@SpikeTalon ANTIFA came about as a result of the right wing's acceptance of Nazis and Fascism. It is an indication that a line (of decency in terms of human rights philosophies) was crossed.

If you read the democratic platform, and then go back and read the republican platform brom the Eisen hower era, you'd see that whiel the republicans have gone to far right, the democrats have gone to what use dto be considered the middle right (speakign generally, not in terms of all issues).

I am not completely happy with the democrats, as they too have to deal with the way campaigns are financed and funded, where the rich and corporations have too much influence over both parties and the average voter seldom has a voice. I (generally) view it as the democrats haver half sold out, while the republicans have sold otu completely.

I do usually vote for democrats because on virtually every issue they put people before profits, whiel the replubans on almost every issue put profits before people. It is sad when much of our national policies are decided by what is most profitable to campaign donors rather than in terms of what woudl be best for the people and the country over the long term.

@SpikeTalon I too like my individuality. However, we all live in a society, whether or not we like the idea of society and group thinking or not. Even as an individual, I have to consider what kind of society i want to live in, and if we dotn' want to live in a society like Somanlia, we need to think of about society at large. (I use Somalia, because they hae small government and virtually no regulation, and pretty much emobodies exactly what most Libertarians say they want, yet none of them actually want to live there).

Also, as i am legally blind, I am well aware that virtually anyone in out society can do everythign right, and through no fault of their own, find themselves virtually unemployable. I survived due to the social safety net provided in our society. One of my cousins had a promisign future until he ws run over by a car and confined to a wheel chair for th erest of his life. My point here is that anyone can fall to the bottom of society, If it were you who fell to the bottom of society, where woudl you want the bottom to ber? It coudl just s esily be your spouse, child or other family member who experiences a fall to the bottom. Where do you wnat them to end up?

When I was young, I was a republican, because I was told they were better with economics. But Reagan/Bush borrowed their way into prosperity with record deficits and national debts. Then Clinton reduced the deficits and actually ran a surplus his last two years in office. Then the next Bush ran up record deficits once again, and the regulatins the relubicans insisted on loosening caused the banking crisis. Obama cme in and reduced the deficits by two thrids and put regulations in place to prevent the bankgin crisis from happenign again. Trump came in and once again we have record deficits and he has undone the regulations Obama put in to stop the banks from misbehaving again.

If you go bakc to the Great Depression, Hoover, a republican, insisted that the free market woudl correct the problems, but every year 1929, 41930, 1931, 1932 and uintil he left office in 1933 things only got worse. FDR came into office, and instead of lookign for shor tterm fixes, he put people to work on projects which literally built the foundations of the infrastructure that enabled the U.S. to eventually become the leading economic power of the world.

I dont' deny that republicans are good for short term profits, but they always seem to lack considerign the long term effects of their actions. Eventually, the U.S. national debt will reach a level where peopel will no longer lond us money, but republicans act liek that will never happen, ever. However at the rate that Trump has increased the national debt (2 Trillion just since taking offfice), it may happen within our lifetimes.

individuality is fine, but ignoring the society in which we live and are a part of, only hurts ourselves.

@SpikeTalon Free market capitalism has always needed regulations in order to prevent the excesses which result in a constant boom and bust economy, as experience in the U.S. from the end of the Civil War until the Great Depression, when regulations helped keep the excesses of capitalism in check. Unfortunately, pretty much starting with Reagan, republicans have undone some of the regulations, and the4y want to undo even more. We have already started a bit of a boom and bust pattern in oru economy. At the end of the last Bush administration we almost crashed the world economy.

I think the best economic system wold be a hybrid of socialism and capitalism, ala the Democratic Socialist systems in many countries in Northern Europe. It requires logn term economic planning. As it stand they have a higher average standard of living than we do here in the U.S., free healthcare, free education includign college, and they some have no national debt at all.

You are right we are animals, with instincts, and it is god to keep that in mind. I have said many times on this site that just because humans are capable of rational thought, does not mean that humjkans re rational. We tend to still act enotinally and based on feelings rather than by rational thought.

As animals, humans also evolved in groups and communities and took care of each other. Humans are, to put it bluntly "herd animals". So, the idea of society providign healthcare to those who need it rather than just to those who could afford it , to me, makes sense from the perspective ofour beign animals.

Teh quesion is whether we as animals will ever look at all humans as "people of earth" rand cork towards a common good, rather than keep dividing ourselves into competing factions. The latest UN report on climate change seems to indicate that we are out of time as a species and in about 20 years climate change will go into overdrive and in about 30 years the climate will start to turn hostile to human life. The next great extinction on earth has already started. Theonly question is if humans will survive it, and I'd say it is very doubtful. That doesn't mean it isn't worth working towards that small possibility though.

If one looks at ancient abandoned cities, in virtually almost all cases they were abandoned becaue they destroyed the resources around them and it became too much work to keep them up as livable places. Unfortunately we onlyu have the one planet. We can't move over a couple of valeys as has been general practice when humans had destroyed theri local ecologies.

I just think if humans do make it though it wont' because everyone struck out with the idea of every man for himself. It will be because people work together to get through it and help each other, because as in the historical past of humans, working together in groups is a better survival strategy.