Go somewhere where you can avoid all of it.

I spent the month of July in a small town in Cuba and heard absolutely no news of the USA; and when I returned I realized I hadn't missed a thing.

I feel exactly the same way...and I'm not even American. Try figuring that shit out.

I feel your pain.

On some level, I really loathe the idiots who vote for these despicable criminal liars.

I don't think it will effect me personally that much (perhaps health care and overall recession... oh yeah, and global warming). I'm sure I can adjust and thrive. But if people want to vote against their own interests -- southern patriots want to vote for the guys who will send their sons and daughters to death in war, factory workers who want to vote for them to send their jobs overseas, elderly want to vote for the people who want to slash their benefits and health care coverage.... and on and on, perhaps they deserve what they get?

A cruel thought, I know, but sometimes it occurs to me that these people are digging their own grave: bankrupting and destroying the country and hurting themselves. The party that wraps itself in the flag is actually pushing the country off a cliff to its ultimate decline. America is really becoming a second class country and will fall behind an ascendent China, India, etc.

I lament what is happening and fight to stop it. I hope for a better day and will never give up.
But I know I don't have the power to prevent other people from a grave mistake. If the scoundrels win, perhaps we can conclude that people get the government they deserve: angry, stupid, corrupt, ruthless, abusive, authoritarian.

At least this is my thought in dark moments of the soul.

From HL Menken:

When a candidate for public office faces the voters he does not face men of sense; he faces a mob of men whose chief distinguishing mark is the fact that they are quite incapable of weighing ideas, or even of comprehending any save the most elemental — men whose whole thinking is done in terms of emotion, and whose dominant emotion is dread of what they cannot understand. So confronted, the candidate must either bark with the pack or be lost... All the odds are on the man who is, intrinsically, the most devious and mediocre — the man who can most adeptly disperse the notion that his mind is a virtual vacuum.' The Presidency tends, year by year, to go to such men. As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

Not trying to bring people down, just a little venting.

Jane:

Take heart and have faith in God if you are religious, or in the observable progress of humanity that history shows if you're not. Human history is filled with what appears to be critical "good versus evil" battles.

Today's events and stakes are nothing new. In fact, they seem quite tame compared to just some recent history. An example is WWII. Just imagine how uncertain the future looked against Hitler and his Nazi war machine.

Or, how about the cold war where digging a back yard fallout shelter became a new consideration for families. Going just a bit further back, look at the U.S. civil war. Think of the stakes involved at each of those times. Yet, here we are, ahead of where we were. Certainly not as far as we might like to be, but always ahead.

I suspect that events looked as uncertain and highly troubling to every past generation as they do to ours today. It seems that it's only when we look back over a broader arc of time that we an see the definite (if sporadic) advancement of humanity.

I know, humanity seems to consistently fall on its face. But it seems to me that our falling moves us (through whatever guiding hand) consistently forward.

So, relax. Things will work out however they need to in order move us forward. Why? Because recorded history says so.

Jane, darlin - this is not snarky or anything other than totally serious: Get offline for awhile - quit following things so closely. I promise you are suffering from too much information.

Take a break, honey - for your own sake. This stuff gets habit-forming and starts to take on more significance than it really has - the information overload and the virtual worries of people who follow the movement of every piece of information they can get ahold of.

In fact, I should take my own advice.

We're alright, Jane - think about it: Obama raised $10,000,000.00 in one night and a half a day just on her speech.

Now - go do something else for awhile, clear all the noise out of your head, and then come back.

:)

I feel you... and I have my moments but there was something if you go back and listen to Obama's acceptance speech when he says 'Enough!!' that has bolstered me now.

When the pitbull with lipstick arrived on the scene at first I felt weakened and 'concerned(i know that some kind of bad word on TPM). But then I looked at myself and realized that I am awake aware woman who is not buying into any of this bs. I hear the truth and see the lies. I have integrity and character. I see myself in Obama (not that I claim to be anywhere near his caliber etc.). I realized I am an Amazon Warrior next to this pathetic lying woman who abuses power and would impose her extreme beliefs on other women. Fear, despair, paranoia is exactly what they feed on... these dark neocon control freaks. They seeem uberpowerful but it's just no so. I suggest you look at things you see in others like Senator Obama, John Stewart, Rachel Maddow, wherever you find your heroes and own the qualities you see in them yourself.

Speaking Truth To Power can begin on an internal level. I love the way Obama is thinking many steps ahead like a chess player.. I love the way he can let things roll off (it was either the media or michelle that pointed out this teflon quality they way he doesn't sweat small stuff and stays focused on what is important).

Apparently what we focus our attention on expands so I invite you to focus on the stuff you love that's happening and feel free to get pissed off about the stupid stuff as appropriate and then just declare, yell, or shout.

Enough!!

Music, Jane. Turn on your music. And if you can, take it with you, and get outside for a walk. Sunny, stormy, rainy, doesn't matter.

Music. Walk. Sleep. All key things.

There are a lot of excellent suggestions here, but none of them will work. When I'm in the throes of a manic/obsessive/compulsive episode, one of these always turns me right.

-- Throw yourself into a crash course on do-it-yourself spleen removal.

-- Make a sacrifice to Kali. Usually a close friend or relative works best.

-- Drink a quart of castor oil.

Be sure to let us know how these work for you.

VERY IMPORTANT!!! I can't believe I almost forgot this! If you take my first option, be sure you have trained the gerbils THOROUGHLY first! Partially-trained gerbils can lead to mucus build-up, and you know what that means!

Jane: Welcome to the club of the worried well. We are like dogs who have been beaten and we are waiting for the next blow. For me, the first strike was Bush stealing the 2000 election. The second was his getting re-elected under shady circumstances in Ohio. The third has been his Supreme Court appointments. We have been conditioned to expect the worst and it's really hard to believe the worst is not inevitable. Right (and I don't mean that in the partisan sense)no longer prevails in this country. So we are anxious and waiting for that open hand to come at us again.

Take a break for awhile. I did for about a month. Helps a lot. Rent some good long movies (I recommend There Will Be Blood--watched it last night), go for long walks, get out around people going about their everyday lives. Someone else said volunteer. I coach a Special Olympics soccer team and twice a week these wonderful people bring me back to earth.

And, now it's a gorgeous day here on the Chesapeake Bay. Hanna is gone and I'm going outside to pick up the debris.

Hi Jane,

Thank you for sharing. It could have been me writing, or the rest of my family for that matter.

I think it's important to remember that even if Barack loses, the country will be in a very different place come November. Both houses of Congress will have swung decisively in the Democrats' column and the nation as a whole will settle on a new center that is significantly left of where we have stood in recent years.

With that in mind, perhaps we should be thinking about how we plan on remaining engaged after the election and how we will hold our new president and Congress, and especially the Democrats in Congress, responsible for protecting and championing the principles we share and that we are entrusting to them with our votes.

It needs to be said that whatever complaints we have about Bush's many follies, a goodly number of them would NOT HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE without the votes of scores of Democrats.

I feel the same way, Jane. I don't remember in my long lifetime ever witnessing the muzzling of an investigation right out in front of God and everybody like the McCain campaign is doing with troopergate. It's a symptom of the hubris and disregard for the law that has built up in that Party over the last 15-20 years. They feel literally like they have a divine right to power and will stop at nothing to get it. I think of them as evil and they terrify me.

TPM got me through the primaries. There were many level-headed commenters who were confident Obama would win. I don't see that confidence now and its absence adds to my angst.

If they win again we will see more bad appointments and the blockade of all further efforts to bring the guilty in this administration to justice:

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=40885&dcn=todaysnews

When the Bush administration was installed in power, they seized the legal high ground in offices all through the bureaucracy. The OSC was just one; all the agencies have counsel offices and those were filled with hand-picked partisans. Even the chief ethics officer was a campaign contributor to the senator who nominated him! All the normal watchdogs were replaced by cronies and the career officers were forced to either go along, take retirement, or be fired. The amount of damage done by these folks will only slowly come to light. If we get another republican administration, they will go free.

If any post here ever justified a sticky-post function at TPM, this would be it.

You've channeled my thoughts and feelings about this election precisely.

I guess it comes with getting older (I'll be 44 in a few weeks), but my earlier faith that, despite whatever dips and crises may occasionally occur, everything will be alright in the end has almost thoroughly dissolved away. I'm too aware now of history and the fact that things in several historical periods did occasionally go so wrong that societies have outright collapsed. Despite the great achievements of US American culture, we're not intrinsically immune from such occurences.

Obama has greatly dispelled my worst fears of impending doom, and seeing in this thread at TPM that I'm not alone has additionally fueled my hope for a better tomorrow.

How about a virtual group hug everybody?

We're a sick bunch, no doubt about it. LOL

We have the sensitivity and intelligence to know which candidate is the real thing and which is a phony, angry, blowhard and it pains us to see the polls not reflecting what to us is so obvious, that O should win in a walk. Sadly, we evidently lack the ability to be fooled by spin and are resistant to evil propaganda and false rumors. Thus we must not be 'Real Americans', according to the GOP's definition of the word.

But, take heart, the polls will change. It's just a temporary spike due to the shiny new, (but poorly vetted), 'object of their affection'.

Keep working for the goal. Don't let the GOP nonsense cloud the playing field. The issues are all on our side. Call a friend, spread the word.