[oregontim]

["Woo hoo" like hell. This is a terrible loss for all and no sane person cheers it. 
But blame Trump? Yes, damn right I do . . .  

There's a shocker!

A while back, a CNN (IIRC) anchor made a spot-on comment along lines of "Barack Obama is living rent free in your head" and directed it at Trump, who showed a bizarre obsession with his predecessor.  I think that quip can be borrowed and applied to a handful of folks in these parts:  

"President Trump is living rent-free in your head."  
The antipathy is soooo strong that it colors your entire outlook . . . on everything.

But hey, that's just my Pop Psychology 101 take, and is worth about what you paid for it!

OK, I can live with that. The antipathy is that strong. No argument. And yes to several of you who pointed out that 'we' as a nation voted him in (thanks, constitution, for the electoral college, that overvalues rural voters). And yes also to the sharing of the blame with some others ... even, Teejers, your thought ...

Where I get off the train is that it is ALL Trump's fault or even an overwhelming majority.  (But even giving him 50% of the blame ...

... because I don't see myself assigning blame to all parties, like some would-be Solomon. For that matter, that's what Trump does, and I want no part of it.

And I can also see the growth of tribalism over several decades, the rise of the cult of celebrity, the disappearance of common ground and equal time and generalized truth as accepted facts, even the unavoidable perception of decline that was really industrial competition growing back after WWII, all of that contributing to the phenomenon that is Trump.

But I have more faith in this country than (apparently) most of you. I think the failures and local level are also attributable to some extent to the failure of leadership at the top. To cite just one partial example, if Trump had jumped over to masks in April or May, and turned things over to Fauci etc., Dems had already started in with masks, and the whole nation — both sides — would have adopted masks. Trump was the deciding factor that started everything else crumbling. IMO.

[oregontim]

["Woo hoo" like hell. This is a terrible loss for all and no sane person cheers it. 
But blame Trump? Yes, damn right I do . . .  

There's a shocker!

A while back, a CNN (IIRC) anchor made a spot-on comment along lines of "Barack Obama is living rent free in your head" and directed it at Trump, who showed a bizarre obsession with his predecessor.  I think that quip can be borrowed and applied to a handful of folks in these parts:  

"President Trump is living rent-free in your head."  
The antipathy is soooo strong that it colors your entire outlook . . . on everything.

But hey, that's just my Pop Psychology 101 take, and is worth about what you paid for it!

OK, I can live with that. The antipathy is that strong. No argument. And yes to several of you who pointed out that 'we' as a nation voted him in (thanks, constitution, for the electoral college, that overvalues rural voters). And yes also to the sharing of the blame with some others ... even, Teejers, your thought ...

Where I get off the train is that it is ALL Trump's fault or even an overwhelming majority.  (But even giving him 50% of the blame ...

... because I don't see myself assigning blame to all parties, like some would-be Solomon. For that matter, that's what Trump does, and I want no part of it.

And I can also see the growth of tribalism over several decades, the rise of the cult of celebrity, the disappearance of common ground and equal time and generalized truth as accepted facts, even the unavoidable perception of decline that was really industrial competition growing back after WWII, all of that contributing to the phenomenon that is Trump.

But I have more faith in this country than (apparently) most of you. I think the failures and local level are also attributable to some extent to the failure of leadership at the top. To cite just one partial example, if Trump had jumped over to masks in April or May, and turned things over to Fauci etc., Dems had already started in with masks, and the whole nation — both sides — would have adopted masks. Trump was the deciding factor that started everything else crumbling. IMO.