People I talk to are universally shocked at how easily Trump walked over almost every institution in American politics. Think about it. In just short of three years he has virtually eliminated any obstruction to business doing as it damn well pleases and is committing atrocities every day.

This was easy for him because both parties have similar goals, except for social policy stuff that they identify with to keep us divided. On economics, where the rubber of government meets the road of our lives, they are in sync. Obama promised us universal healthcare and an end to forever wars. With a complicit Dem majority in Congress, he gave us an insurance industry wet dream for healthcare and expanded Bush’s two wars to seven while supporting major cuts to both Social Security (that isn’t in any trouble) and Medicare.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering how Trump managed to mobilize so quickly in his border war against brown children, it was because Obama placed the infrastructure needed long before Trump decided to run. He was, and still is, the deportation king, and yes, he separated families in the process. The bulk of blowback from Clinton’s foreign policy in Central and South America just didn’t hit as soon as predicted so Trump got to deal with the refugees that policy of imperialism and intervention created.

You are 100% correct in your assessment that nothing will change if we change nothing. I’m with you and will not give my vote, the only leverage I have, to another neoliberal corporate puppet, Republican or Democrat. If the “vote blue, no matter who” crowd wants to be assured of electing a Dem they should get behind Bernie, or any “true” progressive of their choice. Then, and only then, can we get on the same page to beat Trump and create real change that will be necessary to save our democratic process and reverse climate change. One does not solve problems with the same (neoliberal) policies that created them, so I feel no regret in my decision.