Looking at your bio, you and I probably have a very similar outlook - we see a problem as a thing to be solved and start by assuming that a solution exists.
(I'm a mathematician who now writes computer programs for a living - let me express my admiration for your work in public transport! I've never owned a car in my life and I'm almost 60. The only reason I almost never use public transportation these days is that I bike everywhere. :-D)
However, around June 2016, probably when I was watching the US presidential debates, I had a sudden realization that after 30+ years of living in the United States and constantly hoping that there would be a solution... that perhaps there wasn't going to be any solution.
(My wife had given up on the US a long time before, but then she's an American.)
So we up and left for the Netherlands, which was ate about half my life's savings, but neither of us ever regretted.
I don't think a solution is coming. I used to write up my possible solutions every election cycle, but it was just depressing.
If there were a solution, it would start with relentlessly enforcing the laws on powerful political figures and business leaders; with a strong charismatic Democratic leader who understands that dramatic action is required; a Democratic Party that isn't ashamed of unions, of social welfare, of cutting the Pentagon back hugely.
Obama was America's last chance, and Obama totally and utterly squandered every bit of that chance. I can't even look at that man's face now without feeling resentment and contempt. And now he's lecturing everyone in his superior tone.
Of course, my feelings about Trump are far worse, but there's a special resentful you feel being stabbed in the back by your own side.
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Now the Republicans have announced they will never accept any Democratic win again and are putting people into place who will prevent any Democratic President from being sworn in.
The next time a Democrat wins, they will simply refuse to certify it, the Supreme Court will agree, the Democrats will shrug, and then that's all she wrote.
To be honest, the most likely possibility I see is this:
* Biden doesn't run again in 2024 because he's old, unpopular, and low-energy
* The Democrats run Kamala Harris, because it's "her turn".
* A black woman for President is too much for most of America.
* And progressives try to pretend to be enthusiastic about a pro-incarceration cop, but fail.
* Trump wins again.
* Things are re-organized so a Democratic win is forever impossible.
* Collapse!
I console myself by thinking that both R and D have supported decades of military atrocities, and the American people have supported them, so it's in many ways richly deserved, but then I think about all the people I care about...
