without the "Myth of the Lost Cause".

That's what it will take. If he or she is too much of a wuss to do that very little will actually get rolled back.

In order to say that we're done with fascism, authoritarianism, and MAGA. The fact that this shit is happening all around the world could play a part in our long term future.

and he wasn't able to finish the job. Harry Truman tried, but the voters swung back and gave him Repub congresses.

I'm thinking at least one generation, maybe two, assuming we survive at all. We will probably need an entirely new Constitution, which wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, because ours is getting a bit dated.

Dark times, and I'm getting too old for much happy talk.

that Trump has already put in place may well be only the scab on the wound. Remember Project 2025?
"Trump’s supporters say Schedule F would cover about 50,000 federal employees, but unions representing federal workers say it would cover many times that. Currently, approximately 4,000 federal positions are subject to presidential appointment. Trump’s allies are said to have compiled a list of 20,000 loyalists who could quickly move into federal jobs in a new Trump administration."

Let's be very optimistic and say that the Democratic party takes the House in 2026, and the presidency and Senate in 2028. Let's say that there is a huge enough blue wave to give the Democratic party a two-thirds majority in both houses. Let's say that the groundswell of Democratic fervor changes the minds of enough Democratic congress members to expand the supreme court.

Would a Democratic president fire the thousands (tens of thousands) of sycophantic appointees?

How many of the employees previously fired by Trump would be willing to return to their old jobs and pick up the pieces?

Those agencies weren't built overnight. Maybe if all of those conditions, election of Democratic politicians, supreme court expansion, etc. were met, and if the Republicans were not able to gain enough votes in either the Senate or House to block recovery, I would say maybe a decade, since we are basically talking about wonderland here.

Of course our relationships with other countries, our dollar hegemony, probably our scientific hegemony, those are gone for good. We'll still have (American) football so most Americans won't really care.

I know that many people prefer to always look on the bright side, and for most of the last seven decades that perspective was validated. But it was validated because of conditions which are gone and will never recur.
I think that we should look reality in the eye and fight like hell precisely because things look so bleak.


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/25/project-2025-trump-plan-fire-civil-service-employees

Republican fuckheads will do everything they can to stay in power, and once Democrats take over, Repubs will do everything they can to hobble, impede, and derail any and all efforts at healing the damage that Republicans and Trump have done.

generational. The 50s era John Birch Society and KKK have evolved into groups like Patriot Front, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, Three Percenters, and QAnon. Add to that the support of White Christian Nationalist and this will be a long hard fight. That is not even considering the Billionaire class.

Social Media has desensitized the population to a point where we do not value life as we once did and accept this mess as now "normal".

Seems like something you might see in an episode of the "Twilight Zone" to me. ☮

of his CULT will forever be a stain upon this nation's history. There'd be no erasing THAT.

of natural causes, of course.

I just turned 78 — I know I won’t be around to see my nation repaired, and in my darkest hours I wonder if my lifetime of work has been for naught.

How long? At least a generation — my grandsons’ generation.

And putting back in all the agencies that it took hundreds of years to slowly build up with taxes and laws no one will vote to raise taxes high enough to bring everything back.

Even if we want to in another 3 + years we will all be struggling financially.

I think the best we can do if we ever get congress and senate back along with president is to tax the hell out of rich people to make up for as much as we can.

They are not going to let us win another election... Trump has already signalled that... they are never going to give up power with this much at stake...

I don't like to even think what I think is going to happen.... but I don't see how you purge this disease without lancing the boil...

Hope I am wrong

The Civil War never ended and we may as well accept that and figure out how to move from a one nation to something looser.