Have Republicans changed the world forever?

[Target_For_Exterm]

I was sitting here thinking that the Dems had BETTER flex some muscle because the Republican world is just too disturbing. I have a deep longing for a bit of "normal" after this nightmare.

Then I started to think - the Republican have done so much damage, can the Democrats turn it all around and bring "normal" back? I know the fallout from Iraq is going to burn us for years to come. I was watching a show on TV last night about the fall of Saigon and it was clear that there are many similarities between what happened in Viet Nam, and what's happening in Iraq. The sad thing about what Bush is doing in Iraq is that there's far more at stake in Iraq than there was in Viet Nam.

Viet Nam was about politics. Iraq is about politics, security, and economics (oil). Screwing up Iraq is going to have far more horrific consequences for our future than ending Viet Nam did.

Then there are all the other changes Republicans have made that bode ill for our future. The whack job money grubbers on the Supreme Court waiting to do Bush bidding. The gutting of the treasury. Damage to the economy. Global warming. If I spent some time thinking about it, I could make a long list.

Dems can fix some things right away. But so much damage has been done to our country that I'm not sure how long it will take to get back to some kind of "normal." I greatly fear that some of the damage might be permanent.

What's your take on this, and how much hope do you have that Dems can make a difference right away?

[villager]

1. & don't forget global warming and peak oil....

big changes comin' -- not sure the Dems could've held the falling Empire together, in any case.

Time to downsize, and ultimately, think locally/tribally, etc.

Meanwhile, hopefully the Dems can ameloriate some of the swift, less "happy" changes...

[cdnwannabe]

7. Exactly, Villager....

the end of cheap fossil fuel will bring the end of the american dream, which is suburbia and servicing suburbia. If we would downsize a lot right now, we might be able to hold it off for 10 extra years. But I'm not holding my breath for that...

[patrice]

10. That's what I'm saying to everyone: Make all business Local!

Don't buy the raspberries from California. Find your local producers. Stay out of big box stores.

[Nitrogenica]

2. My fear is that the escalation is intentionally designed to fail,

So in the Summer of 2007 the right can claim everything was going well until the Democrats took power in the House and Senate. Yes, I do believe Bush would sacrifice the lives of our troops in an attempt for the right to stay in power. He already has done that many, many times.

[patrice]

9. Right. It doesn't have to succeed. Nothing ever did.

Because of the multi-national Corporation$$$$$$$$$ involved and the fact that our government is Corrupted by money.

[Wisconsin Larry]

3. I fear that in many areas the neocons have damaged us almost irreparably.

As you point out the list is long and the amount of damage is almost incalculable. The Bush administration and its lap dog Congress have been way too busy over the last 6 years.

International relations have been set back at least a decade, IMHO. It's not just Iraq but the entire Middle East that has been destabilized. Pulling out of the Palestinian Peace Process destroyed decades of diplomacy going back to Jimmy Carter. Refusing to talk with Iran and North Korea has escalated those differences into crises that could have been avoided. Not to mention the world wide distrust of the US government on almost every topic.

Any thing that smacks of regulation has been at least partially dismantled or ignored with the environment taking one of the biggest hits from refusing to join the Kyoto Protocol to not enforcing EPA laws. And after noticing that we seem to have more incidences of contamination of the food supply, spinach, Taco Bell, Olive Gardens, etc., I did a quick Google search and found that FDA inspections of the food supply have dropped from about 24,000 per year to less than 2400 per year.

You already pointed out the economic disaster which will take more decades to recover from and the Supremes which again will take decades to repair. But enough of the list. Neither the Dems nor anyone else will be able to correct the appalling damage in the decade much less the next two years. All we can hope for is to stem the bleeding and keep these idiots from starting any new disasters, for example, another war, destroying SS or the Medicare/Medicaid system.

So, let's dig in for a long recovery and keep up the fight.

[PDJane]

4. Don't forget the deficit........

30 Trillion dollars increase in the six years of the Bush administration.

Yes. You read that correctly.

30 Trillion dollars! The US owed 20 Trillion before that.........so we're looking at a 50 Trillion dollar increase.

That's from Washington Post.

[Target_For_Exterm]

5. I say we take it all out of Bush's paycheck.

:evilgrin:

[patrice]

11. Educate for Alternatives.

The children of the U.S. need Craft, or skill, Guilds. There's nothing wrong with putting students in "tracks" as long as students have control over some of the decisions.

[nam78_two]

6. At least as far as the environment goes -indubitably.nt

[patrice]

8. Each of us has changed the World forever, BUT we weren't in Sync.

as each of us did so, or the things that we were synchronized about did not punctuate the Biome, History, and Economics the way Republican ________bots (homophobe bots, right-to-life bots, Libertarian bots, Grover Norquist bots, along with confluences of muck-rakers and various obfuscators and confusionists, Royalists, Racists, et al) have.

[Selatius]

12. Did World War I change the course of world history?

Of course the Repubs changed history. It's likely for the worse, I'd imagine, and the only thing Dems can do is try to clean it up. Those people in Iraq will hate us for the next 100 years. From now on when people across the world are asked what is a major threat to global peace, one of those major threats they will cite will be the US federal government. In a country that ostensibly calls itself a democracy, what that government does reflects on the people.

[dogday]

13. Ask those affected in Iraq

The families, the homes, the children... Ask any of them--bet they would have an answer to that question for sure.....

[blues90]

14. I have always felt one thing very strongly

It takes a long time to create something of value whether it's a painting or a building and this includes a life but it only takes seconds to destroy anyone of these things .

This is what these repubs or neocons have done . This includes removing environmental regulations and oil drilling and industrial farming .

There are things such as nature that has taken billions of years to create and man in his short time on this planet has managed to threaten this to the point of no return for another billion years considering all of just the DU released from their foolish bombs and also their nuclear tests and bombings .

From this alone I would have to say the repubs and many dems have done a very good job of screwing almost everything up well beyond repair even if life on earth were to vanish tomarrow .

[Toots]

15. I believe the US dollar has been irrepairably harmed

When the Euro made it's debut we should have gotten a clue. Once a few switch to the Euro more will follow and there will be no returns.... Bush* and the GOP accomplished this in an almost deliberate manner....

[pinto]

16. Locking.

Original poster is no longer with us.

Thanks.