MEMORIES.....
I remember how excited America was when Obama was running in 2008.
The cheering, the crowds, the happy faces full of hope.
Remember those good ole times in America?
And now what? Hate. Anger. Division the likes of we have never experienced before.
Usually in the past when we had an enemy it was an enemy like Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein or Charles Manson.
Today it's your next door neighbor, or your co-worker, or your niece and nephew, or the guy in the car next to you at the stop light.
To fix this it will take something really awful, really terrible to happen to bring us all together once again.
Something much worse than another 9/11.
I'm thinking something not of this world like a massive meteor strike, or the Sun suddenly flickering on and off for no reason, or the invasion of aliens from another planet.
Space aliens with a craving for human flesh.
I don't know if a nuke would even do it. I think it would have to be some horrific astrological event.
Then, just maybe we could find our common ground once again.
Right before that terrifying space alien eats you face off....
Nah, it won't need something like that, but it will take time.
The first thing that has to happen, of course, is removing the Trump regime in 2020 and restoring a functional democracy. That gets rid of a major cause of divisiveness and reminds Republicans that no, they're not entitled to the one-party dictatorship they so desperately want.
The more important part, however, is 2024 (and possibly 2028). That's ideally when the Dems defeat the Republicans again and send a message that the Republicans
must modernize their party or be rendered permanently irrelevant. The GOP has to stop obsessing over white, straight Christian men in an era when they're neither the sole arbiters of culture nor likely to have a dominant vote.
The outcome of 2020 is far from certain, but I can't help but see 2016 as the last hurrah of the Republican party as we know it. Goodness knows there have been enough of them bailing in the past couple of years. I'm not so naive as to presume the party will suddenly be enlightened, but it would be nice if it dropped its obsession with courting science deniers and social regression in favor of focusing on finances and the reach of government.