A poll based on my viewing of 9/11 news coverage yesterday

[Recycle_Guru]

Which event reverberated most deeply with you as a shock to our country and way of life?

38 votes, 2 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	9/11
	15 (39%)
	The 2000 Supreme Court selection of W
	8 (21%)
	The shock of Trump being elected
	11 (29%)
	COVID lockdown and 100's of thousands of deaths
	0 (0%)
	Illegal invasion of Iraq
	1 (3%)
	Jan 6 and surrounding conspiracies
	3 (8%)
	2 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
Show usernames Disclaimer: This is an Internet poll

[lees1975]

1. Trump being elected was quite a shock.

In the past, even if they got popular for a while, candidates who can't follow rational thinking and make a rational argument about anything never lasted long. Then there was Trump who made as big an ass out of himself as he ever has, and won on low turnout and by activating a base of support that had just scattered participation in the past.

[Martin Eden]

17. Same here. It was obvious as hell in 2016 that the orange creature was a ...

Pathological liar
Malignant narcissist
Vile racist
Sexual predator
Vindictive bully
Ignorant blowhard
Corrupt businessman

Egregiously unfit both mentally and morally for any public office or position of trust and power.

It's not a shock to me that such a creature exists but it was and is indescribably appalling and alarming to me that nearly half the voters in America wanted him to be president not just the first time, but a second time after four years of demonstrating he was all those things and worse.

Even during two terms of GW Dim Son Bush with his catastrophic war of choice based on lies I didn't feel that half my fellow citizens were like the pod people aliens in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

But now I do. They live in an alternate Orwellian universe where ignorance is strength and the biggest lies are gospel.

[LisaM]

2. I picked the 2000 election, because it led to all the other things.

It also changed me from a mostly cheerful person into an angry and bitter one.

[Marcus IM]

5. I'm in the same camp.

Every time I hear some reference to 9/11 in real life or TV/movies, no matter how abstract, I think of what an Al Gore administration's response would have been to the "hair on fire" memos.

[Recycle_Guru]

9. you both have a fair point

I think as egregious as 2000 election was, it didn't dawn on me what a giant cluster fuck we were in until I had to see Bush with his fucking bullhorn after he LIHOP'd 9/11.

That completely changed everything for me.

[crickets]

12. This. So much this. nt

[LisaM]

24. Or it wouldn't have happened at all.

If the recommendations in the Gore Commission Report on Airline Security had been followed, the hijackers likely would never even boarded the planes. But they weren't.

[Marcus IM]

27. I agree.

[stuck in the middle]

3. Other-1996 IIRAIRA

1996 was the year I met my wife (who comes from an illegal culture going back centuries after running away from their masters) and after getting married the following year they tried to kick us out of the country, with a 10 year ban on even applying for re-entry, just because they didn’t like who I married.

This is the law that led directly to tfg. It is still in effect, today, and needs to be repealed, if we don’t want to see a repeat of tfg.

The disastrous, forgotten 1996 law that created today's immigration problem

https://www.vox.com/2016/4/28/11515132/iirira-clinton-immigration

The law that broke US immigration

[Recycle_Guru]

7. fascinating read

my wife is also an immigrant.

[stuck in the middle]

11. Cool!

my wife is also an immigrant

I hope she feels welcome here!



Sur Real - La pedagogía de la corridez (Capítulo completo)

[Emile]

4. I use to think 9/11 until I saw the POTUS instruct his MAGAT's to

storm the Capitol and fight like hell.

[canetoad]

6. Definitely 911

But you missed something out; DU being hacked on election day 2016.

[Ponietz]

8. Citizens United by far

Equating money and speech hurt us more deeply and systematically than any of the other choices and we’ve barreled towards fascism since.

[Recycle_Guru]

10. definitely agree that the case was almost like putting democracy in check

the fascists are still looking for check mate, nit we live in scary times.

[intheflow]

15. Another fine contender to this thoroughly depressing poll.

Sadly, I saw that coming in the ‘90s, more or less. SCOTUS stopping the ballot counting was when I first realized the Court could fall. I’d only known a majority liberal-leaning SCOTUS until then. It was devastating.

[TheRealNorth]

13. I voted 9/11

But 1/6 is more consequential with regards to the future of our democracy (although an argument could be made for 9/11 as well).

[brooklynite]

14. What "9/11 news coverage" are you referring to?

[Recycle_Guru]

16. it was a compilation video starting from before first plane

through the early reporting to after Pentagon had been hit, both towers had fallen, and 4th flight crashed in Shamksville, PA.

https://m.

&pp=ygUbYXMgaXQgaGFwcGVuZWQgc2VwdGVtYmVyIDEx

Whoever put it together seems to love Bush and Guliani, but 99% of the video is straight mews as it was being broadcast.

I found it fascinating but also it brought up to me how innocent things felt before vs. what occurred in our country in the aftermath.

[Sympthsical]

18. 9/11 was when we invited the security state with an engraved invitation

And with the advance of technology, it has grown worse and worse.

We don't even care.

We got used to it.

Now people will defend it with all they have.

It's a funny world.

[Recycle_Guru]

28. I agree--and the first massive war and invasion perpetrated by the US

still no one convicted of those war crimes

[Demsrule86]

19. I vote January 6th...while 9-11 had a much greater loss of life...the Republic was not endangered.

We came damn close to losing our Republic and the rule of law. This would have killed many more people than 9-11 in the end. It would have begun with killing the Clintons and the Obamas. God knows where it would have ended.

[Recycle_Guru]

20. I agree..one thing that made it less shocking

is I was well prepared for all manner of criminal attempts such that I took the day off from work specifically to watch the certification of electoral votes.

I had also seen Trump trying to get people to DC for the big event.

Despite my knowledge of bin Laden and terror threats--9/11 was a complete shock to my system.

[Demsrule86]

26. It was the second attack. The first ocurred during the Clinton administration.

I was shocked but not as much as an attempt to destroy our Republic...nothing has ever shocked me more than seeing our capitol ransacked by scumbags led by Trump...racist, homophobic, piece of crap. I should add that I believe Trump would have killed more Americans than the number that died on 9-11 had he succeeded.

[electric_blue68]

21. Almost a tie between Bush v Gore, Drumphf's Election & J6...

The first two changed the whole direction of our country.
J6 potentially would have (temporarily*) destroyed our Democracy. (*and then the fight to restore it!)


As a born & bred NYC'r who between '80-'81 worked in South Tower 2 73rd flr NE corner (what a glorious view) that when you look at the jet exploding out of that building it was a floor or two "above us" (the NYS office moved out waaaay before that) - so I know what that drop looked like for those trapped at that area making an unfathomable choice; but I still rank the events above above this.
It was unbelievably horrifying, and Surreal!

Yes, 9-11 did change the country seriously for certain things security related issues. It did make life difficult, even deadly for the ?98+% of moderate Muslins living their lives here, and those perceived to be so.

But the above changed so much more imho.

I'd say, though, that still the assassination of Sen RFK truly altered the direction of our country in uncountable ways that still echo today.

[Recycle_Guru]

22. good points--I purposefully didn't go that far back

or I could have easily included JFK, RFK, MLK assassinations

plus throw in Watergate break in and Nixon resignation.

[electric_blue68]

23. I get it...I guess (depending on your age) it's like a quiet corner of..

Political, and personal PTSD for many of us. And Dr King

JFK was a later realization - at 10 yrs old, of course, assassination was wrong but what was lost I didn't understand till years later.