"It will take generations to fix the damage" - Fuck that defeatist noise!

[maxrandb]

I keep hearing talk of fucksticks "legacy" and "import" and "impact", usually within the hand-wringing "oh woe is me" it will take "generations"....

Fuck all of that!

This is the United Fucking States of America.

Fixing this fucked-up shit, will take us about as long as it takes to clean dogshit out of the grooves of our tennis shoes.

It took us 7 years win our freedom from England...6 if you count the Paris Treaty as the end date.

We kicked Germany and Japan's ass in a little less than 4 years.

Hoop Skirts lasted about 6 years.

The Pet Rock and Cabbage Patch Kids were a "phenomenon" for less than a year.

We lived Gangum Style for about 6 months.

We dubstepped for a couple months.

Anyone still have their "Google Glass"?

Are you on "Threads"?

No, this doesn't require us fucking "generations".

All it requires is voters showing up in enough force to send this MAGAt shitshow to the ashes of history.

I guaran-fucking-tee you...this fucksticks legacy is going to be remembered by how quickly all the shit he's done is destroyed and forgotten.

His entire misadministration is about as significant as that dog shit on our shoes. A scrubby pad and soap and water is all it takes to clean it out.

[leftstreet]

1. The Patriot Act is almost 25 yrs old

Thought we were getting rid of that

[Bluetus]

5. I think the point is that it isn't just Trump we have to get rid of.

Last edited Tue Oct 28, 2025, 02:18 PM - Edit history (1)

We have to get rid of hundreds of politicians (sadly in both parties) who have stood by silently for 30+ years as this fascism crept its way into power.

The fascists forced the reasonable Republicans out of their seats. But the Dem bystanders are mostly still protecting their cushy seats while all this is going on.

It is not totally bleak. We have around 100 solid progressives in the House today. Unfortunately they are not represented in leadership; worse, leadership does everything in their power to kneecap the progressives at every opportunity. But we have an opportunity in 2026 to take the progressives into the solid majority of the Dem caucus. From there, we can start rebuilding trust with the American people.

In other words, the goal for 2026 must not be simply to take a numeric majority in the House so that the same old leadership can continue to do what they do. The goal should be to elect at least 125 progressives in the House while taking the majority, and then standing up a truly progressive leadership team that Americans can relate to. An aggressive order, but very definitely achievable if the DNC doesn't work overtime to kill it.

And let us not kid ourselves. Without those ~ 100 progressives in the House, there is no way Dems would be standing firm on this shutdown issue.

[leftstreet]

6. I heard the same thing about Bush

Sr and Jr

"It's not just about them and their policies, what we have to do is..."

The point of the OP was timeliness, and not feeling defeated about rescinding bad policies quickly

But the policies always seem to stay with us

[creeksneakers2]

27. That's playing into the Fascists game.

We need people who can win. Progressives rarely do. That's why leadership doesn't go along with you. Please help us stop the Fascist takeover and don't sabotage us again.

[Bluetus]

35. There are about 100 progressives in the House today,

and most of them won without much help from the DNC, which almost always sides with the status quo candidates.

I agree with you that *WE* have to win. We have been doing piss-poor job of winning with that attitude of "every district is different -- every candidate is a free agent" When do we get to try a different way?

[creeksneakers2]

40. When you come up with something that will work.

I don't know where this DNC not backing progressives comes from. I imagine they target the districts where they think they can make the most difference. If your candidates are from districts we have in the bag or where we are extremely unlikely to win they shouldn't put all our money there.

They aren't supposed to pick winners and losers in primaries.

[EYESORE 9001]

2. People will die as a result of allowing this madman to run amok

Buildings and institutions and treaties can be restored, but life is gone forever. I hope there’s a cosmic tally going on.

[GusBob]

3. Tell that to Native or Black Americans

Natives still struggle from the genocide and the Carlyle schools and destruction of their culture

Slavery? Shoot, that may be making a comeback

Dont get me started on Measles, which was eliminated right? Or COVID, that put a whack on younger generations to date

And then there is the issue of climate change

Losing respect is like losing your virginity, one and done

Loss of freedom? MAGA just getting warmed up on that

[GreenWave]

4. Agreed!

[raccoon]

7. If Trump sees this, he'll want to change the name of the country to "the United Fucking States of America."

[maxsolomon]

8. In 9 months, the Federal Bureaucracy has been decimated and purged of competent professionals.

Apparatchiks have replaced them. That is a fact.

The Federal Judiciary has been stocked with lifetime-appointees that are nakedly partisan. That is a fact.

Those are generational problems.

[sop]

13. Imagine what Trump will do in the next three years.

I wouldn't be surprised if Trump outlaws all protest, does away with elections, deports his political rivals, dissolves Congress and declares he has the power to execute anyone who dares criticize him.

[maxrandb]

36. That is simply NOT true

I served 30 years in the Navy, and another 7 as a Civil Servant.

While the heads of agencies are being staffed with nutbag sychophants, I happen to know quite a lot of the folks that are still doing the job they were hired to do. President Biden also staffed a lot of Federal judges. I don't think they are nakedly partisan.

Take the military. Everyone seems to think it's a bunch of knuckledragging MAGAts. The truth is, about 1/3 are Retrumplican, 1/3 are Democrats and 1/3 just don't frickin care and only ask that we don’t screw it up.

The vast majority of those "bureaucrats" you speak of, are professional, hardworking, patriotic Americans.

They are the "helpers".

[maxsolomon]

37. Why put "Bureaucrats" in quotes?

My post didn't slander Federal employees. Bureaucrat is not a pejorative term to me.

Decimate means 1 out of 10 removed - that seems accurate to the mass firings that DOGE and Russell Vought carried out.

[Orrex]

9. Republicans will fight tooth and nail

To prevent any mitigation of trump’s policies, so it’s not simply a matter of repairing the damage; it’s about overcoming resistance by a deeply entrenched and deeply invested enemy.

[swong19104]

10. You neglected to mention

that we still haven’t cleaned up the mess that started the Civil War, 160+ years ago. Rewiring the cranial circuitry of MAGAts will require education for the kids while patiently waiting for all those over the age of 18 to die off. And in the meantime, somehow stem the tide of MAGA-leaning immigrants coming over to exercise their “liberties”.

[littlemissmartypants]

11. We need unity. More than ever. 🇺🇸❤️🇺🇸

[edhopper]

12. We are losing generations

of people with expertise. Information and history is being erased that cannot be easily recovered.
It will not be fixed quickly. Those who say it will take years to undo it are correct.

[Cirsium]

14. Yes, it will take generations

The problem is not some people are supposedly overestimating the damage, but rather that so many are underestimating it.

[maxrandb]

34. I am NOT underestimating the damage being done

I am just tired of folks pretending this is some type of permanent reset, or the path we are on with no off-ramp.

It is going to take unity, sweat and a return to decency. Above all else, that return to decency may be the hardest thing.

I just believe that America has faced tough times before, and we have overcome them.

Part of the reason we have is, despite their flaws, our founding documents provide a framework and a map to justice, freedom, equality and preservation of Democracy.

What we can't do, is behave like this is our new "normal" and we need to "nibble around the margins".

We need to be as bold, scorched earth and extreme in defending our Constitutional Democracy, as the Retrumplicans have been bold, scorched earth and extreme in destroying it.

[Cirsium]

39. Why?

It may very well be that some type of permanent reset is needed, or that the path we are on has no off-ramp. Denying that those things may be true is tantamount to underestimating the damage being done, in my view.

America has faced tough times before, and we have overcome them - I am hearing Ronald Reagan's voice doing some sort of rah rah patriotic short film, sorry. I always wonder who the "we" is in that construct.

Despite their flaws, or as a result of them, our founding documents provided a framework and a map to justice, freedom, equality and preservation of Democracy that has utterly collapsed and has led to MAGA and the nightmare in which we are now living.

I absolutely agree that we can't behave like this is our new "normal" and think that we merely need to "nibble around the margins". As I said, it may be that some type of permanent reset is needed, or that the path we are on has no off-ramp.

Yes, we need to be as bold, scorched earth and extreme in defending justice, freedom, equality and democracy as the Republicans have been in denying them.

[Initech]

15. We survived the War Of 1812, two world wars, a Civil War and a Great Depression.

We can and will defeat and overcome MAGA and worldwide fascism.

[kimbutgar]

16. When reign of terror of the tuckfrump is over he will be synonymous with all evil dictators in history.

And those with his name might have to change it. He will cause so much destruction but we the people can fight back and stand up to the fascists.

[NNadir]

17. An optimist, refreshing. We lived through James Buchanan I suppose,

...and perhaps we can live through worse.

History however, seldom behaves as predicted.

[BannonsLiver]

18. It's going to take more than rah rah and pep rallies to fix this mess.

[LuvLoogie]

19. MAGA is a trend that started over 500 years ago on this continent.

The entire indigenous population and culture was destroyed or criminalized and their descendants enjoy existing as easily demonized vermin along with the kidnapped and abused Africans and their descendants in preservation of the American Way.

Liberty and Justice was never for all.

[muriel_volestrangler]

20. The thing is, there are millions of Americans who voted for the fuckstick 2 or 3 times

and in many states, they form a voting majority. Those people have to shunned, their children taught how their parents are bad people who should be blamed for the hate, and the morals of those states need complete rewiring. It's as least a big a job as recovering from Jim Crow and segregation. Just when that seemed to be succeeding (eg the election of Obama), the bigots rose up again.

[BaronChocula]

21. I'll drink to your optimism

It's still the a.m. so I'll make it coffee, but I'm also tired of the narratives of doom.

[2na fisherman]

22. Some great calamity may be needed

Unfortunately, I fear that some global catastrophe is required to wake enough people up from the delusions of Us vs Them political solutions. As long as people talk as though being "woke" is a bad thing, many will continue to sleepwalk into the abyss never awakened to the perils they unwittingly welcome to "own the libs." And judging by the daily headlines, it seems that things will get a lot weirder before they get better. And the greater this degree of destruction becomes, the work to make things better may take that much longer. But if everyone works together, we can surely fix the damage in less than a generation.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. And another thing - consider the billionaires who are supporting Trump right now

They can't get voted out. Unless a genuinely socialist government was suddenly created out of nowhere in the USA, they're still going to hold enormous power. They'll just select another rabble-rouser to front the fascist policies they want.

To get their power diminished, the funding of politics in the USA needs completely changing - which needs a more egalitarian Supreme Court than the USA has ever seen. That means a minimum of 2 of the 6 out of the SC gone (and they won't resign - that'll have to wait for them to die of natural causes) and the appointment of judges radical enough to persuade the current 3 sensible justices to overturn the Citizens United decision. Plus reinstate the Voting Rights Act rules about not gerrymandering a Republican majority in a purple/light blue state. In fact, a constitutional amendment for fair voting is pretty much needed.

Yes, that's generational.

[Maru Kitteh]

24. HA! Signed, every female in the United States.

[creeksneakers2]

25. I don't expect them to go quietly.

They have their Unitary Executive Theory so if we retake Congress I expect them to declare Congress unable to stop them. Then things hit the next level.

[aeromanKC]

26. Germany came back, so to can America.

Unfortunately, MAGAt's have no shame like the Germans did and I will not live to see America be De-Trumpified.

[markodochartaigh]

28. I'm a retired registered nurse.

When people are diagnosed with cancer they respond differently.
Some people want a clear-eyed scientific understanding of what they face and how to deal with it.
Other people need constant positivity, approaching cancer as a foe and needing a cheering section.
Neither way is the only way for everyone at all times.
If you need to approach the cancer in US politics and society by minimizing it, and this is the way that you stay motivated, then that approach is correct for you.
It isn't correct for everyone to look the enemy in the eyes with steely-eyed determination and charge forward.
The important thing for all of us is to find the approach that gets us to the polls, that gets us on the streets in protest, and that gets us to talk with friends and neighbors.

[Scrivener7]

33. This is the best answer ever! Clearly different people deal in different ways. There is a posse here that

comes out like clockwork to denigrate those who deal differently than they do. It's asinine. Usually the denigration includes accusing realists of being "defeatist."

To them, I will say it is possible for you to deal the way you deal without insulting those who deal differently. Give it a try.

[elleng]

29. Enough 'fuck's here, does anyone think?

[Martin Eden]

30. It may be difficult to fill the ranks of public servants

After having their lives upended, having to move and change career path, I can understand reluctance to take another chance something like that won't happen again.

Some will go back who did not find good jobs, and hopefully young people just starting careers will be encouraged to enter public service.

It may not take generations to restore what's been destroyed, but I highly doubt it can be done during the course of the next administration.

And remember, Republicans will do everything they can to obstruct every step of the way.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

31. "fix America with this one weird trick!" uh huh

It will take a lot more than simply voting

[Atreus]

32. 👏👏👏 1000% THIS.

I, too, am so sick of the “it’ll take generations” handwringing like we’re some helpless toddlers waiting for time itself to fix what a pack of grifters broke. FTS!

We’ve been through worse, and we’ve fixed worse, because that’s what we do. Americans don’t sit around sighing into their lattes about how bad things are; we roll up our sleeves, grab a damn scrub brush, and get to work.

This isn’t generational trauma, it’s a GD mess. And messes get cleaned the F up. The stench fades, the stain lifts, and life moves on. MAGA’s “legacy” will last exactly as long as it takes to wipe their fingerprints off the rocks from under which they crawled.

We’ve rebuilt entire continents. We’ve landed on the moon. You think we can’t bounce back from a few years of orange-tinted idiocy and fascist cosplay? Please.

This isn’t the end of America. It’s the end of their delusion that they own America.
Soap. Water. Elbow grease. Done.

[snot]

38. I personally believe

that our biggest problems are complex and that quick fixes for them are few.

But the biggest hurdle is that so few people who want constructive change can take the time needed or are otherwise equipped to dissect the complexity.

E.g., I believe that the massive consolidation of MSM ownership in the wake of the Telecom Act of 1996; the repeal of Glass-Steagall; the decisions not to regulate credit derivatives and, after the GFC of 2008, to regulate them weakly; the chronic failure to enforce existing antitrust law; the defunding of the SEC and other regulatory agencies; the failure to pass the ERA; the frequent, massive increases in the national debt in order to finance wars of little benefit to anyone other than oligarchs; the massive reductions in the taxation of the 1%; the concerted takeovers by conservatives, often without serious opposition from liberals, of school boards, university boards, and charitable organizations' boards; the decision not to treat cell phone communications as entitled to Fourth Amendment and other Constitutional privacy protections; the failure of the courts to prohibit governments from using threats or the promise of profits in order to induce contractors or other private parties to carry out censorship, surveillance, and other actions that those goverments could not Constitutionally carry out directly themselves... I consider almost any of these factors to have been far more important contributors to our current misery than most of the causes and cures I see more widely discussed.

But that doesn't mean we should throw up our hands and give up. It means that those of us who have the time to read the news, share, and perhaps even take action should also try to make sure we understand the complex, often systemic causes of our problems.

We can't all work on or even understand all of them; but all we need is for each of us to gravitate toward the one or few topics that we're most interested in and best equipped to analyze, and work on those.

My 2¢, for what they're worth.