Ragitsu

Hermit, I firmly believe there are substantial numbers of moderate conservatives in America, and responsible Republicans. However, they've been conspicuous by their absence on the public stage for a long time. In the GOP they were either muzzled or driven out. In the general populace they were apparently willing to tolerate the abuses by Trump and Trumpists in exchange for token nods to conservative policies.
 
It's not enough to say that both sides need to come to the table. The Left has been pushed away from the table too many times. It's now incumbent on leaders on the Right to convince the Left that they're prepared for genuine dialogue, consensus, and compromise.

I get that. However, conservative elements are in control of the country and have been for a long time with the obvious negative consequences.. And they don't tend towards centrist idealism. If anything, they tend to prod centrists towards more extreme conservatism by their rhetoric. 

With respect, I don't think "we don't want minorities or gays in America" is a "legitimate concern"...as but one example. Treating them as such leads to "appeasement" and we all know how that turns out. The progressive elements in this country bend over backwards to try to come to an understanding with the conservative elements and they just take advantage of that kindness while being as inflexible as ever. They haven't thrown out even a single olive branch while the progressive side has offered up entire damn forests. As a progressive, I feel like I'm talking to people in a soundproof room. How can we talk about legitimate concerns when conservatives aren't even willing to sit down at the table? And the implication is that it is somehow progressives' fault for Trump because we're "not listening"? Nonsense. The conservative oligarchy that runs America created Trump. That same oligarchy that cares only about wealth and power and manipulates Americans into fighting against their own best interests. Americans ate up Trump's rhetoric because the nation is at heart still living in the 18th century.

The soil of our national discourse is saturated...choked...with misinformation that allows the weed of ignorance to flourish; it is prolific and supremely difficult to extirpate. I imagine we will require at least two generations of concerted effort in filtering out the impurities and planting the seeds of education before the landscape begins to reject this aberrant growth. Of course, no real improvements can be made as long as politicians profiting off of that ugly crop keep chopping down every sapling they come across.

Nice work, Dumas.
 
West Virginia lawmaker Derrick Evans faces federal charges in Capitol siege
 
Maybe the WV House of Delegates will hold his seat until his sentence is up...

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Finally.

Security at Federal and State government facilities should be tripled for the rest of the month.  There's already planning and talk about a new wave of attacks/"protests" on the 17th.  Sedition and insurrection are no laughing matter and a threat to liberty anywhere is a threat to liberty everywhere.

Absolutely love "Vanilla ISIS." I'll have to use that.

The damage to Amerca's standing in world politics from this is incalculable.  A failed attempted coup is still an attempted coup, and other countries would be foolish to assume it can't happen here again. 

Wouldn't really call that a concession....

Also, minorities/immigrants/foreigners are simultaneously overachieving job stealers and welfare moochers.

The symbol of traitors and racism held proudly in the US Capitol.
 

Now there are reports of some police helping the protesters, opening barricades and even taking selfies with them. When I first heard this claim on TV, I had to verify this online. To be fair, more officers did their job. However, there should have been more preparation, and this was clearly a failure in security procedure.
 
Now the death toll has risen to four people.
 
Why does this get to me so badly? As Former President Bush said, this is how a banana republic disputes elections. I have lived in a dictatorship. My family came to the USA to get away from all that. Now it seems the current administration has been acting the way dictators do. It's pretty overwhelming.

Betsy DeLich?

No.
 
Don't.
 
Don't you dare tell me that Betsy DeVos is on the way out unless you mean it.

Let's call it what it truly is: treason. And terrorism. And Trump should be held accountable for inflaming his supporters to this level.
 
 
Our enemies are laughing at us right now.

Okay. 
 
I'm going to say it
If this was a Black Lives Matter protest, cops would be shooting people by now

This is utterly shameful and every protester who stormed into the building should be facing serious charges for this.  And Trump should be completely finished for this in any political sense.

The dude sounds like a mob boss when he's leaning in about those votes; fifteen more days of Trump in office is fifteen days too much.