I remember when... not too long ago...

Our government worked. Yes, yes, of course there have always been problems and disagreements (and riots and crimes and all the rest). But Democrats and Republicans actually worked together and delivered laws that made our lives better. We had no established religion in our nation so all religions thrived. We listened to our conscience and challenged hate speech and racism. We questioned the wars we had been in and ended one that was without end. We regulated banks and corporations. We respected education and the educated. People could send their children to school and expect the next generation would do better than the last. The American dream seemed to be working.

And then something broke.

Now we have people insisting that a shutdown of the government is a good thing. (To teach us not to rely on the government? The very thing we as a nation organized and paid for with our tax dollars to work FOR us?)

We have people insisting we are a Christian nation. (No. We are not. And I don't think you guys have thought it through. Exactly WHICH Christian religion are you going to establish as the one true religion? .... Check out Europe's history for the consequences.)

We have people who are feeding the flames of hatred of anyone who has brown skin, a 'different' name, an 'odd' religion. Often these are the same people who claim they are Christian. Hate is in. (Do you think Jesus would recognize these people as followers?)

We have people denying rapid global climate change as the permafrost melts and methane clouds fill the atmosphere, as floods get worse, snow gets deeper, deserts get larger... and people die. (But Al Gore is fat and he wears beige!)

We have people who mock the educated and education in general, yet have an embarrassing lack of knowledge about the history of our own country, about science and why the word 'theory' is used, about other cultures and countries about the world. (But they're keeping it real!)

We have people in government who lie, change their minds, lie about that, lie again. Even when their own words are played back to them, even when YouTube runs loops of their malfeasance, they will deny all and lie. Because there are people who will ignore all facts and all proof and decide they must be telling the truth. (And your side never lies to you, right?)

We have people who are actually corporations. Mega-monolithic-multi-billion dollar corporations who pollute and contaminate and poison and kill their customers with indifference and greed. And no one holds them accountable because of the money. (Money controls everything.)

And these people are now in power.