I think they're in their "last throes", to quote Darth Cheney.
How long it will take is anyone's guess, but things will get better.
The Koch Brothers aren't winning. Cantor was thrown out of office by a few thousand people who bothered to vote.
It's not hopeless. People need to double-down and fight the reactionary elements who only try to appeal to our lizard brains. It is happening; not uniformly of course, but it is happening.
Events in 2014 are tilting toward the Democrats. The US economy is finally gaining steam. Russia's belligerence in Ukraine is winding down. Iraq is falling apart, but it's doing so more slowly than it was a few weeks ago. Obama may be able to convince Bibi that invading Gaza again would be stupid and a cease-fire may happen soon. Even things that are are blowing up in the US and are problems, like the VA and the influx of Central American children, seems to be breaking Obama's way - he'll get a larger budget to address the problems, and it forces the Republicans to work with him to address real problems (or face even more marginalization from the voters).
2016 is highly likely to be another Democratic year.
Nothing is a given, of course, but things are looking up.
If you want to be depressed, think back to 1972 - 1974 or so. The seemingly never-ending quagmire in Vietnam and SE Asia was finally winding down but causing a huge amount of angst and anger ("the first war we lost!!!"). The Yom Kippur war. The oil price shocks. The corruption and venality of Nixon and his cronies. The crap cars. The decimation of NASA. Wounded Knee. The coup against Allende in Chile. And on and on. We eventually got through that.
We'll get through this, too.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who isn't always an optimist, but when he is... :-)
The Koch Brothers aren't winning. Cantor was thrown out of office by a few thousand people who bothered to vote.
It's not hopeless. People need to double-down and fight the reactionary elements who only try to appeal to our lizard brains. It is happening; not uniformly of course, but it is happening.
Events in 2014 are tilting toward the Democrats. The US economy is finally gaining steam. Russia's belligerence in Ukraine is winding down. Iraq is falling apart, but it's doing so more slowly than it was a few weeks ago. Obama may be able to convince Bibi that invading Gaza again would be stupid and a cease-fire may happen soon. Even things that are are blowing up in the US and are problems, like the VA and the influx of Central American children, seems to be breaking Obama's way - he'll get a larger budget to address the problems, and it forces the Republicans to work with him to address real problems (or face even more marginalization from the voters).
2016 is highly likely to be another Democratic year.
Nothing is a given, of course, but things are looking up.
If you want to be depressed, think back to 1972 - 1974 or so. The seemingly never-ending quagmire in Vietnam and SE Asia was finally winding down but causing a huge amount of angst and anger ("the first war we lost!!!"). The Yom Kippur war. The oil price shocks. The corruption and venality of Nixon and his cronies. The crap cars. The decimation of NASA. Wounded Knee. The coup against Allende in Chile. And on and on. We eventually got through that.
We'll get through this, too.
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who isn't always an optimist, but when he is... :-)