17 Americans Were Asked What They Don't Believe In Anymore After The Election, And They Have A Lot To Say

[orangecrush]

"Right now? On election night? I've stopped believing in America. The dream of America that was drilled into me as a child of the '70s and '80s. That all people actually had an equal voice. That justice ruled the land, and we were the UNITED States. That's all gone. It's every man for himself and 'fuck you, I've got mine.' Maybe my blinders are finally off. Maybe it's always been that way. In any case, my belief in the 'Shining City on the Hill' is dead. It's all over, and I will mourn its loss."

"That people are inherently kind because if they were, America wouldn’t have voted for a fascist felon."

"People, justice, and common sense."



https://www.buzzfeed.com/ravenishak/what-americans-dont-believe-in-anymore


Yup.

[Autumn]

1. This is the one that explains how I feel.

Right now? On election night? I've stopped believing in America. The dream of America that was drilled into me as a child of the '70s and '80s. That all people actually had an equal voice. That justice ruled the land, and we were the UNITED States. That's all gone. It's every man for himself and 'fuck you, I've got mine.' Maybe my blinders are finally off. Maybe it's always been that way. In any case, my belief in the 'Shining City on the Hill' is dead. It's all over, and I will mourn its loss."

[orangecrush]

2. I have an ugly feeling

That we really are in 1930's Germany at this point.

This shit just hasn't hit the fan yet, but it's coming rapidly.

Good time to stock up on masks, hand sanitizer, unperishable food, and other essentials.

[Maru Kitteh]

6. I agree, and I no longer find the glory or romance in riding this missle into the ground.

[johnnyfins]

12. I'm with you.

I really don't think that the majority of people have a clue of what's coming. I really hope our military has clear definitions of lawful and unlawful orders. Even if a tyrant tells them it's ok.

[bdamomma]

16. Why am

I thinking that these fools that voted for the felon has the "football" and is unstable. Not very comforting.

Putin is in control now and won't think twice of invading other countries after he gets his way with Ukraine. The felon has said Putin could do whatever he wants. And China will pounce on Taiwan.
We are in for some ugly deadly events.

[keep_left]

15. Well, the Trump voters won't be happy about how things ended for 1930s Germany...

...not to mention Japan.

https://democraticunderground.com/100219670010#post89

It took the bombing of Dresden to disabuse many Germans of their love for fascism. That's something to think about.

[bdamomma]

3. So are some of us doing

this:

I'm sure the felon likes that. Are we going to let him change this country into what he has said with all his projections of "we are a garbage country" we will be if he gets his fucking way. Really? do you think in the past people just did this: surrender:. No, I'm not backing down to this POS!!! Just my opinion.

[orangecrush]

4. I admire your enthusiasm

And I believe you mean what you say.

However, words are cheap right now.

In Russia, criticizing the government online is punishable by fines and or imprisonment.

Trump wants to emulate his mentor.

Imagine how bad it could possibly get, and double that.

That's what I expect.

[bdamomma]

5. I mean

I am angry as everyone else is in how this ended up. But I am more upset with Putin and our other adversaries saying Checkmate. I keep on thinking what VP Harris said at the debate, that these dictators will eat the felon for lunch. And I think of that saying "Those who do not know history are deemed to repeat it" how many people know their history not many that is for sure, with the results we saw.

Those who did vote for him are in for a rude awakening.

[orangecrush]

14. Oh, agreed

What really sucks is if there is another pandemic or related disaster, it may never be reported.

We'll just wonder why so many around us are getting sick and dying, and we'll never even know how many are dying nationally.

[Abolishinist]

17. With RFK Jr. heading the FDA,

new vaccines will be on the horizon, billions will be spent on research for cures and new drugs... it's gonna be something to behold!

[orangecrush]

18. Better yet

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100219699885

[Abolishinist]

20. Had me going for a minute. This is from the Spurious News Service.

[moondust]

7. "child of the '70s and '80s"?

Ah, the good old days of small business when a family could buy a house and live comfortably on the income of only one working parent. Maybe they're too young to remember how all that changed and who changed it.

The changes came in the 80s with Raygun's "trickle-down" neoliberal economics and predatory capitalist attitudes toward unions and working people (not quite slaves). Then the rise of globalization in the 80s led to offshoring jobs to poorer countries where those governments would essentially guarantee low wages and no labor demands or strikes.

It was the GQP that did all that. The U.S. electorate presumably just gave them even more power to continue down their predatory path. But it's not slavery so stop saying that! Slavery was abolished!

[valleyrogue]

8. The single earner household was dead by the mid-1970s.

Just saying, since I lived through that era. Reagan exacerbated it, but the male breadwinner nonsense started dying off in the mid-1970s with the massive influx of married women in the labor force.

[Elessar Zappa]

9. Yeah but the good old days weren't great either.

Jim Crow didn’t go away until the late 60’s, women couldn’t open their own credit card until like 1973 and lgbtq people almost universally stayed in the closet unless they lived in certain city centers.

[Voltaire2]

10. This myth of the shining city on the hill

was always a myth only white people, and for most of our history only white men, could believe in. The fascist face of america was the everyday lived experience for everyone else.

[mike_c]

11. haven't we had enough social grievance?

The OP is an actual example of intractable social grievances that match a hypothetical illustration. It goes like this: if you ask MAGAs and their cohorts what they like about America they'll be stumped by the question. Ultimately their obsession with grievances will hijack their attention, and many will answer "Let me tell you why the US sucks, instead."

Somehow we need to move the MAGAs beyond the politics of grievance. It goes without saying that we ourselves need to do the same. It's tough, because at some level politics always aggregate around core grievances, and this is a destructive tendency.

[johnnyfins]

13. Right now? Grievance works for me.

We have a GOVERNMENT that couldn't care less about the middle class.

We have a President Elect, TSF, well I don't need to type all of his bullshit.

We also have Project 2025.

I'm supposed to worry about grievance politics. I applaud the idealism, but when you have someone from the other side on CNN, after the election, saying "Democracy is a luxury when you can't pay the bills".

I think the idealism can wait a few cycles.

[Hekate]

21. Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Still, I am responsible for my own behavior, no matter what.