So, we've killed a woman with an IQ of 72. Does that mean we've prevailed? Has justice prevailed?
"Who are we?" I wonder at a time like this. Who have we become?
And, according to many polls and many media outlets, the populace is "fed up," "angry," and we're going to get a new set of leaders - perhaps a newly (redundantly) minted party in power - come November. Because "the country" doesn't like "the direction" we're "headed in."
But "the country" didn't like "the direction" we were "headed in" in November of 2008. That's why "the country" elected Barack Obama, along with a Democratic majority (not that a majority means anything anymore). So, "the country" still doesn't like "the direction" we're "headed in," even though it's a very different direction than we were headed in two years ago. And, as a result of not liking this direction either, "the country" seems ready to head us right back where we were headed before.
This, my fellow Americans, is insanity.
What people don't like, I think, isn't so much "the direction we're headed in," as where we've arrived at. Yet, here we are, just the same.
I have a few questions for those who are disappointed enough to crave a reversal of course after less than two years of different tactics (less, because though elected in November 2008, the current administration didn't officially take the reins until January 2009).
1) Did you really think that undoing eight years of viciously one-sided, often inept, and largely misguided governing could be accomplished, painlessly, in less than 24 months? (Even with a fractious ruling party, and relentlessly obstructionist opposition? Really?)
2) Did you think that the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression could be skipped over, and rebounded from, with little cost, and less pain than has already been suffered, in less than 18 months?
3) Do you really think that anyone, anywhere, could solve the most crucial problems so understandably bothering you - horrific unemployment, outrageously bloated deficits, and a massive government bureaucracy designed to feed itself before serving you - any more quickly?
4) Did you really think that any new leader, or administration (without a 2/3 majority needed to overpower filibusters) could attack unprecedented problems without making compromises, without making any errors?
If you answered "yes" to any of those questions, I think you're either an infant, or a fool. (My guess is that most fall into the former category.)
My answer to the first question I posed, "Who are we?", is that we are a nation comprised significantly of children. (My working definition of "child" being "one who lacks maturity, patience, and understanding beyond his or her immediate needs and desires.") And my message today is, "Grow up."
We have one of the lowest tax rates of any westernized, industrialized nation - yet you think your taxes are too high.
You want your nation to be at war (at least most of you did when the wars started) - but you don't want to have to pay for those wars.
Many of you were delighted to buy houses that you had no realistic way to afford - but you don't want to be kicked out of them when you can't make the payments.
Many of you are angry at your neighbors for buying those houses they had no way to realistically afford, and you're angry at the government for offering assistance to them - but you also wouldn't tolerate watching the value of your own house plunge even more than it already has, which is what inaction would have allowed.
You want all the services your government provides, when you need them - but you don't want to be taxed for them; and you don't want anyone else to have them, before you get them yourself.
You want your groceries to be inexpensive (and they are among the least expensive in the world) - but you don't want any of those "illegals" in your area.
You want all the services your government provides, when you need them - but you also want your taxes to go down every single election cycle (and you'll vote for whoever promises that to you).
You want your government "out of your pocket," and "out of your life" - but as soon as someone or something bigger than you comes along to squash you (like a corporation spewing toxic material, or an insurer who won't provide coverage, or a terrorist organization targeting your airline), you want to be protected.
You're enraged that more jobs haven't been created - yet you've already called the president a socialist, and he didn't even create a government funded, WPA-style work program. (Which would put a lot of people back to work.)
And let's not forget, we (still) have one of the highest rates of infant mortality and avoidable adult deaths - but you believe the health care you have access to is "the best," and that it shouldn't be changed.
These are delusional contradictions. They are contradictions that exist only in the minds of children, and madmen.
Which one are you? Really. I'm curious today, America. I'm curious Americans, as (some of) you herald the newly hatched "Pledge to America." Which one are you?
Of course, there'll be anger at these statements and questions. There'll be those who leap to accusations of insensitivity. "Easy for you to say," some will contest. "You've got a good paying job, while we work ourselves to the bone (if we're lucky enough to have work) and are still unable to make our payments."
I don't mean to be insensitive to anyone, individually. But, as a group, I have to ask, what did you expect? Many of you voted for an insincere and incompetent administration two times in a row. Many of you wanted to be led into war in two separate, mindbogglingly distant destinations simultaneously. And many of you insisted on having your taxes cut, and your bosses' taxes cut (and his or her bosses' taxes cut) at the same time. Many of you want all those taxes cut again.
Did you think those things you voted for could be accomplished free of charge? Just how low did you imagine the cost would be, when you were told there would be a cost? How naive were you allowing yourself to be, if you thought there would be none, or that it would be paid by someone else? Who else, exactly, other than you and your friends and neighbors, did you think would be picking up the tab? The Bush family? The Cheneys? Blackwater? Halliburton? No, they were the providers of the services you ordered. On credit. The providers got paid long ago. Now the creditors have arrived to collect the bill. From you. With interest. That's the way it works in a grown up world. You pay for the goods you've received.
If you're unhappy with the cost today, I'd suggest you protest more strongly the next time someone wants to sell you a war. And a tax break. Simultaneously. Which is what the wretched "Pledge" is now offering, again.
Any buyers?
The 2008 presidential campaign contained at least some talk of difficult times ahead. I wonder what that means to most Americans. Apparently, if the current election predictions come true, it means less than 10% unemployment, for less than two years. I'm not an economist, but I've got got a prediction I feel pretty confident about. Things are not going to improve economically, to any significant degree, for many more years to come. And bouncing back and forth between the reasonable (though debatable in its details) emergency economic actions recently taken, and the same insane measures that led us into our recent disasters, isn't going to make it happen any more quickly. Of this I am certain.
Let's talk about that word I just used. Disaster. Do you agree that's what we've been through recently? A disaster? A series of them? (If not, please take a seat in the back of the room.)
If you do agree, then how severe, and how long lasting, do you think the repercussions of a disaster are likely to be?
If you said, "Hmmm... probably quite a number of years. Maybe even a couple of generations," then please stay where you are.
If you said, "Oh, a few months at most!", then please join the people in the back who don't think we've even been through a disaster in the first place.
Okay, where are you sitting?
If you're in the back, I think you've still got some growing up to do.
For God's sake, America. The bombs you wanted to drop (which were bought with credit cards), but don't want to have to pay for, are raining down on civilians across the globe from you. But you're crying because your very new president bailed out General Motors - saving the jobs of tens of thousands of your neighbors. (There were two choices: bailout with controlled bankruptcy, or uncontrolled bankruptcy. Do you think things would be better if they'd gone the other way?)
Your fury is uncontainable over the stimulus money spent. But, without it, we'd be in a depression right now.
You're irate that the government has "taken over" your health care. But yesterday was the first time in your life, or your children's lives (or your parents' lives, or their parents' lives), that you can't be denied health insurance on the basis of a preexisting condition; that your kids have the right to stay covered on your policy until they're 26; and that there will be no lifetime maximums for reimbursements of your condition. It's the first time insurers are required to cover your costs for colonoscopies, mammograms and immunizations without copayments. Is it free? No. But you are now better protected from further disaster.
I'm not claiming any of these things are perfect, or were accomplished perfectly. I've got plenty of complaints and disappointments of my own (someone please give the Democrats a few lectures on Salesmanship 101) . But does no one remember that the difficulties facing any new administration in 2008 were considered to be nearly insurmountable? Are you really going to claim, because oceans of problems still exist, that nothing has changed, or that change hasn't come fast enough? Are you really going to conclude that the new solution is to go right back to the same old ways? Or, to sit home on election day, and allow that to happen?
The fact is, as a nation, we have sustained. We have not thrived. Many have suffered. Many will continue to. But the country has not sunk. That, in itself, is a remarkable accomplishment.
Is it a good campaign slogan? "We Didn't Sink!" Will it be enough to get a majority reelected? Maybe not. But only children direct fury at those who've performed admirably, if imperfectly. All because they didn't get what they want, no matter how unrealistic their wishes might be.
Evan is the author of "It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive."
EvanHandler.com
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In other words, the democrats have been in control of the legislature for 4 years and have accomplished nothing except bloated the government to extremes. Personally, I blame Pelosi. Reid hasn't had a clear thought in decades.
Those of us on the Left are rightfully angry because candidate Obama was slain by President Obama who has turned his back on all the promises we were expecting.
We didn't expect instantaneous change but we did expect an actual effort at change.
The only "instant" we got was instantaneous capitulation in the face of (at the time) no opposition. Why are the Republicans so willing to embrace the mantra of "NO!" even before the policy is laid out? Because the Obama administration has shown that it is willing to enter any negotiation from the weakest possible position and state up front that they are willing to capitulate to any demand without even hearing it.
Couple this with the fact that the hospital and health insurance corporations wrote health care "reform" as well as the Wall Street corporations writing financial "reform" and we see that Obama the corporatist is a happy continuation of Cheney the corporatist.
Ralph Nader and Chris Hedges warned us what we would get and they have been vindicated.
Both these men are in a firm position to say "I told you so", though they would rather direct their efforts to putting forth ideas that will help the American people in their (losing) battle against the corporations that run the lives of everyone on this planet.
Don't whine at me that I should give Obama "more time". What exactly has he done to prove that he has earned that time?
I've taken to calling Obama "Fool Me Once", cause he sure ain't gonna get the chance to fool me twice!
I taught 11-12 year-olds for the past ten years, and have been fascinated with a set of correlations I can't ignore: American adults are reflecting - very accurately - the attitudes, emotional problems, and intellectual ineptitude typical of middle school children.
American advertising hovered around these conditions since the 1960s. The enormous influence of pictorial content is a staple of advertising since the 1930s. The influence of multiple exposures to a given picture is the core of magazine advertising and translated effectively to television.
When we watch commercials, pictorial content drives the message, and adding comforting or exciting music enhances it greatly, followed by mini-dramas and comedies that cement the connection and entrap viewers into the mindset and memory package desired by the advertiser. Does it make sense that a product is the best for us, because we like a presentation of a brief cute, funny story?
"We are cute and funny, so our product must be good for you." What kind of sense is that? Juvenile sense, the way boys and girls attract one another.
Have you noticed the progression of musical accompaniment in commercials? Years ago music was chosen strictly for its appropriateness to the content of the product message, and was aimed at adults, utilizing styles and forms mainly adult in choice. When the boomers - whose taste centered on rock and roll and guitar flavored pop music - became adults, it followed them into the main fare of commercial music.
We went from adult fare to teen fare. Interestingly, not much of the next generation's music of choice, rap, has been adopted for commercial use. Instead, there has been another jump backward in age, to music of the kind used to entertain younger children, the age of five or so.
Whether this movement is a leading factor or a reflection of American taste and attention patterns is not at issue, but the movement itself, backward in age factors, is of great importance.
We have made ourselves into a nation of children, as pointed out in Evan's article. We think as children, we feel as children, and we act as children.
The Iraq war is a perfect example. "Johnny hit me and hurt me, so I will beat on Suzy, who I don't like anyway."
That is an unpleasant but all too accurate analogy of the justification for that benighted war of choice by America. It is not entirely the fault of politicians (though they certainly led the way with blaring trumpets of ignorance and hatred), but the fault of the people, who strongly supported the path to and the undertaking of the war.
We are behaving like five year olds.
Until we regain some direction and movement toward maturity, we will continue to suffer the consequences of five-year old choices and mistakes.
Peace, best wishes, good luck to us all.
This time may have been the ultimate spiritual demise of our nation.
I hope not; I hope we can recover. The path back upward will remain dark and terrible for some time, I believe.
Our people have to change for our nation to heal, and it can't be done by a wave of a presidential hand or the wiggle of a pen on another document.
Something has to change for the better in our hearts.
Peace, best wishes, good luck to us all.
Peace, best wishes.
1:57pm
Alexandria, VA
Some changes take time and others can be accomplished overnight. When will my civil rights be restored? It's not a difficult thing to do unless the massive cover-up is embraced.
The questions were needless, reflecting an obscure understanding of the whole picture. It ain't Presidents Obama or Bush, it is the whole leadership role since the Bay of Tonkin. The Vietnamese War was started under false premise by a totally deranged President unmindful of his potential (and obtained) results to this country. It was the start of this country's political integrity demise, politics for itself rather than the country's.
Vietnam enacted the "go it alone" path of American foreign policy. Our world leadership role was expanded, sending our youth to die by the tens of thousands in furtive foreign intriques, and surviving military men & women having suffered egregious wounds. All the while our Treasury and natural resources were being expended where today our coffers are empty of funds, but filled with unpayable IOUs to China, Japan and who knows who else.
So the only question really needing asking is "have you had enough of the terrible politicans infecting our leadership?" If you answer "yes" to that question.................then join in to the beginning of purging from Congress those corrupt and/or incompetent (maybe both-wise?) who've played the most active part in the demise of our country.
We've had a variety of agenda driven Presidents since and including Johnson, but if our Congress had ever done its duty up to this point in history we'd have remained honorably steadfast.
Independent & a TeaPer.
Independent and Tea Bagger too.
1. The mess our country is in has been caused by much longer than "eight years of viciously one-sided, often inept, and largely misguided governing."
2. Why should I expect that 24 months of "often inept, and largely misguided governing" bring about any change?