Polls show that the economy is the number one issue to Americans; that Americans, by a ten percent margin, blame Republicans for the state of the economy; that people approve of Democrats over Republicans by a nine percent margin; and that, by a ten percent margin, Americans plan to vote for Republicans over Democrats this fall. (CNN Opinion Research poll, Sep 1-2, 2010) (NBC - Wall Street Journal poll, Aug 5-9, 2010). (Gallop poll, Aug 23-29, 2010).
WHAT ???!!??!?!?
People are upset with the Republicans, but they’re going to turn the government over to them? Are we out of our collective minds? Is the United States actually the insane asylum for the planet?
We’re mad at the President and the Democrats for not getting enough done to turn the economy around, but we also seem to understand that the Government is currently run by the minority party in the Senate. Republicans are on pace to triple the greatest number of filibusters by a Democratic minority. (ABC News, Mar 1, 2010). Filibusters have stalled critical appointments, only to be followed an almost unanimous vote in favor of each appointment. The Republican Party is using a tactic of stalling and stopping to make the Democrats look ineffectual. Are we really dumb enough to fall for this?
We Americans realize that, in December 2008, we were headed for the second great depression; a calamity which will take years to fix. Yet, here we are, in a mere recession, beginning the long haul out of the collapse.
Do we want to reward those who held off economic Armageddon? No. We want to put those who crashed the system back in power, with the same policies that caused the crash.
To borrow from the president: This is like taking a kid who crashed the car because he was texting and giving him the keys to the repaired vehicle and a new cell phone.
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You're not properly reading the tea leaves. Ron Paul showed the path: don't form/run as a third party. Instead, take over the Republican party. This poll shows that the Ron Paul template is working. The moderates are being cleaned out of the Republican party. They may not accomplish it all this election cycle, but the Republican party has turned the corner and moderates aren't going to be the breadwinners anymore.
This is aside from the fact that Democrats are incompetent and have deflated their base. I mean, bring up torture in Guantanamo in 2006, and every democrat in ear shot is demanding it be closed down and civil rights upheld. Obama went so far as making it a campaign promise that he'd shut it down. Look at what happened.
Don't blame the voters.
I certainly would hate to attack the intelligence of Jeet. But for someone to claim that the Republican Party is being cleared of moderates has no knowledge of politics whatsoever. Just 50 years ago, we had Republicans like Eisenhower who recognized the success of Keynesian deficit spending. Even 40 years ago, when Nixon was President, he made the famous saying, "I am now a Keynesian in economics."
But, you see, this has changed since then. Since the early 1980's, we have had a new breed of Republican. We have had Republicans that want to emulate Ronald Reagan. I'm no fan of Reagan, but he at least attempted to cut spending when he cut taxes. Today's Republicans don't even care about cutting spending.
They have become so in line with their agenda that they don't even recognize what works and what doesn't anymore (this is plaguing the Democratic Party as well). Tax cuts are only effective when taxes are too high. If Clinton's Presidency shows us anything, it shows us that you can have one of the single largest periods of economic growth after raising taxes. President Obama put it well last week when he said that the only reason Republicans oppose every Democratic initiative and support the Bush tax cuts, which have cost America hundreds of billions of dollars, is because of politics. We have two parties, and one actually cares about America's problems. The other simply opposes everything the other party does because it's politically popular. I paint with a wide brush. There are principled conservatives like Ron Paul. But the vast majority of the Republican Party is not like them. This party is not one of moderation. It's a radical party, and it's only becoming more radical. People like you are making the problem worse.
Look, Jeet, if you want to talk about politics, go ahead. But don't expect anyone to take you seriously when you spout off completely inaccurate history.
The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill
It's simply an example of the American voter's incapacity for critical thinking. The Tea Party springs up as a protest of being taxed, even though we have gone through years of massive tax cuts and huge federal deficits. They're suckered by the cooperate propaganda in their cable news and the owners of this country will coerce them to keep the tax cuts for the wealthiest. So the Republicans win.
The Democrats control the White House, the House, and the Senate (with a filibuster proof majority). Whining about the Republicans holds no water whatsoever. Absolute failure to follow up on any campaign promises whatsoever and telling Americans that you have to let them pass the health care bill to see what is in it is what lost the Democrats their support.
This administration has done more to absolutely destroy its own moderate supporter base than any other in American history. The democrats destroyed all the goodwill the election garnered them by being arrogant whining little babies when the GOP didn't roll over and die.
Now, the President is trying to push a continuation of Bush's tax cuts as a middle class tax cut that was his idea, though his "tax cut" does nothing but extend the Bush rates. At the same time, he complains that we can't just give away money to the rich, as if the money belonged to the government in the first place and not the people who earned it. And yet, we're supposed to be mad at the republicans (whose tax cuts he is trying to co-opt as his own).
Americans are always looking for a quick fix to things - get rich quick, loose weight quick, fix the economy quick.
THIS, this is what is wrong with Americans and the american way of life.
They want everything done fast while doing as little work possible or none, to take a magic pill, but these things take a lot of time and a lot of commitment, there is no quick fix. You have to understand that things just don't get better overnight.. but people just expected everything to get better with a week when Obama was voted into the White House.
The thing people keep missing is that these polls only target people on landline phones, and that means they're hitting the old folks and missing all the younger people and minorities.
The younger people and minorities who do answer their landline phone in the middle of the day (or even have one; Most are on cell phones now) are a skewed demographic, to be sure, and not likely to show up in significant numbers in comparison to the baby boomers who are still rocking the landline telephone.
Every election this sort of data pops up, and every election more Democrats show up at the polls than was expected.
This is a non-issue.
Dems are in denial. I keep making comments like these and keep getting flamed, but you can deny it all you want and it won't change reality - liberals are not seen as protecting liberty by many voters. They stand for taxes and regulations, and it's always easier to tax and regulate the weak than the strong. If you can break a billionaire, you can crush a middle class taxpayer like a bug. People don't see attacks on the rich as helping them - they know perfectly well that they will be next. Now go ahead and dismiss this as Tea Party talk. You're all very good at that. I actually despise the Tea Party, but doing all the things they complain about is not the way to bring them down.
"...when Nixon was President, he made the famous saying, "I am now a Keynesian in economics.""
So how'd that work out for him, and for America?
Maybe I'm wrong
In fact, maybe I’m really, really wrong, which is the reaction I hear when I dare even to broach this notion to commentators and political strategists in both
parties. So let me state it plainly: I now think the Democrats will hold the Congress—yes, the House as well as the Senate—and turn back high-profile Republican challengers in California and elsewhere.
The GOP strategy of “no” worked to slow the recovery, stoke fears about fictions like death panels in the health-reform bill, and persuade voters to strike out in frustration against Democrats. The trend peaked in August, a month Democrats probably wish they could abolish given the dog days they suffered then,in 2009 as well as 2010.
Read more:
http://mobile.theweek.com/article/index/207701/democrats-will-hold-the-house-a
nd-senate
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