I know it can't just be me..

[eppur_se_muova]

25. It's not just you, and it's not just POC.

A certain segment of our population has been able to live in an isolated bubble which shuts out all the progress of the 20th century. They expect the world to stay in their version of "the good old days" and don't care that it wasn't good for everyone else -- in fact, they don't think the "else" count, at all. Slowly, it's getting harder and harder to maintain that bubble, but the GOP and a compliant, unquestioning media have persisted in their indulgence of this privileged population. Many of us thought that with the election of BHO it had finally popped and the USA was ready to catch up with the more progressive societies of the world. The backlash was truly a surprise for many whites; I sheepishly recognize it was apparently not such a surprise to POC. It is bitterly disappointing to realize that this "populist" (a "populism" which excludes much of the populace ??) course correction will probably not be negated until after I have reached retirement age, if then. I had hoped to see a better country within my lifetime, to overcome the wrong turn it took under Reagan, when I was just entering adult life. Then we took another wrong turn under Bush the Lesser, and that dream was postponed again. Now, it seems we have taken the ultimate wrong turn, and the imminent chaos will either destroy the country, or destroy that privileged bubble at last.