I worked as a maintenance guy around 1986 or '87. Back then you could smoke in the mall and they had ashtrays inset in every trashcan lid. We used to go around with our bare hands and remove the cigarette butts. By today’s standards the thought seems insane.
I remember someone shot a bunch of soap into the fountain and it made bubbles ten feet high before someone turned off the pumps.
It’s eerie to see it like this and in Stranger Things.
Mostly it is because of gerrymandered districts. If you come from a safe district you can be as crazy as you want to be and you don’t have to compromise.
Gerrymandering is a “both sides” thing for sure but I will in no way excuse the Republican need to systematically dismantle our democracy by undermining institutions and fomenting divisive culture war wedge issues to the point of violence. Democracy works best when everyone is involved so the Rs can choke on a bag of dicks when they start gargling about voter suppression under the guise of “election integrity.”