(01-31-2017, 11:50 PM)RandomGuy199 Wrote: I do think the Western World should be a bulwark against authoritarianism. However, to be taken seriously in that role, there must be no more support of dictatorships simply because they hate someone we also hate. For example, one of the reasons the US is still widely despised here in Latin America is because of the numerous democratic governments they toppled, and the dictatorships they installed and supported: the ones in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Uruguay killed thousands of dissidents and "disappeared" many more while the ones en Guatemala and El Salvador brutally persecuted their political opponents and perpetrated genocidal campaigns against indigenous peoples. That US mindset that they have a divine right to topple any government they want if it doesn't bow to US interests must disappear.

As an American, I could not agree with you more on this. It is one of the darkest chapters of American history, comparable to slavery and Japanese internment during the Second World War. When I think about that part in your comment that I put in bold, I think about Mohammad Mosaddegh, a man who was democratically-elected to be the Prime Minister of Iran. However, Eisenhower's CIA and Churchill's MI6 went in and overthrew him to install the Shah. Flash forward to 1979 and everyone knows what happened. To this day, we still have a hostile relationship with an undemocratic Iran. I view Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill in the greatest respect when it comes to their leadership during the Second World War, but their postwar actions are just deplorable. My government once supported apartheid in South Africa and viewed Nelson Mandela as a communist terrorist. This is inexcusable and I believe apologies are in order for all of these actions.

However, I believe that there is light at the end of the tunnel (that is on the condition that the tunnel doesn't collapse before we get there). I find that the Millennial generation, which outnumbers the baby boomers, are the most peace-loving, pro-democracy generation you can find. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a Millennial myself. If we define Millennials as those born 1980–2000, we will be at our strongest in 2020, when all of us will be eligible to vote. We can change the tide by removing Trump from office, assuming he's not impeached by then. But even then, Mike Pence is terrible. The Democrats need to form a grassroots movement like the Tea Party. We saw that kind of movement with Bernie Sanders. I know, a number of the Clinton Democrats are still pissed, blaming Sanders for challenging her, but, as a Bernie Democrat myself, what did they expect? Clinton didn't deserve to be handed the Democratic nomination on a silver platter. How do they think I feel when WikiLeaks put out emails from the chair of the DNC, who actively campaigned against Bernie?

What needs to happen is you find a candidate who isn't moderately-far-left (Bernie) or center-right (Hillary). We need a candidate that is center-left, one that can reconcile both the Bernie and Hillary Democrats. The truth of the matter is, the Democrats need Bernie Sanders for the grassroots (he won Wisconsin and Michigan) and we need "the establishment" for their money. Yeah, I hate the big donors. However, since the Citizens United Supreme Court decision, we are playing by their rules. We'll take their sword and use it against them. However, the grassroots needs attention first. State legislators, governorships, and congressional seats are up for grabs before 2020, and we need every last one of them. When the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, minorities who vote Democratic were targeted by discriminatory voter ID laws passed by Republican state legislatures and governors (North Carolina and Wisconsin). The Census is coming up in 2020 as well. With that comes redistricting, and that means gerrymandering by the Republicans. We need to stop that in its tracks. The Democratic Party needs to get busy, right now.