Xorkoth
Bluelight Crew
Hell of a post, sj.
I think America has been slowly decaying ever since this whole movement to dismantle the middle class began. In the early to mid 1900s, the middle class was born, policies were in place to ensure the well-being of people. But in the 50s or 60s, well, who knows when it really started, some people began working to undo all of that. Nearly every important social factor has been affected: income vs cost of living, education, cost of healthcare, social security, etc etc. This is the direct result of a purposeful undermining of these rights, and it's why we're where we're at now, and it's only going to get worse. Our schools used to be the best in the world, and now we're nowhere close to that. It takes an uneducated populace that lacks critical thinking skills to keep voting for people who are blatantly doing this undermining. I mean both sides of the fence are corrupted, but at least Democrats are trying to increase social safety nets and bring more funding to schools, and protect the environment. Meanwhile, Trump appointed Betsy DeVos as Sec of Education and Edward Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA.
It is indeed mind-boggling that so many Trump supporters, and Republican supporters more broadly, buy this shit. It's gotten so blatant. But somehow they laud the Republicans as representing "the people" and blame their poor policy decisions on the Democrats. It is seriously disturbing. I mean although I think it's selfish, at least I get why rich people are Republicans because their policies help them. And it doesn't help at all that the tax reform temporarily puts a few hundred more dollars into their tax returns before it starts to hurt them, and the North Korea stuff. Makes me more worried he'll be re-elected. But you know the scary part? If he goes, we have Pence. If the whole administration comes crumbling down, we'll still have plenty of other people working to turn us into a working class of indentured servitude, much less publicly.
the USA was an unrivalled global power for many years, but maybe trump is a symptom of decay, rather than the cause of it.
i would argue that as a world power, america has lacked the necessary leadership to respond to the challenges humanity has been presented with in the last few decades.
when the wealthiest nation in history leaves so many of her people starving, homeless and lacking affordable healthcare and education, perhaps it's not surprising that hundreds of millions of people jaded (or misguided) enough to think a psychopath like trump might somehow be the answer.
the sick irony of that - at least to me - is that many of the dismal socioeconomic conditions that lead voters to elect trump (huge wealth disparity and the resentment of people locked out of the "american dream"; the gaudy false promises of consumer capitalism) are only going to be more extreme and insurmountable, with this administration's slash-and-burn approach to governance.
I think America has been slowly decaying ever since this whole movement to dismantle the middle class began. In the early to mid 1900s, the middle class was born, policies were in place to ensure the well-being of people. But in the 50s or 60s, well, who knows when it really started, some people began working to undo all of that. Nearly every important social factor has been affected: income vs cost of living, education, cost of healthcare, social security, etc etc. This is the direct result of a purposeful undermining of these rights, and it's why we're where we're at now, and it's only going to get worse. Our schools used to be the best in the world, and now we're nowhere close to that. It takes an uneducated populace that lacks critical thinking skills to keep voting for people who are blatantly doing this undermining. I mean both sides of the fence are corrupted, but at least Democrats are trying to increase social safety nets and bring more funding to schools, and protect the environment. Meanwhile, Trump appointed Betsy DeVos as Sec of Education and Edward Scott Pruitt as head of the EPA.

It is indeed mind-boggling that so many Trump supporters, and Republican supporters more broadly, buy this shit. It's gotten so blatant. But somehow they laud the Republicans as representing "the people" and blame their poor policy decisions on the Democrats. It is seriously disturbing. I mean although I think it's selfish, at least I get why rich people are Republicans because their policies help them. And it doesn't help at all that the tax reform temporarily puts a few hundred more dollars into their tax returns before it starts to hurt them, and the North Korea stuff. Makes me more worried he'll be re-elected. But you know the scary part? If he goes, we have Pence. If the whole administration comes crumbling down, we'll still have plenty of other people working to turn us into a working class of indentured servitude, much less publicly.