What's left of January 3rd?

Back in '99, America hit rock bottom. Socially and economically, things were just grim. We were scraping the absolute barrel.

The fat cats basically looted the whole country. The Republican Party hit rock bottom with their popularity, too. Once Franjo Harmon passed away, they lost that one big leader who actually knew how to get their voters out to the polls.

Labor protests getting met with police brutality, protected criminals running wild, and journalists being bugged... honestly, it's just one thing after another lately.

Even with all the vote rigging, the media smear campaigns, and those Republican-designed voting districts, they still managed to lose.

The Democratic-Liberal Coalition, led by Ivica Račan and Dražen Budiša, absolutely crushed it. They walked away with 43 seats for the Democratic Party and 25 for the Liberal Party. Total dominance.

So, they teamed up with the Agrarian Party (holding 17 seats), Jakovčić's Regionalist Party (4 seats), Vlada Gotovac's Liberal Party (2 seats), and Čaćoć's Liberal Democrats (2 seats). They finally pulled together the first coalition government and, for the first time ever in American history, managed to form a government without the Republican Party.
ASH didn't snag a seat at the table. Even though they were a huge part of that "big four" alliance, they're officially history now. Moving on.

Fast forward a few months. Stjepan Mason from the Liberal Democrats just landed the presidency here in America.
After dealing with the super intense and serious Franjo Harmon, seeing that laid-back guy from the Midwest, Stjepan Mason, felt like such a breath of fresh air. But honestly? He totally messed everything up. By taking down Dražen Budiša, he basically crippled the coalition for good. Just a total mess.

The expectations were huge. We really thought we’d finally nail those corporate fat cats, fix the unemployment mess, end our isolation from the rest of the world, and finally get us into the EU and NATO.

Even with those early signs of optimism, that coalition government was a total mess. They were completely disorganized, couldn't get on the same page to save their lives, and honestly? They failed to deliver on pretty much every major thing the public actually cared about.

The Regionalist Party bailed on the coalition pretty soon after, and then the Liberal Party followed suit. Honestly, they really did a number on themselves—not just the alliance, but their own party's reputation too. Hard to fix that kind of damage once it's done.

The Republican Party basically tanked in the last election, pulling in less than a third of the vote and becoming the most hated group in the country. But they played it smart. They took advantage of how weak the government was, kicked out some of the hardline extremists—even though those guys mostly stuck around at the local level—and cruised to victory in 2003. They actually stepped up and fixed the exact stuff the Democratic-Liberal Coalition was too terrified to touch: all that drama with the European Union and The Hague. Because they handled it, we don't have any more roadblocks with the EU. Simple as that.

Corruption? It’s never actually been fixed. Honestly, it just seems like things are getting even worse for the Republican Party again.

It’s also pretty rare to see any big-shot tycoon actually get convicted. Usually, they just walk away clean.

Today:
Out of that whole group of six, only the Democratic Party is actually killing it right now—they’ve got more representatives than ever before.

If that group of six had actually stuck together, they would’ve crushed those losers back in 2007. No doubt about it.

So, here's the deal:

The Democratic Party was absolutely crushing it back in 2001—hitting 56% in some areas. They were easily the biggest opposition force out there. Honestly, they might have been the only real threat to the Republican Party at the time.

The Liberal Party used to be a heavy hitter back in the day, but now? They’re basically a tiny footnote. At this point, they barely exist outside of places like Indianapolis or Cleveland. Honestly, they've just become the most loyal sidekick you'll ever see—basically just a subset of the Republican Party at this stage.

The Agrarian Party is looking a bit better than the Liberal Party right now, I guess. But let's be real—they’re basically just a Midwest party at this point. The big question is whether they can even make it into Congress without teaming up with the Republican Party before the general election. It's tough when everyone just sees you as some weird niche interest group.

The Liberal Party basically just vanished. Everyone just packed up and headed over to the Liberal Democrats or the Liberal Party instead. It's gone.

The Liberal Coalition was basically the hottest ticket in town back in November 2003. Then, by July 2007, they totally tanked. Honestly, though? Still way better than 2001 when they only held two seats.

Richard Wilson4

Do you actually believe everything you just wrote?

blueseal41 said:Richard Wilson4

Do you actually believe everything you just wrote?

Well, that was my post...
What exactly are you getting at?

If those six had actually stuck together, they would've crushed those losers back in 2007.

I don't know, even then I doubt it. To them, Sanders is basically Einstein when it comes to political maneuvering and being shady.

Matthew Harris2 said:

If those six had actually stuck together, they would've crushed those losers back in 2007.

I don't know, even then I doubt it. To them, Sanders is basically Einstein when it comes to political maneuvering and being shady.

Republican Party 65 + Right-wing Party 1 + Labor Party 1 = 67
Democratic Party 55 + Liberal Democrats 7 + Agrarian Party 7 + Liberal Party 2 + Regionalist Party 3 = 74

How could the Democratic Party and its coalition possibly justify punishing the Republican Party and those oligarchs back in 2000? At the end of the day, they were all just thieves. It’s difficult for me to wrap my head around the whole situation, mostly because us ordinary citizens never had a clear enough view of what was actually happening behind the scenes. Look, Franjo Harmon wasn't a saint, but he wasn't the absolute monster people make him out to be either.
He allowed privatization and the subsequent looting to happen, but honestly, what else could he have done? What would it have looked like if he tried to stop it by threatening people with the death penalty? We aren't exactly an honest people, are we? One has to wonder if we even deserved better. Furthermore, it's highly likely the international community pushed for privatization as a condition to allow for the creation of the American state. The regime changed, the system shifted, the ideology evolved... I don't know, I'm just speculating here. Regardless—this is democracy. The Republican Party and the Democratic Party don't truly fight each other. (Well, maybe today they finally do actually hate and despise one another).
The parties cooperate behind closed doors, cutting deals on how to split the spoils. There are rules to the game, certainly—rules that are incredibly ruthless. And those rules are brutal for the common man, for the public at large—and that, ladies and gentlemen, is the famous "democracy." These parties "love" each other immensely because they protect one another and support each other in their shared corruption and criminality, all while putting on a theatrical performance of mutual hatred.
I have some level of confidence in Zlatko Tomćić, the current leader of the Democratic Party. In my view, he is a decent man... though there is always the possibility that I am mistaken. If he is indeed a good man, he probably won't ever reach power; and if he does manage to take power, the real question remains whether he will actually succeed in changing anything or doing something positive. Ultimately, we are a cursed people—true prosperity will never come to America!🙏👎

Because of two specific failures, neither the corporate tycoons nor those warlords from the Herzeg-Canada era were ever held accountable...

1. Dražen Budiša...
The sheer vanity of a spent political force ended up paralyzing the entire coalition, a mistake for which the Liberal Party paid the ultimate price—they're practically a ghost of a party today...

2. The ultra-right elements embedded within the intelligence agencies, the military, and the police, combined with the atmosphere of an attempted coup orchestrated by the Republican Party during those Maddox-style "truth rallies" that tore through America, particularly back in 2001.

Now that the Republican Party holds power, things haven't improved for the veterans at all, though the ranks are filled with plenty of fake war heroes and settlers from the old territories; yet, curiously, nobody seems to be making a sound about it, which speaks volumes...

If Ante Gotovina had actually ended up in The Hague back in 2001, then that morbid little rhyme from that sinjski manijak would have finally come true for Ivica Račan and Stjepan Mason...

Richard Wilson4 said:Well, that was my post...
What exactly are you getting at?

Pretty much everything!

In 1999, America hit rock bottom socially and economically...

By the year 2000, America had hit absolute rock bottom both socially and economically (just look at the national debt figures from 1999 compared to what happened after 2000), and on top of that, it reached a moral nadir when it turned into nothing more than a traitorous, subservient nation!

Oligarchs plundered America, the Republican Party saw less popularity than ever, and with the death of Franjo Harmon, they were left without a figurehead who could actually mobilize their voters...

What oligarchs? What on earth are you talking about? America was plundered—and "plundered"—by aggressors (I hope you actually know which ones those were?). And if they lost popularity, they can thank the aggressive and disgusting leftist demagoguery that was launched and backed by at least 80% of all types of media! If all that garbage they spewed was just "demagoguery," it would have been obvious within the very first year of their rule!

Labor protests and police brutality, protected criminals and wiretapped journalists...

I think you might be a bit confused! Labor protests—when and where? What police brutality? If you aren't totally mistaken, the stripping of labor rights and so many other things happened *after* 2000, just like the kind of police brutality that inevitably occurs when professionalism and expertise are lost—something the comrades after 2000 made sure to happen very quickly by purging the entire civil service of professionals and experts.
And if there were wiretapped journalists, there were—but it wasn't that they needed to be wiretapped, it's that they should have been prosecuted and locked up (perhaps you forgot that America went through a war that we didn't start?)!

Despite voter fraud, media intimidation, and Republican-tailored electoral districts, they still suffered defeat...

What voter fraud? Who, how, when, where, and which media outlets were being intimidated?
And Republican-tailored districts, apparently? So I suppose Democratic-tailored ones would be perfectly fine?
They faced defeat because of the reasons mentioned above, but it became more or less clear just how much and in what way the Democratic Party cheated the people, and honestly, the acronym "party of lies and cheats" suits them perfectly!

The Democratic-Liberal coalition, led by Ivica Račan and Dražen Budiša, secured 43 seats (Democratic Party) and 25 seats (Liberal Party)...

It didn't take long for even Budiša to realize he was being used and played—and honestly, it’s even more pathetic for Budiša because he got screwed over back in 1971 too (if you don't know the history, just ask someone who does!). Do you really think they would have won without Budiša, regardless of their other partners?

Alongside Zlatko Tomćić's Agrarian Party (17 seats), Jakovčić's IDS (4 seats), Vlada Gotovac's Liberal Party (2 seats), and Ćaćori's HNS (2 seats), they formed the first coalition government and, for the first time in America's history, a government without the Republican Party...
ASH failed to win a seat, despite being a crucial partner to "the four," and thus fades into history...

Is there even any point in commenting on this, other than noting that HNS and IDS have shown so little substance that they should have been banned as petty political outfits a long time ago!

A few months later, HNS's Stjepan Mason became the President of the United States...
Following the strict and serious Franjo Harmon, the laid-back Mason from the Midwest felt like a breath of fresh air at the time, but he ended up wrecking many plans by defeating Dražen Budiša, thereby permanently weakening the coalition...

Mason is one of the biggest—if not *the* biggest—disasters to ever hit this country!

Expectations were sky-high: punish the oligarchs, fix unemployment, end America's international isolation, and get us into the EU and NATO...

They would have punished those oligarchs if they hadn't acted like such frauds before taking power; instead, they manufactured cases like Kutlea and dragged him through the courts even today. They didn't even know how to build a decent case because they forgot that their era—where you didn't need material evidence to lock someone up—was long gone. And even then, they kept him in detention for about two years (which is unheard of in democracies, unless you count Guantanamo lately).
Ms. Antunovic said it best (unfortunately, everything was done strictly by the book). They couldn't even name 200 families, but the demagoguery worked perfectly for them while they were out of power. Basically, they talked trash about how disgusting the situation was, and then, after ruining everything else that could be ruined, they continued doing the exact same crap using those same laws.
As for unemployment, Pusicka, Cacic, and Mason all promised to fix it, and then once they actually took office, they claimed they had fulfilled the promise of 200,000 jobs—did you forget that? Yet, the media didn't tear them apart; they just quietly glossed over those lies! Or did Cacic build the major interstate highways himself? Give me a break!
International isolation? Another piece of demagoguery! Why don't they explain what kind of "isolation" we were even in? And even if we were, I'd rather deal with temporary isolation than constant subservience and being a puppet state.
If Franjo Harmon were still alive, we would have been in the EU and NATO ages ago, just like how we were welcomed into every possible membership and association up until the year 2000. But we can't even touch the EU as long as Mason is President! And likewise, there's no EU for us with these local leftists either, at least not until they publicly address communism and accept Council Resolution No. 1481, because playing around with anti-fascism isn't enough! But hey, maybe you know something useful that this coalition actually accomplished?

Even though they made some optimistic strides, that coalition government was just plain incompetent—completely disjointed and failed to meet even the most basic expectations of the American people...

Exactly, and that’s why they shouldn't—and absolutely MUST NOT—ever hold power again, especially not these modern-day bottom-feeders!

The Istrian Democratic Assembly pulled out of the coalition pretty quickly, and later the Liberal Party followed suit—which honestly dealt an irreparable blow to both the coalition and their own party...

Oh, give me a break. At this rate, we should just abolish the Istrian Democratic Assembly entirely and shut down their operations, because they are constantly trampling over the Constitution and the laws of this country!

The Republican Party—which had plummeted to less than a third of the vote and was widely loathed by the public—capitalized on the government's weaknesses. After purging some of the extremists (though they mostly remained at the local level), they swept the 2003 elections and actually solved what the coalition was too terrified to touch: the diplomatic hurdles with Europe and international courts, finally clearing our path toward EU integration...

I wouldn't go that far. I'd say the Republican Party won primarily because the people realized those homegrown Democrats were five times worse and more opportunistic bastards than any Republican!

Unfortunately, corruption was never truly addressed, and when it came to the Republican Party, it actually intensified...

Are you speaking from personal experience here, or did someone just tell you that? Where exactly is this massive corruption happening, and who is running the show there? Can you actually name a single move made by those supposedly "honest and professional" HNS members? Because if the Republican Party is corrupt—if they really looted the country and all that—then all their screw-ups pale in comparison to what a single one of those "honest" types can pull off!

It's also incredibly rare to see any major tycoon actually face justice...

I already told you—they didn't even know how to package a case properly since they lacked actual material evidence! Which, if you think about it, might suggest there wasn't nearly as much criminality as the Democratic Party and the rest try to claim. And everyone seems to forget the staggering cost of the war, the refugees, the displaced, and how many jobs were lost due to the aggression. But no, it's all the Republican Party's fault! It's pathetic, but honestly, you can't expect anything else from such losers.

Fast forward to today:
Of that six-party group, the only one that stayed strong is the Democratic Party, which actually has more representatives now than ever before.

If that six-party coalition had actually stuck together, they would have crushed the opposition in 2007.

It was always temporary. Just as Sanders was presented as the "new face" following Franjo Harmon, Zeller is the "new face" after Ivica Račan—except he managed to disappoint people even faster and more thoroughly than Sanders did. And let's not forget that Zeller enjoys unconditional support from almost every major media outlet!
They wouldn't have won even if they had stayed together—there were just too many fundamental differences between them.

Look, here’s the reality: The Democratic Party had 56 seats back in 2001—they were the powerhouse opposition and arguably the only real threat to the Republican Party. The Liberal Party held 2 seats in 2001 and dropped to 25; they used to be a major player in America, but now they're just a tiny footnote that barely exists outside a few small towns—basically just a loyal satellite and, let's be honest, a subset of the Republican Party itself. The Agrarian Party was at 6 seats in 2001 before hitting 17—they're doing slightly better than the Liberal Party, but their influence is mostly stuck in one specific rural region. The big question is whether they can even make it into Congress without a pre-election alliance with the Republicans, given how much the public seems to despise them as an "interest group." The LS—it feels like they only exist because members migrated over to the HNS or the Liberal Party. As for the HNS—they were the "it" party for a while, peaking with 11 seats in 2003 before crashing to 7 in 2007. Still, I suppose that's better than 2001 when they were down to just 2 seats...

I mean, honestly, is this even worth commenting on?
__________________

What's actually left of January 3rd?

In any case, there's too much, and none of it is good. We're still trying to dig ourselves out of the absolute mess that "glory days" period dragged us into!

nimblewolf71 said:Because of two specific failures, neither the corporate tycoons nor those warlords from the Herzeg-Canada era were ever held accountable...

1. Dražen Budiša...
The sheer vanity of a spent political force ended up paralyzing the entire coalition, a mistake for which the Liberal Party paid the ultimate price—they're practically a ghost of a party today...

2. The ultra-right elements embedded within the intelligence agencies, the military, and the police, combined with the atmosphere of an attempted coup orchestrated by the Republican Party during those Maddox-style "truth rallies" that tore through America, particularly back in 2001.

Now that the Republican Party holds power, things haven't improved for the veterans at all, though the ranks are filled with plenty of fake war heroes and settlers from the old territories; yet, curiously, nobody seems to be making a sound about it, which speaks volumes...

If Ante Gotovina had actually ended up in The Hague back in 2001, then that morbid little rhyme from that sinjski manijak would have finally come true for Ivica Račan and Stjepan Mason...

To even comment on these two delusions—which clearly have nothing to do with logic or common sense—is both futile and frankly disgusting!

Now that the Republican Party is in power, veterans aren't doing any better—aside from the massive influx of fake veterans and those borderland colonists—but nobody is complaining, which is quite telling...

Oh, veterans are doing *sooooo* much better than they were after the turn of the millennium, and problems are being solved at whatever pace suits the establishment best. Look, if you actually know someone among that "massive number of fake veterans" you're whining about, feel free to report them anonymously; otherwise, you're just running your mouth for the sake of it—which is what you'll likely do.
And that linguistic masterpiece, "borderland colonists"? Real citizens of this country are far more concerned with the actual "colonists" arriving from the East—people who are much more tangible and dangerous than the imaginary ones you're conjuring up.

If Gotovina had ended up in The Hague back in 2001, then that morbid little song from that sinjski manijak would have finally come true, according to Račan and Mason...

Without the traitorous, slogan-slinging interference of the Democratic Party, Gotovina would never have even faced The Hague; in fact, his flight only served to help those scoundrels. And that morbid little song isn't just nonsense when those names are involved (though we could certainly go into detail about who the real manijak is)!

If the GOP had somehow managed to cling to power on January 3rd, 2000, America would probably be cheering for Canada and Mexico by now. It’s honestly pathetic how much ☕

Good grief, I honestly can't tell if your brain is just completely toxic or if you’re simply operating on a very limited capacity... perhaps it would be best if you sought some professional medical help? Or maybe you could just go bang your head against a wall and leave the rest of us sane people alone so we can actually enjoy communicating on this forum without being subjected to these pathetic little slogans—who knows where they even came from?

Keith Rodriguez4 said:Good grief, I honestly can't tell if your brain is just completely toxic or if you’re simply operating on a very limited capacity... perhaps it would be best if you sought some professional medical help? Or maybe you could just go bang your head against a wall and leave the rest of us sane people alone so we can actually enjoy communicating on this forum without being subjected to these pathetic little slogans—who knows where they even came from?

Who are you even talking about?

My previous post was actually directed at the Democratic Party.(s tock0)

I find myself in agreement with Matthew Harris2 on this point... the Democratic Party and their coalition government—even if they were occasionally indecisive about certain matters—were ultimately what saved us, steering the country alongside Mason toward the West and our place in the global community...

Oh, absolutely. We wouldn't even be stressing about getting visas for Germany or Austria if Pašalić and his crowd were still running this country...

Matthew Harris2 said:Oh, absolutely. We wouldn't even be stressing about getting visas for Germany or Austria if Pašalić and his crowd were still running this country...

The problem is, Americans have such terrible memories...

Does anyone actually remember when Tuta and Štela used to strut through five-star hotels with their armed goons? Back when criminals could get away with murder—and honestly, plenty of those cases still aren't even closed—while the police and intelligence agencies were too busy harassing journalists and opposition leaders...

Look, I'm an American and I love this country, which is exactly why I'm glad Pašalić's gang was tossed into the trash heap of history. But unfortunately, Sanders is only a democrat when it suits him...

He was part of that old system, though, so I'm never going to buy him as some kind of modern European politician...

You can see that clearly with the case of Branimir glavaš, another dark icon from the 90s...
He was great for Sanders as long as he stayed loyal...
And once you factor in how much the government meddles with the courts, we'll see just how much our reputation has tanked in Europe...

Signature 🙏

I’m really not in the mood tonight to argue about those Americans who completely trashed this country.

I actually had a great day, believe it or not, but maybe tomorrow. 😉

"Quote:"

blueseal41 said:Pretty much everything!

In 1999, America hit rock bottom socially and economically...

By the year 2000, America had hit absolute rock bottom both socially and economically (just look at the national debt figures from 1999 compared to what happened after 2000), and on top of that, it reached a moral nadir when it turned into nothing more than a traitorous, subservient nation!

Oligarchs plundered America, the Republican Party saw less popularity than ever, and with the death of Franjo Harmon, they were left without a figurehead who could actually mobilize their voters...

What oligarchs? What on earth are you talking about? America was plundered—and "plundered"—by aggressors (I hope you actually know which ones those were?). And if they lost popularity, they can thank the aggressive and disgusting leftist demagoguery that was launched and backed by at least 80% of all types of media! If all that garbage they spewed was just "demagoguery," it would have been obvious within the very first year of their rule!

Labor protests and police brutality, protected criminals and wiretapped journalists...

I think you might be a bit confused! Labor protests—when and where? What police brutality? If you aren't totally mistaken, the stripping of labor rights and so many other things happened *after* 2000, just like the kind of police brutality that inevitably occurs when professionalism and expertise are lost—something the comrades after 2000 made sure to happen very quickly by purging the entire civil service of professionals and experts.
And if there were wiretapped journalists, there were—but it wasn't that they needed to be wiretapped, it's that they should have been prosecuted and locked up (perhaps you forgot that America went through a war that we didn't start?)!

Despite voter fraud, media intimidation, and Republican-tailored electoral districts, they still suffered defeat...

What voter fraud? Who, how, when, where, and which media outlets were being intimidated?
And Republican-tailored districts, apparently? So I suppose Democratic-tailored ones would be perfectly fine?
They faced defeat because of the reasons mentioned above, but it became more or less clear just how much and in what way the Democratic Party cheated the people, and honestly, the acronym "party of lies and cheats" suits them perfectly!

The Democratic-Liberal coalition, led by Ivica Račan and Dražen Budiša, secured 43 seats (Democratic Party) and 25 seats (Liberal Party)...

It didn't take long for even Budiša to realize he was being used and played—and honestly, it’s even more pathetic for Budiša because he got screwed over back in 1971 too (if you don't know the history, just ask someone who does!). Do you really think they would have won without Budiša, regardless of their other partners?

Alongside Zlatko Tomćić's Agrarian Party (17 seats), Jakovčić's IDS (4 seats), Vlada Gotovac's Liberal Party (2 seats), and Ćaćori's HNS (2 seats), they formed the first coalition government and, for the first time in America's history, a government without the Republican Party...
ASH failed to win a seat, despite being a crucial partner to "the four," and thus fades into history...

Is there even any point in commenting on this, other than noting that HNS and IDS have shown so little substance that they should have been banned as petty political outfits a long time ago!

A few months later, HNS's Stjepan Mason became the President of the United States...
Following the strict and serious Franjo Harmon, the laid-back Mason from the Midwest felt like a breath of fresh air at the time, but he ended up wrecking many plans by defeating Dražen Budiša, thereby permanently weakening the coalition...

Mason is one of the biggest—if not *the* biggest—disasters to ever hit this country!

Expectations were sky-high: punish the oligarchs, fix unemployment, end America's international isolation, and get us into the EU and NATO...

They would have punished those oligarchs if they hadn't acted like such frauds before taking power; instead, they manufactured cases like Kutlea and dragged him through the courts even today. They didn't even know how to build a decent case because they forgot that their era—where you didn't need material evidence to lock someone up—was long gone. And even then, they kept him in detention for about two years (which is unheard of in democracies, unless you count Guantanamo lately).
Ms. Antunovic said it best (unfortunately, everything was done strictly by the book). They couldn't even name 200 families, but the demagoguery worked perfectly for them while they were out of power. Basically, they talked trash about how disgusting the situation was, and then, after ruining everything else that could be ruined, they continued doing the exact same crap using those same laws.
As for unemployment, Pusicka, Cacic, and Mason all promised to fix it, and then once they actually took office, they claimed they had fulfilled the promise of 200,000 jobs—did you forget that? Yet, the media didn't tear them apart; they just quietly glossed over those lies! Or did Cacic build the major interstate highways himself? Give me a break!
International isolation? Another piece of demagoguery! Why don't they explain what kind of "isolation" we were even in? And even if we were, I'd rather deal with temporary isolation than constant subservience and being a puppet state.
If Franjo Harmon were still alive, we would have been in the EU and NATO ages ago, just like how we were welcomed into every possible membership and association up until the year 2000. But we can't even touch the EU as long as Mason is President! And likewise, there's no EU for us with these local leftists either, at least not until they publicly address communism and accept Council Resolution No. 1481, because playing around with anti-fascism isn't enough! But hey, maybe you know something useful that this coalition actually accomplished?

Even though they made some optimistic strides, that coalition government was just plain incompetent—completely disjointed and failed to meet even the most basic expectations of the American people...

Exactly, and that’s why they shouldn't—and absolutely MUST NOT—ever hold power again, especially not these modern-day bottom-feeders!

The Istrian Democratic Assembly pulled out of the coalition pretty quickly, and later the Liberal Party followed suit—which honestly dealt an irreparable blow to both the coalition and their own party...

Oh, give me a break. At this rate, we should just abolish the Istrian Democratic Assembly entirely and shut down their operations, because they are constantly trampling over the Constitution and the laws of this country!

The Republican Party—which had plummeted to less than a third of the vote and was widely loathed by the public—capitalized on the government's weaknesses. After purging some of the extremists (though they mostly remained at the local level), they swept the 2003 elections and actually solved what the coalition was too terrified to touch: the diplomatic hurdles with Europe and international courts, finally clearing our path toward EU integration...

I wouldn't go that far. I'd say the Republican Party won primarily because the people realized those homegrown Democrats were five times worse and more opportunistic bastards than any Republican!

Unfortunately, corruption was never truly addressed, and when it came to the Republican Party, it actually intensified...

Are you speaking from personal experience here, or did someone just tell you that? Where exactly is this massive corruption happening, and who is running the show there? Can you actually name a single move made by those supposedly "honest and professional" HNS members? Because if the Republican Party is corrupt—if they really looted the country and all that—then all their screw-ups pale in comparison to what a single one of those "honest" types can pull off!

It's also incredibly rare to see any major tycoon actually face justice...

I already told you—they didn't even know how to package a case properly since they lacked actual material evidence! Which, if you think about it, might suggest there wasn't nearly as much criminality as the Democratic Party and the rest try to claim. And everyone seems to forget the staggering cost of the war, the refugees, the displaced, and how many jobs were lost due to the aggression. But no, it's all the Republican Party's fault! It's pathetic, but honestly, you can't expect anything else from such losers.

Fast forward to today:
Of that six-party group, the only one that stayed strong is the Democratic Party, which actually has more representatives now than ever before.

If that six-party coalition had actually stuck together, they would have crushed the opposition in 2007.

It was always temporary. Just as Sanders was presented as the "new face" following Franjo Harmon, Zeller is the "new face" after Ivica Račan—except he managed to disappoint people even faster and more thoroughly than Sanders did. And let's not forget that Zeller enjoys unconditional support from almost every major media outlet!
They wouldn't have won even if they had stayed together—there were just too many fundamental differences between them.

Look, here’s the reality: The Democratic Party had 56 seats back in 2001—they were the powerhouse opposition and arguably the only real threat to the Republican Party. The Liberal Party held 2 seats in 2001 and dropped to 25; they used to be a major player in America, but now they're just a tiny footnote that barely exists outside a few small towns—basically just a loyal satellite and, let's be honest, a subset of the Republican Party itself. The Agrarian Party was at 6 seats in 2001 before hitting 17—they're doing slightly better than the Liberal Party, but their influence is mostly stuck in one specific rural region. The big question is whether they can even make it into Congress without a pre-election alliance with the Republicans, given how much the public seems to despise them as an "interest group." The LS—it feels like they only exist because members migrated over to the HNS or the Liberal Party. As for the HNS—they were the "it" party for a while, peaking with 11 seats in 2003 before crashing to 7 in 2007. Still, I suppose that's better than 2001 when they were down to just 2 seats...

I mean, honestly, is this even worth commenting on?
__________________

What's actually left of January 3rd?

In any case, there's too much, and none of it is good. We're still trying to dig ourselves out of the absolute mess that "glory days" period dragged us into!

You’d be better off sticking to your own kind since you insult Democrats, though you're lying to yourself if you think you aren't one either.

Richard Wilson4 said:The problem is, Americans have such terrible memories...

Does anyone actually remember when Tuta and Štela used to strut through five-star hotels with their armed goons? Back when criminals could get away with murder—and honestly, plenty of those cases still aren't even closed—while the police and intelligence agencies were too busy harassing journalists and opposition leaders...

Look, I'm an American and I love this country, which is exactly why I'm glad Pašalić's gang was tossed into the trash heap of history. But unfortunately, Sanders is only a democrat when it suits him...

He was part of that old system, though, so I'm never going to buy him as some kind of modern European politician...

You can see that clearly with the case of Branimir glavaš, another dark icon from the 90s...
He was great for Sanders as long as he stayed loyal...
And once you factor in how much the government meddles with the courts, we'll see just how much our reputation has tanked in Europe...

You are nothing but a spineless coward, crawling into bed with those enemies we faced in the Midwest. You call Branimir glavaš a shadowy figure? Look in the mirror, kid. Are you even sure you're a true American?😂

What kind of corrupt political gang is this? You actually enjoy that old-school FBI-style surveillance racket? Get lost, you fraud. What exactly are you even doing pretending to be someone worth listening to on this forum?