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Posted: September 18, 2010 12:02 AM

Arianna appeared on "The Tonight Show" Friday night to discuss her new book, "Third World America," as well as the rise of the tea party during the current election cycle. Arianna argues that the middle class has been abandoned by politicians and devastated by 30 years of neglect by both parties, but it's not too late to turn things around. (For more news on "Third World America, click here.)

She attributes the Tea Party's rise largely to the growing anger of struggling Americans who don't see politicians addressing their problems.

That fury is mostly directed toward Democrats at the moment because they hold the reins of power, Arianna said, but it's not exclusive to one party. "The anger is because the Democrats and the Republicans have for 30 years now screwed the middle class," she told "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno.

The Senate nomination of Christine O'Donnell in Delaware is one response, Arianna said, and it's not all bad. "Anyone in my book who gets Karl Rove that upset must be doing something right," she told Leno.

Arianna broke with O'Donnell, though, on one major issue. "She seems to think that masturbation is really a huge problem, and I don't think it's as huge a problem for Americans given all the other problems they're facing, like unemployment, foreclosures, et cetera," Arianna said. "Self-love is deficit-neutral."

WATCH:


 
Arianna appeared on "The Tonight Show" Friday night to discuss her new book, "Third World America," as well as the rise of the tea party during the current election cycle. Arianna argues that the mid...
Arianna appeared on "The Tonight Show" Friday night to discuss her new book, "Third World America," as well as the rise of the tea party during the current election cycle. Arianna argues that the mid...
 
 
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05:56 PM on 09/23/2010
Here is a "tribue" page to the man who MAY be the next Speaker of the House if sensible voters don't get out and vote in November. This guy will REALLY screw us if he gets the chance. Visit the new http://www.speakerjohnboehner.com site.
03:37 PM on 09/23/2010
What do you call class warfare when it's the wealthy conducting it against the middle-class? Let's see ...one way is communist revolution , the other would be ....capitalist revolution? I just hope democrats wake up and take their focus off what republicans think of them. The incumbent leadership of the DNC has cashed in their principles and is now serving as the fifth column for the RNC. Fienstein is afraid to see the Bush taxcuts come to a vote? After the healthcare mutiny and the continuation of the Bush foreign policy, it's time for, if not a new party, certainly a thorough purging of the current one. Obama has yet to distinguish himself from this gang. As long as the current regime of incumbent democrats remain in Washington, kiss our democracy good-bye.
10:33 PM on 09/20/2010
We should remember a statement that Henry Ford made to a group of the other captains of Industry & finance when he was chided for paying his workers so much:
"Someone has to be able to afford to buy my automobiles".
He was thinking about fellow Americans as his market.
Today, the leaders of Finance & industry find it to be more profitable to invest over sea's, exporting Americas wealth & jobs.
Lets get Real.
This is the problem.
There is a very simple solution-IF we can get the personal greed out of our system.
The Tea party is an interesting, and very energized movement, but aimed in the wrong direction because of its Oligarch backing.
WOW, a movement with that energy & REAL AWARENESS could make a difference.
Hmm.
10:55 PM on 09/20/2010
Break off the libs & progs from the Democratic Party and form a coalition with Labor. The PROGRESSIVE LABOR PARTY. A party that will potentially be the most powerful in American history.
09:33 PM on 09/20/2010
I certainly don't think politicians have helped the middle class in the last 30 years, but at the same time, I don't really know what we can do when China and India and Vietnam and all these other countries take American jobs at 1/10th of the price we do for them. In a globalized society, how can an American company compete with that besides to ship its jobs out to those very foreign countries? What's happened is that now this country is a "service economy" based on just selling things to salaried professionals with post-secondary education degrees who DO have salaries that adjust to inflation. Is there realistically anything Americans can do about this? Democrat or Republican?
06:43 PM on 09/20/2010
I agree. But at the moment, it is considered as a fringe event. More of this event should happen before the establishment and the country gets the message.

audymm.wordpress.com
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johnathon robinson
retired home owner
11:04 PM on 09/20/2010
Amado Magtoto: 9/20, Absolutly,I've found more thinking people on this site than ever, and it's really encouraging. We have to demand more clarity from our represenatives, there has to be consequences for them not fulfilling their job responsibuilities just as you or I. If there are no consequences there are no deterents to incompetance or corruption.
03:56 PM on 09/20/2010
Yes, and the politicians not addressing the peoples' problems include Obama, as of the day he announced Geithner/Summers. No hope, no change, analogous to Clinton coming in swinging for NAFTA/GATT. But, you know, the Tea-people don't have much in common with those of us who responded to the Clinton double-cross by campaigning for Ralph Nader. Overstatement. This old Naderite has nothing, nothing in common with those Teafreaks! So "anger of struggling Americans," generalized, doesn't say it for me at all.
02:33 PM on 09/20/2010
Fix the tax code. Stop rewarding bad corporate behavior that weakens our economy.

'Just some ideas, Congress. Where have your balls been all this time?
03:57 PM on 09/20/2010
How about just enforcing regulations, inspections, agreements?
09:07 PM on 09/20/2010
Bad, bad government. Much better we should return to the days of kids dying in the factories where they're working, restaurant meals that can kill you, or even unnecessarily dangerous sun visors on cars. The magic of the market will take care of all of it.
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johnathon robinson
retired home owner
11:13 PM on 09/20/2010
responder 41115 : 9/20 They've been slicing up the cash along with the all the other dems and repubs,because we voted them in and went to sleep on them,so rats will be rats.
01:00 PM on 09/20/2010
Someone asked what the solution was.
The problem is with large institutions mostly businesses who are able to subvert both the land and airspace that we live in.
Large businesses have a lot of money and they can do a lot of damage both to our laws and our environment in a really short period of time.
Solution? The individual and his rights have to come first. No if ands or buts. You can't cut trees down in mass just to feed 300 people. You can't blow moutaintops off just to power the grid for 30 days on the east coast.
You can't can't alter the air in the atmosphere over everyones house (with there permission I might add), just so billions can communicate on cell phones. The air is there for breathing-It's there for ALL. Those billions do not own the air itself and should not be able to alter what is everyone elses for short sighted personal gain.

I see A LOT of greedy evil people who are only thinking about there money and frankly they richly deserve this end game.
12:51 PM on 09/20/2010
Bravo Arianna
photo
llozano
Live and let live...
11:32 AM on 09/20/2010
So who's been screwing the poor all these years? No one seems to talk about the poor much nowadays.
12:05 PM on 09/20/2010
Since 1 in 7 are living in poverty, and we have nearly 10% unemployment... I'd say just about everyone has screwed the poor.
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johnathon robinson
retired home owner
11:44 PM on 09/20/2010
Carolina h:9/20, Poor is working, but never able to get ahead when the object of sucess is always out of your reach, We become depressed because we live beyond our means, duss, we become bored basket cases.
03:47 PM on 09/20/2010
In a sense, the poor are included in this discussion, because there used to be enough opportunity for many of the poor to at least make a marginally decent living. Now many, many more of us are "lucky" to be able to just barely make it. All part of the same process/policies.
10:19 AM on 09/20/2010
She is correct

Both parties screwed middle class.

Republican President spent our taxes on funding the war and Democrat President on stimulus and entitlements

Both parties bailed the bank and wall street companies and screwed the middle class on main street
photo
JudgeCCrater
From under a NJ boardwalk thanks to free Wi-Fi!
11:34 AM on 09/20/2010
So pissing money into the desert thousands of miles away is equivalent to putting Americans to work on our streets here in the USA?

Interesting equivalency you have there.
11:50 AM on 09/20/2010
Valid point, but the focal point, as I read it is that neither side has taken care of the middle class, for whatever the spending was.

As if wasting money on fruitless wars is any better or worse, than wasting $'s on stimulus that has done little to create new jobs to get us out of this recession.

If you want to make a moral statement, I agree with you.

If you want to make a economic statement I have to agree with the original poster.
photo
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Carl Klapper
The Cassandra of American Politics
03:46 PM on 09/20/2010
Causing short-term credit and cash flow to seize up put small businesses out of commission or at least on hold, resulting in loss of income for millions of Americans through job losses and business failures. The delayed and temporary "stimulus" produced by spending the funds pale before the economic devastation wrought by borrowing them. The net effect on employment is negative and becoming more so.

The "stimulus" did not put Americans to work. The "bailout" did not bailout the economy. Both only helped the contributors to the political parties.
10:02 AM on 09/20/2010
I totally agree with Arianna for the first time! She is right on the marker - we have to fix this.
01:08 PM on 09/20/2010
where have you been Arianna is the best
09:27 AM on 09/20/2010
Longer then that, Carter deregulated Gas Prices.
03:30 AM on 09/20/2010
Yeah, but the repubs have screwed the middle class MORE
11:57 AM on 09/20/2010
You want to split hairs on who is the worst? Wow! Your next response will probably be "Yeah? But my dad can beat up your dad." Why don't you stop looking for who is the worst of the past and look for the best of the present and future?
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johnathon robinson
retired home owner
10:48 PM on 09/20/2010
InStl : 9/20, Absolutly right, while we point fingers and call names the rats are still in the house. Untill they realize (we people) deman better representation than what we've been given over the past several years, they will continue to rally us for votes and once they are in the gate keepers seat we rarely hear from them untill the money is sliced up and it's election time again.We have to hold them to some results,or determine they may need to be replaced. If I dont perform I lose my job, why should they be exempted?.
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johnathon robinson
retired home owner
11:28 PM on 09/20/2010
55BelAir: 9/20, Does it really matter when you are the screw'ee??.