I appreciate @ericvancewalton's heartfelt plea for change in the US. But I agree with @intothewild, @ladyrebecca, @honeydue, and @clumsysilverdad. The US can't be saved.

Ultimately, the best way to deal with the decline of the US is to leave it. If you can't leave it, it's best to stay off of Facebook (where nasty political arguments are everywhere), don't watch the mainstream news channels, and get an online job (to avoid all of the onerous labor laws that keep you from getting enough hours).

For several reasons, participating in politics is not the answer. First, elections are held between candidates that have media support. If a candidate doesn't get media coverage, he/she has no chance of winning. But the media will only support a candidate that has huge fundraising totals. This leads to elections between candidates that advocate similar policies, since they are all funded by the same people.

Second, the most popular elections are for the Presidency. But the electors for the electoral college are not chosen proportionally and there is no runoff. So a candidate can win with a plurality of the vote. In other words, even if the majority of people in a single state vote against a particular candidate, the candidate can still receive 100% of that state's electors, as long as the people who voted against him were split over who to replace him with. This is how Trump won Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida in 2016.

In this kind of an environment, it only makes sense for candidates to be as extreme as possible. The more extreme you are, the more you fire up your base and get them to the polls. Trying to build a "big tent," on the other hand, is a waste of time because you don't need a majority to win, just a plurality.

I would change my mind if I saw a candidate that had enough financial support to win but was also trying to build a big tent. So far, I don't see that happening. Some say Howard Shultz is that guy. But he hasn't said enough yet for anyone to know whether that is true or not. So in the meantime, I still think its best to stay out of politics, avoid the news, and make plans to leave the country.