I disagree with Coates. We are already lost.

What’s at Stake in This Election? The American Democratic Experiment
Trump’s former director of national intelligence on how to firmly and unambiguously reassure all Americans that their votes will be counted.

By Dan Coats

"Our democracy’s enemies, foreign and domestic, want us to concede in advance that our voting systems are faulty or fraudulent; that sinister conspiracies have distorted the political will of the people; that our public discourse has been perverted by the news media and social networks riddled with prejudice, lies and ill will; that judicial institutions, law enforcement and even national security have been twisted, misused and misdirected to create anxiety and conflict, not justice and social peace.

If those are the results of this tumultuous election year, we are lost, no matter which candidate wins. No American, and certainly no American leader, should want such an outcome."
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/17/opinion/2020-election-voting.html

There is no question who Coates is speaking of in that first paragraph. It's Vlad's favorite candidate. The man Putin hoped would sow discord from within. He couldn't possibly be more pleased with Trump's performance.

These observations were written by a lifelong Repub. One who saw what was going on inside the admin first hand. He is a loyal American who is distraught at what he is seeing as all loyal Americans are. He needs to be listened to, not discounted. Because his warning is not hyperbole. This is happening right in front of us. No matter the election's outcome I believe, based on the posts of Trump supporters, that Putin has already won.

 

I have no agree...we were lost when the leftwing pushed a false narrative that somehow Russia rigged the 2016 election...and furthermore when they falsely accused the winning campaign of conspiring with them.

 

Russia, Russia, Russia!

You should be embarrassed selling this snake oil by now.

If Putin's goal was to "sow discord" then the democrats are the ones doing his bidding.

You framed President Trump, trying to convince the public he was a Russian spy, then you impeached him based on a lie.

Now you are sponsoring terrorist groups to riot in the streets. Does Vlad pay you guys?

 

All that is pretty well documented.

 

Nothing you wrote is true. But Putin is thrilled you believe it.

 

Framed?

Trump publicly declared that was what he is doing! On numerous occasions.

Trump campaign officials met regularly with Russian intelligence operatives throughout the campaign, and beyond.

Trump talked to Putin on average, once every three weeks throughout much of this year.

Trump and McConnell blocked every attempt to pass legislation to limit social media attacks by foreign intelligence led operatives.

Why? Because as Trump himself has said in public. He thinks he’s the beneficiary.

The Trumpster crowd sucked up the Russian like like catnip. And still does.

Trump isn’t a Russian spy.

But they own him .Banks associated with Russian money laundering hold the mortgages on his properties. They have done so for most of the last twenty years. No one else will lend on a Trump deal.

Trump spent much of the 2016 campaign trying to get a deal for a Trump Tower Moscow, up to, and including offering Putin a bribe of a penthouse apartment to seal the deal (during a US Presidential election campaign, no less!).

 

In essence this election is our last chance of averting our descent into "shithole nation" status thanks to the CRIMINAL MALFEASANCE of the wannabe Fascist-in-Chief.

I don't know if it is possible but I see the DETERMINATION to prevent it from happening among the Progressives. Whether there are enough of us to turn this around remains to be seen but having tried and failed at everything else NOW is the time for We the People to do the RIGHT thing.

 

Yes what the Dems did to undermine the election results is well documented.

Now we have them going a step further and using terrorism and the threat of more terror if they lose

 

I have to agree...we can not return to the Obama/Biden polices and that of the radical left wing terrorist that want to turn us into Venezula

 

There is a large faction of people in the US who will not accept the demonstrable truth of what you wrote.

That fact means we can no longer function as an efficient democracy.

Those same people are likely to see a Biden victory as the result of a "rigged" election because they believe the lies of the prez and the AG.

The GOP has been infiltrated by a conspiracy cult, QAnon. Something that was unthinkable before Trump.

What I am describing is a country on verge of dysfunction.

 

A Biden victory will not change what is the essence of our problem. 40% of the electorate is, to varying degrees, detached from reality.

We Need to Speak Honestly About the GOP’s Evolution Into a Conspiracy Cult
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/...ut-the-gops-evolution-into-a-conspiracy-cult/

 

I know that.

Many of them are the same people who fell (and continue to suck up) the scams.

Remember what every con man knows.

That the con man’s victims are always his most vociferous defenders.

Nobody wants to admit that they’ve been had.

The irony, of course, is that the Trump campaign is now throwing every tired old right wing trope at the wall, one right after the other, in a desperate attempt to keep his base energized.

 

"Unfortunately, the modern Republican Party’s abdication of seriousness, good faith and reality-based communications or policy-making has stretched even the most open-minded analyst’s capacity for forced balance. Donald Trump’s own inability to string together coherent or consistent thoughts has led to a bizarre normalization of his statements in the traditional media, as journalists unconsciously try to fit his rambling, spontaneous utterances into a conventional framework."

 

If you are worried about Russia then Joe Biden should worry you. He can be bought fairly cheap.

 

I certainly disagree with Coats concerning the News media, especially cable news. Fox has become nothing more than the Republican Party propaganda wing with both CNN and MSNBC playing the propaganda wing for the Democrats. I haven't watched any of the over the air news for 20-30 years, so I can't speak of them.

Then there is our modern era of polarization and mega, ultra high partisanship where it seems to be both major party are putting the good of their party above the good for the country. We've entered a political era where each major party thinks the other party is out to destroy this nation. That the other party is this nation's number one enemy.

There is either no or very little public discourse. By that I mean a discourse where both side talk and listen to the other and don't immediately start calling other names like socialist, communist and racist with closed ears as to what the other side is saying. It also seems to me there has been a great attempt to mute the other side of any political debate or argument. To basically shut up those with differing political views.

Mail in voting, different in my opinion that absentee voting. Basically in the numbers. Here in Georgia we have had an average of a couple of thousand absentee ballots state wide, now we're expecting 3 million. That's 3 million that signatures have to be verified, addresses also along with receiving the ballots prior to the deadline which is three days prior to election day. Will one or the other side insist on counting those ballots received after the deadline? I have no doubt of it. What a mess we're about to enter into.

Yes, we're lost already. We're lost because it has become much more important to be a Republican or a Democrat than to be an American. It's loyalty to party, not the nation. We're lost big time.

 

The Democrat Party is not being infiltrated by a cult of conspiracists. The Democrat Party is not full of people who pledge their blind loyalty to an inveterate liar. The Democrat Party does not deny science. The Democrat Party has not engaged in a propaganda campaign from the WH regarding the dangers posed by COVID. Members of the Democrat congressional caucus did not ignore the overwhelming evidence of Trump's guilt during the impeachment proceedings for the sake of their electoral fortunes.

I believe you have engaged in a false equivalence by equating one party with the other.

 

We have been damaged...but it's not too late to turn back.

If Trump is not removed from the Oval Office...it WILL be too late.

In four years you will be hard pressed to see daylight between this country and the world's biggest mafia state...Russia

 

I don't think so. I think blind partisanship is at play with your reply. But to each his own. I will agree that around 80% of Republicans give or take are showing blind loyalty to Trump. But approximately the same percentage show the same blind loyalty to Obama, now Pelosi and Schumer since they don't hold the presidency as of now.

History shows that blind loyalty party faithful has. An average of 90% of those who affiliate or identify themselves as Republicans and democrats will vote for their parties candidate regardless of who he is. I will also admit Obama was very tactful, had manners, was very presidential whereas Trump is crass, uncouth and about as unpresidential as one can get.

But the hate was there for Obama from the GOP just like the hate is there from democrats for Trump. I come to the conclusion that most party members just follow their leaders like mindless robots. My opinion anyway.

 

I'm not getting this at all. If Trump wins the election, democracy is over? That's absurd.

 

At this point a couple of sparkly marbles would do the trick.

 

Absurdity is the Left's bread and butter.

 

All is lost, the battle cry of the DNC

 

The DNC would have us believe ONE MAN can ruin the U.S. all hail hyperbole Even Mr Obatard couldn't accomplish that with FULL support of the MSM and Washington anointing his feet!

 

Even if Trump loses what is going to change the dynamic of the roughly 40% of the voting electorate believing in demonstrably false myths? Believing in conspiratorial nonsense like the deep state, or that Mueller's report was a hoax, or that Trump gives a damn what happens to the country. Or not accepting science? Or complacently watching Trump try to cheat his way to victory?

Many, many, many times I have said democracy's survival depends on an engaged, informed electorate that participates in the system. That is not happening. What changes to make it happen when a powerful media cohort lead by Faux seeks to misinform its audience every day.

 

If we turned back the clock a mere twenty years what Trump has done over the last 3 1/2 would have him polling below 30%. Maybe below 25%. Not that he ever would have been elected in the first place.

The point being his supporters exist in a parallel universe of right wing media's creation. When he is gone that media cohort will remain. Seeking to entertain its audience in any way that works, irrespective of the truth or the facts. If that means lying about Biden, his son, about climate, about the debt, about anything they have proven they will do it.

Society is dependent on common beliefs, trust, a recognition that a fact is a fact. The fabric of this society is, I fear, frayed beyond repair.