[af_vet_rr]

I don’t think we survive another 2 years.

People were saying this in 2008. This nation has survived worse, and as long as the Republicans in Congress don't just roll over for the Democrats, we'll survive another four years.

[Lou Budvis]

Thank you for your common sense. The New Deal and Great Depression was much worse. Hell, tax rates were higher under Ike than under 0bama.

[Verginius Rufus]

We now have some inkling of what it was like to be in Rome in 216 B.C. when the news came about the disaster at Cannae. The Senate sent a message of thanks to the surviving consul from that battle, for not despairing of the Republic.

When Obama was elected in 2008 I was afraid the country would soon become a Venezuela or Zimbabwe, but the American people showed a lot of resilience (Tea Party, recapture of the House of Representatives from the Evil Party in 2010). We have survived 4 years, even if badly damaged. Presidents are usually less successful in their second term than in their first (Jefferson, Cleveland, Wilson, FDR, Nixon, and GWB come to mind). Can we mimimize the damage for four more years and hang on until 2017?

I don't know the answer. Maybe we have reached the point of no return. But for the moment I would like to think of the character in Monty Python who shouts "I'm not dead yet!"