Just as an individual. I do not know if I can recover from this second round.

I honestly believe they're going to do everything they can to keep an honest vote from taking place.
They're just itching to declare Martial Law. We all know that.
Even if Trump resigns or gets pushed out this leaves us J.D. Vance as our President.
That could be worse!

They challenged all facts and lied to give cover to the Criminal-in-Chief. They cannot escape responsibility. It is too late.

Alex Jones normalized Trump's behavior and the behavior of every shitty member of the MAGA cult and helped to replace the competent members of the GOP with deranged cultists like Nancy Mace, Steve Scalise, and Chip Roy. The Heritage Foundation laid the groundwork for American fascism. Elon Musk helped flip the election to Trump and is spreading hate and fascism all around the world. They all must face justice.

Only to find out there was so much of that crap in his system that purging it was an impossible task. That's what we need to do if we ever get out of this with minimal damage. This country needs all the republican propaganda purged from its' system. It may be an impossible task, but it needs to be done.

of some of our foundational beliefs, especially regarding our country. Was the love we had for our country based on a myth? Was the formation of our country intended to serve a few and enslave the masses? Have US soldiers died for nothing?
We have a mental construct that has been lost and that is indeed a trauma.

the experiences of women and children in abusive relationships. Like those women, we all need to rebuild but this time with the knowledge there are people willing to exploit our good nature for their own means. They are willing to destroy us to accomplish this. One of the terms used is "battered" that describes the methods being used against us.

I believe there is a roadmap in what has been learned about putting lives back together after dehumanizing treatment that will help us.

This country will never be the same. In some ways that might turn out good, but the demons unleashed under the trump regime will take decades to kill/tame.

... it may resemble the Reconstruction Era after Trump is gone. Someone will have heal the wounded.

...as they are led to the slaughter.

the party of law and order, fiscal responsibility, family values and embryo rights.

Not that anybody ever took Repukes seriously

I haven't accepted a damn thing. My fury continues to exceed my trauma.

It will consume us, and we will die.

I am a baby boomer in what should be my "golden years" and this cancer on our democracy is making life a living hell. My husband and I have both fought all our lives for Democratic candidates, Democratic principles, and for what is right, just, equitable and ethical, and to see this evil being (I refuse to call him a man) eviscerating every bastion of our once great county on a daily basis is almost too much to bear.

We were having a quiet lunch at home today and I broke out in tears. The victims of his sexual criminality are being victimized again by those who refuse to hold Trump and his fellow pedophiles to account. He has deprived people of health insurance, money to meet their living expenses, seniors of the serenity of knowing their social security is secure - and on and on. Everyone reading this knows the hideous litany.

I don't know if I have much faith left, but I do hope and pray to whatever benevolent being is out there to stop this, free us from this demon who harms thousands of people on a daily basis just because he can.

I cannot stop worrying about everything and everyone. My time on earth is limited and I fear for family, friends, countrymen as we trespass through this mess for which we have no idea how to cope any more than we are.
We have the most disgusting, crooked, vile and stupid people running the ship of state.
My fingers are crossed that this vile man who pretends to be president does not live longer than me..
He is nothing but his own bank. Money, lies, hate, destruction & a danger to us all and to the world.

If trump kicks the bucket, I hope Vance has learned his lesson and rids of us of the awful cabinet, of the greed, the awful policies and warmongering and makes decisions that will start yo bring this country back from the brink on which we now stand.

or any citizens who care.

Naomi Klein 2007 good read.

the exact same thing and recommend that very pertinent book!

“The Shock Doctrine” is one of those books that can change one’s paradigm as to how the works. Another book that does this in regards to American history is Howard Zinn’s “The Peoples History of the United States”. I was never the same after reading both.

And they couldn’t care less.

They enjoy hurting others.

The line from a poem Trump liked to read on the campaign trail says it all. We've been suffering a national nervous breakdown ever since his venomous first bite.

As well as the trauma and damage to the US.
The vast damage to the US brand, the mistrust, financial devastation, rule of law, etc.

Before you can fully process an act of cruelty, destruction, crime, bold-faced lie, abuse of power.... the next one happens, then the next and the next....

Shock is followed by outrage overload, desensitization, then normalization.

Just another day of Trump being Trump.... nothing to see here, folks.

also no.

And following on the pandemic and the evisceration of middle class expectations in the wake of the Great Financial Crash of 2008 and otherwise...

I meet very few people that seem able muster what used to be common, competent functionalities anymore.

The causes may also include things like absorption in their cell phones and the kinds of "future shock" that Marshall McLuhan predicted (i.e., that once media had made us into a "global village" in which we're immersed in news of multitudes of catastrophic events from around the world, we might basically enter a state of continual, low-level ptsd).

A few million Americans participated in No Kings protests, and that was good. But it's nowhere near enough.

The authoritarian actions should - by now - have generated protests in the tens of millions. The opposition should have galvanized into a resistant force that would bring the government to a halt pending the next election. Military should be openly questioning Trump's actions. Local police departments should be refusing any and all support of ICE. Media companies should have gone to court instead of paying off Trump. They should be airing and printing their their own PSA's and editorials about the first amendment and government overreach.

I can't tell you how many people I know who are decrying "three more years of this" as if that's all they'll have to suffer through before Republicans are out in '28. Only "one more year of this" and we won't be able to vote them out in '28. Republicans are engineering permanent minority rule. Not enough Americans are truly on to this. They somehow think our systems will course-correct on its own.

Over 85M eligible voters didn't vote in 2024. A mere 10% of this could easily have tipped the election the other way.

I, for one, have lost hope. I don't know how to handle this. I'm distraught. We, as citizens, can only do so much at the ballot box and on the picket line. We need our institutions - business, churches, media, state governments, and an organized and true opposition party - to step up.

I’m afraid you’re right.

I mean, WTF DID WE EVER FUCKING DO TO DESERVE THIS???

The shock and awe never left. Some of us can't even turn on news for fear of what we will see or hear.

The wrecking ball on America continues and we see no end in sight.

… and most of them are genuinely good people, so there’s hope for our future.

But it’ll take a few decades after the self-destruction ends.