwise I'd have to move.

But I had such high hopes after the election. I'd been waiting for that day since the Supreme Court stopped the vote count in 2000 (was it December 12?). But what we've got with this set of Democrats, including this president, has dashed my hopes to smithereens. I'm thoroughly disillusioned.

[paulsby]

27. you like being surrounded by like minded people

with little to no diversity?

why?

i simply can't understand being so closed minded that i'd have to MOVE merely because all my neighbors don't agree with me politically.

i have two neighbors on either side of me, and one is about as repub as you can get, and the other is about as liberal as you can get. we are all friends, we get along great.

i frigging hate the pauline kael syndrome. the day when i am so insecure about my beliefs and so narrowminded that i purposefully need to surround myself with a bunch of people who all think the same is the day when i throw in the frigging towel

[Fumesucker]

43. Eh, try moving where *no* *one* agrees with you politically..

Like in the heart of the old Confederacy where I live, where seeing a Confederate battle flag the size of a bedsheet fluttering from the back of a ratty Silverado doesn't even get a second glance.

My son in law is a good father and a good guy in many ways but he told me not too long ago that he "voted for anyone with an "R" next their name".. And he's one of the very few union members in our state and knows very well he has it utterly made compared to most workers here.

Luckily he's not a political and I'm anything but a sports fan so we have almost nothing to argue about.

Living here in 2003 and knowing the Iraq war was going to be a disaster for the US was agonizing, every single swinging dick and bouncing boob was rabidly gung ho. Now I haven't seen a "support the troops" sticker or magnet in years I think but they were ubiquitous back then. Now nobody gives the slightest damn about the troops, even my fellow Marine that is my son in law.

I have a grandnephew who is burning to join Aryan nation, yes seriously.

[truedelphi]

31. Same here. I am deeply disillusioned. However, in the little enclave of folks in the

Almost unknown county of Lake, here in California, there are so many progressives and that part of it is really nice.

We celebrated like crazy on Election night 2008, and that seems like a night lost in time and space. Was the real Change-meister kidnapped on his way to the inaugural?

[tblue]

84. I don't know who that is in the White House.

I really don't know him at all. I mean, I read his biography, but I'm stunned by some of the decisions he's made. Completely stunned.

[Rhiannon12866]

21. It's frustrating.

It's frustrating to discover that nice people whom you've known for years are totally brainwashed, have no idea what's really going on. They believe what they hear on the news or what other totally brainwashed people tell them. The truth is out there, but you need to know where to look for it. Most people don't think about it and it's certainly more comfortable to be part of the majority around you.

I live in a traditionally Republican district where most local races are decided in the Republican primary. The only reason NY is blue is because of NYC; rural districts are still mostly red. But we are making progress. We elected our first Democratic congresswoman in 2006, after being represented by Republicans for as long as I can remember. This was Kirsten Gillibrand, here in NY-20, who is now our senator. Governor Paterson appointed her to replace Senator Clinton. She was replaced in the House by another Democrat, Scott Murphy, after a particularly nasty and hard-fought special election. I worked on his campaign...

And Obama won by a large margin here, something else I never thought I would see. I'm fortunate in that most all of my longtime friends feel the way we do, a nice surprise for me, since I came late to politics. I'm grateful that I found DU and spread the word whenever I can, carry the message with me and people I know have learned to get used to it. LOL.

BTW, I've visited Canada numerous times, many different places. My Dad, who traveled all over the world, particularly enjoyed visiting Canada and took us on vacations there when I was a kid. He loved Ottawa and I have great memories of that beautiful city... :hi:

[Kurt Remarque]

24. canada fortunately lacks our "yahoo element"

way less wingnuts

[Rhiannon12866]

29. I've gotten that impression. LOL.

I don't think that Canadians are extreme the way that Americans have become. However, it seems to me that this is a relatively recent phenomenon. Before Bush*, I can't remember the anger that I've seen and continue to see. :-(

[tom_paine]

45. As I understand it, to see it you would have to have been in the 50s & 60s Old Confederacy

and have been old enough to appreciate what you are seeing.

Whatever demon existed in the souls of the Old KKK has now ben commodified mainstreamed, and encoded to provide a modicum of Plausible Deniability in order to ensure it is not recognized in it's new skin.

But I think, Rhiannon, that is exactly what we are seeing revive in this new form, the Anger of the Old Confederacy/KKK, though it certainly is no regional phenomena and quite frankly, never has been quite as regional as we Yankees like to tell ourselves when we demean the South.

Bythe way, when I am talking of the Old Confederacy/KKK I am not speaking so much of the racism, but the gullible stupid that commits and allows atrocities to happen.

[mwb970]

50. Um, do you remember the Clinton presidency?

The right-wing wackaloons went berserk for the entire eight years: Whitewater, Filegate, Travelgate. Memogate, Gennifer, Monica, and on and on - there was even some hassle about the Christmas (sorry, holiday) card list! They called Bill a murderer and a drug runner. They said he and/or Hillary killed Vince Foster.

The constant outrage over nothing became a dull roar of relentless idiocy from the right that persisted up to and right through Clinton's impeachment (which resulted in the highest approval ratings of his presidency). For eight long years, I watched with jaw agape as a subset of our citizens went totally ape and bat shit crazy right in front of our eyes.

Then, during the Bush Disaster, their fury was turned away from the government and toward anyone who criticized it. If you disagreed with any idiotic thing bush or cheney said, you were unpatriotic, you hated America, hated the troops, etc., etc. They were insane.

When Obama became president, the apparently permanent white-hot fury of the right-wing fringe turned back once again to the government and those who support it. Now supporting the president means that you are unpatriotic, you hate America, hate the troops, etc.

This is where we're at now. If (God forbid) a republican ever becomes president again, the government will once again be considered sacred and above reproach by the right. If another Dem wins, it'll be more of the Clinton/Obama crap. Short of the Rapture, there appears to be no way we will ever get rid of these people. Although.... they do tend to be old, and today's young people are much more progressive. So maybe there's hope?

[seeinfweggos]

89. very well put

the gop of the 90s was something to behold. and fox news goes back and forth between being the government network and the paranoid oposition

[Romulox]

69. Disagree. There are plenty of Canadian rednecks.

Our political system gives tiny rural states disproportionate power--that's why they're overrepresented in government. Polls show the US populace to be far to the left of our rulers.

At the same time, there really are plenty of Canadian rednecks--ethnically and culturally quite similar to their cousins to the south. They're influence isn't amplified, however, by over-representation in the Federal government the way it is here.

[Locut0s]

78. THIS! Trust me there are plenty of rednecks up here!

[Romulox]

82. Where else but the NHL does the mullett have cultural currency, after all!

I say "redneck" with some affection, btw.

[paulsby]

26. i prefer the US to canada, otoh

but i appreciate the honesty. i'm not a liberal, though, so i can't answer your question.

as a democrat (not a liberal, though). i love living in america. i've traveled the world, spent a fair amount of time in different places, and i dig it here.

my major complaint with canada is the ridiculous speech laws, the lack of freedom regarding sports supplements (my friend owns a sports supplement company. don't even get me started on customs canada), the lack of RKBA (yes, i know overall you have a lower homicide rate, but seattle has a lower rate than vancouver last i checked), and the fact that you don't have anyplace warm :)

i dig victoria, vancouver, toronto, and calgary.

[Locut0s]

79. I'll give you most of these. However (Got to defend the homeland ;-)...

The language laws thing is really only an issue in Fucking crazy Quebec. Out west here just about no one is bilingual and while all products and signage is bilingual you would be hard pressed to find anyone out here who notices there is any french.

I don't know anything about the supplement laws but I wouldn't be surprised. I know for a fact that Canada has some really strict food and drug restrictions.

As for homicide rate that's probably true however it's almost certainly due to the fact that we are ground zero for North America's drug trade. Given the volume of drug trafficking (BCs number 1 export!) and the fact that its all gang controlled the homicide rate is actually surprisingly low. Though recently we have had a spree of gang shootings. If they would just go ahead and make pot legal for fucks sake it would curb some of this. Something like 70% of the Vancouver population here smokes it regularly anyway, and I know some family members who grow their own.

And hay Vancouver IS warm. By Canadian standards anyway. We don't get much snow in the winter and our summers are GODlike :) Course we do have to put up with 3 months of straight rain in the winter :(

[paulsby]

83. i wasn't referring to the language laws

i was referring to the speech codes. as for the language laws, frankly, just from an aesthetic standpoint, i like them, because i speak fluent french. so, i find it fun to be able to read everything in french.

vancouver is really remarkably similar to seattle in a lot of ways.

if our exchange rate improves, i'll make a return trip :)

i can agree with you about pot. in general, canada is more lenient on pot than the US. the US has very disparate laws jurisdiciton to jurisdiction, so it varies. seattle PD for instance, by city policy, places pot as a "low priority" which basically means nobody gives a flying fuck if you light up a doobie in the privacy of your own home, or have a bud or two on you.

[fasttense]

33. Here in rural TN it's kind of weird.

When the federal government extended unemployment benefits, our supposedly Democratic Governor wanted to stop it and turn down the money. He had so many angry phone calls and e-mails I couldn't even leave a voice message and my e-mails were returned because his system was overloaded. Eventually he took the money for unemployment and extended everyone's benefits but not after pissing a whole lot of people off. Our unemployment level peaked at 17%.

Then there are the little things. The federal government and many states have agreed to allow people on unemployment to go back to college to train in a different field while still receiving benefits. But TN opted out.

The local electric company recently raised their rates by over 30%. They claimed they needed to give their king, I mean CEO, a raise. There was a riot in front of the electric company office. Well not really a riot, it was more like 150 people (a lot for this very rural area) yelling, making angry snide remarks. The local newspaper and TV station (FOX don't you know) covered it. The king, I mean CEO, eventually backed down and lowered it about 20%. I suspect it will go back up as soon as people stop paying attention.

If there is a rich person in town, it's probably a doctor. Doctors drive around in shinny brand new hummers and lexus. People fawn over them like they are rock stars. And they are very arrogant and rude. But you have to understand they are kings in rural America. They not only get huge salaries from treating the sick and dying, but they own most of the medical testing facilities and hospitals so they get all the money from those operations as well.

There is a doctor in a small town up the road who owns all the gas stations in a 50 mile area of the town. The price at his stations in that town are all 10 cents higher than anywhere else.

Most of the people in rural America are 50 years or older. The young kids leave as soon as they can get away because there are NO JOBS anywhere. The best a kid can do around here is become a teacher. But the schools aren't hiring. They have a whole slew of substitute positions available. But they pay $50 a day, averaged out that comes to less than minimum wage. Seems the schools are using more and more substitute teachers. Even with a degree, getting a full time waiter or waitress job is considered good here.

The roads are all full of pot holes and are rarely even painted. When you call to complain, you're told we didn't get any stimulus money, not one dime. I wonder if the governor turned it down or if TN opted out.

The beautiful newly restored little theater that was suppose to be the symbol of our revitalized downtown, just closed. The non-profit couldn't afford the payments on it anymore. The bank took it over.

As you travel throughout these hills dotted by ragged cedar trees, you find abandoned homes covered in vines, slowly rotting away. Around here, if you don't keep the brush cut back, it will takeover your house real fast. Seems the banks aren't cutting back the brush when they foreclose so the homes deteriorate very rapidly. But at least they aren't eyesores since after about 2 years of neglect, you can't see most of them anymore.

The really sad ones are the homes you think are abandon, that turn out to have some elderly person living in them.

[jtylerpittman]

58. that is sad

it sounds like Jackson Michigan

[Locut0s]

80. Wow that's a really depressing picture you paint. Well written to though!!

[Joe the Liberal]

37. I envy you......

I'd rather live in Canada, or like you I'd also prefer Europe, they're not perfect but I'd prefer them over the US.

As far as your question goes, living as a liberal in America I feel very ignored, isolated, alone, and frustrated. DU is my only connection to other liberals here in the US, literally, I know no one else around here that is left wing like myself. In fact I don't know anyone else that cares about the things I do. My brother is the only other person who cares about politics/world events but he's a libertarian conspiracy nut which makes me more frustrated. My parents could care less about politics/world events and same applies to my friends.

Aside from feeling ignored, alone and isolated, frustration is the overall feeling of being liberal in the US, at least for me it is. This health care debate is a perfect example, all other first world nations have had universal coverage for decades, it's been proven to work. It's 2009 here in the US and we are STILL debating something so obvious and we will be lucky if anything worthwhile passes. That's just one issue though there are tons more that are equally as frustrating, it just seems like no one cares.

Also having to deal with right wingers and their ignorance on just about everything adds to the frustration. They (right wingers) are everywhere, I feel surrounded by them and this is supposedly a blue state. Anyways living as a liberal in the US in this day and age, for me, is kind of depressing to tell you the truth.

[peace frog]

44. Big ditto

What you said.

[tavalon]

38. People are scared

Not a huge amount has changed in Seattle except that many people have lost their jobs. I'm a nurse so my job is pretty secure and yet it's hard not to feel the pervasive fear. And no, it isn't a third world country. Knowing that it could be going that way is scary. I don't want to be looking for food and warmth. I am soft. I know this. We're waiting for something awful. For some of us, it's already here. For me, not yet.

[Goldstein1984]

39. A Liberal living in Alaska

has to grow accustomed to and endless cycle of disappointment and frustration. I've noticed Alaska Liberals tend to be a little more radical on average than our Lower 48 counterparts.

[rucky]

42. I live in Boehner's district.

DU helps w/ the isolation. I moved here from Portland, and haven't really been able to connect with people here because my liberal worldview is so different. I started following football again just so I have something to talk about with people that doesn't lead to an argument. So fulfilling.

[Lorien]

46. It's stressful. I worry constantly about getting sick and becoming homeless

I was wiped out financially by medical bills years ago and I've never fully recovered. I still live in debt and without any credit. I'm one medical issue away from losing everything, so I don't sleep much anymore, I don't do anything vaguely risky and I'm very careful about what I eat. It's no way to exist, really.

[mwb970]

48. It's like being a sane person in a nation of idiots.

Come to think of it, it's exactly like that.

[Voltaire]

51. I think that is the winning answer

And I concur. It is like being a sighted person surrounded by the willfully blind, deaf and dumb.

[mwb970]

52. It reminds me of one of those sitcoms.

I'm thinking of the ones where there is one "normal" person (innkeeper Newhart, news producer Moore, etc.) surrounded by wacky people and goofballs. The humor is in the star's put-upon reaction to the insanity around him or her.

Looks like we're all Newhart now.

[raccoon]

63. Ditto, especially if you live in a red state. nt

[Cetacea]

65. +1.

[BreweryYardRat]

53. Depressing, but still better than it was under Cheney/Bush.

At least things are starting to turn around.

What a lot of people don't realize is that it's not just 8 years of Dick Cheney's sock-puppet that's screwed America up. This country's been having trouble since 1980. Reagan did major damage, Bush I made the problem worse, Clinton spent most of his two terms trying to clean up their mess, and then Cheney (the sock-puppet doesn't really count as a president, far as I'm concerned) reversed everything that Clinton did and added to the damage.

[Shagbark Hickory]

54. I was about to unrec you and tell you to bugger off but if you really want to know what it's like...

The fact is, with the exception of Leftyland (the west coast and also new england) the USA is a lot cheaper place to live than Canada. The housing is a fraction of the cost and the houses are much bigger and nicer looking. The weather is generally much better. The taxes (although some will argue this) are much lower.

The down sides are numerous though. There's a walmart, strip mall or fast food restaurant on just about every corner now, that would be the whole 'land of opportunity" thing. There's a lot of violent crime and dangerous areas. Prisons are overflowing. Rather than do anything about this, better than half our population wants to relax gun laws.

Our economy is based on corporate welfare, and businesses that are not successful but rely on loans, bailouts or investors to keep people employed and executive paychecks flowing. We clearly need regulation and government intervention but experts say it's never going to happen and we will find ourselves in this same situation or worse again in the future. Meanwhile the rich continue to get richer and drive up costs for the rest of us while the "the rest of us" gets poorer and poorer.

We also need the government to provide some jobs or help kick start some industries such as high speed rail, public hospitals and green energy but again, slightly more than half the people and the politicians will fight this to the bitter end because the coal and oil companies will not be able to continue profiting at the same rate. It's heartbreaking and extremely frustrating to have these promises reneged on.

122 people die each and every day in this country because we don't have guaranteed healthcare for all. Many more go bankrupt. Every 7 seconds a house is foreclosed on, many of which due to medical bills. Instead of saving lives, the politicians have decided it's a better idea to let people die and go broke. We have corporate lobbiests that make the decisions in this country.

We have two wars that many believe are a quagmire, myself included. The majority of the country however can be sweet talked into staying involved with these wars even though we're losing a lot of troops and appear to be not making meaningful progress at taking over any new oil supplies or getting people hooked on democratic corruption.

There are people that can't get married because of religious extremists and their influence on lawmakers. And hate to say it but if the fate of gay rights are left up to a majority vote, gay marriage is never going to happen nationwide. From the looks of things it may even be rescinded in places it is currently permitted.

Every program designed to help seems to be overly complicated and ineffective. We have incompetent people working for us in washington and ineffective leaders (I won't name any names).

And all the while people say "Fight, Fight Fight! This is a great country and you have to fight to make it better!"
And pissed off people like myself who are disgusted by what has taken place over the past year have lost all will to fight. People have been saying that for decades and it has gotten us nowhere.

I am in absolute despair of making any progress in this country.
I'm using "free market principles" I learned about from the Blue Dogs to shop for a new country. This one is about to lose my business.

So that's what it's like. You get what you pay for.

[jtylerpittman]

59. couldnt of said it better my self

[misanthrope]

86. Great answer!**nm

**

[clear eye]

91. Impressive. But you left out 'and a co. headed by a wingnut

supplies and maintains our voting and vote-counting equipment w/ no effective oversight of the software so we don't really know if the people running gov't were actually elected'.

[Odin2005]

55. Watch Idiocracy.

:cry:

[jtylerpittman]

56. ya not much has changed

we realy have nothing to show for 2008

[progressoid]

57. It's even MORE frustrating now that Democrats are in charge.

For the previous 8 years, it was easy to blame the right and Bushco. Now that we are running the show, it's only slightly better. It shows how far to the right this country has gone.

It's frustrating to see the handful of liberals ignored and marginalized.

[Romulox]

68. Not for me. It tends to confirm my worldview.

What a wonderful problem it would be if the Obama/Pelosi/Reid administrations gave me reason to reassess the overarching sense of cynicism and dread for the future that I'd developed in the last 8 years.

Alas, no such soul searching will be required, it appears.

[southernyankeebelle]

61. I have lived in Europe growing up when my father was in the military

and I loved it. When I grew up I married and lived with my husband in europe. He was adopted and brought here to america. I miss the real liberal america of the early 60s when you really could say what you want. It really isn't that way today. I live in a small southern town (red state). People don't really seem to care what happens around the world. They only are interested in their families trucks and church. Nothing more or less. You can't imagine how it is to try to have a conservation with teabaggers. When you point out the last year of Bush or what was wrong they change the subject and say they all do it.

[RainDog]

62. among liberals I know, there is bafflement at the democrats

a visceral disappointment in the decisions the democratic party has made. the refrain is generally, "well, it's better than Bush." which is a way of saying that what we had was sooooooooooooo bad that people are happy not to have that but they're not happy with what's happening now.

I live in a liberal town but I bump up against the many conservatives that live near. they, on the whole, are older white men who say things that make you think they are so fucking stupid and paranoid that you wonder how they managed to survive to their overripe older middle ages. and there's the occasional slatternly female who loves Sarah Palin because she speaks for her. I assume the female is slatternly because Palin's message is "white trash- fuck yeah!"

I despise the political atmosphere in America and wish I could live in a democratic nation with a viable social safety net, a respect for reason and science, and a healthy skepticism for religious charlatans. Instead, America is one big revival tent looking for Elmer Gantry.

[mwb970]

71. +1 for "slatternly"! /nt

[cali]

64. I'd rather live in Vermont than say around Calgary

[Locut0s]

81. I'll give you that. I'll trade you Calgary for Minnesota! ;-)

[Romulox]

67. It is depressing living in a country in decline.

Best days behind us, everything is a struggle to lay claim to ever scarcer resources. It is impossible to be a true liberal in such a greedy time.

[galileoreloaded]

70. We took a tribalism thread (Liberal vs. Conservative) and turned

it into a tribalism thread (America Vs. Canada).

We truly eat our own. No discipline at all.

[grahamhgreen]

73. VIDEO LINK! (and this is the GOOD side of town...) third world or not?

Home of the blues, BTW, please visit!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spvQY9SGogw

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

74. I'm loving life.

[HuckleB]

75. It's not all wine and roses in Europe either.

One step at a time, and one's balance may seem wobbly once in a while, but things are improving.

[upi402]

85. I feel like I'm bad, the enemy

Even my former party, the Democrats, are like Goldwater Republicans were for most of my life. The political continuum has shifted way to the right because the TV news is corporatist, and we are easy to fool.

[dysfunctional press]

90. about the same as it was when ray-gun was president.

and all the years since.

[WillyT]

92. Frustrating... We're Still Outnumbered By The Stupid, And The Selfish...

:shrug: