The headline for this post came from CNN, not me. Other than that little addendum I added. It gets tiring doing the mainstream media's job for it all of the time. Anyway, here is the pertinent part of the article:
Three years after a financial crisis pushed the country deep into recession, an overwhelming number of Americans -- 90% -- say that economic conditions remain poor.Okay, that last part about who is to blame is silly. I'll say this one more time for clarity: THEY ARE ALL TO BLAME. Yes, the crisis started under Bush...but all Obama has done is continue the same exact Bush policies that got us here in the first place. More so, every American president going all the way back to Reagan played their part in getting us to where we are now. That's 20 years under Republicans presidents and 11 years under Democrats if you are keeping score at home. During the same period, the House of Representatives has had a Democratic Speaker for 18 years and a Republican one for 13.
The number, reported Friday in a new CNN/ORC International Poll, is the highest of Barack Obama's presidency and a significant increase from the 81% who said conditions were poor in June.
The persistent pessimism indicates that Americans are feeling a level of hardship in line with the official statistics. Unemployment stands at 9.1%, economic growth is barely above stall speed, and the housing market remains tied in knots.
For a White House now fully engaged in re-election efforts, there is one shred of good news: More than two and half years after inauguration day, Americans are still more likely to blame former President George W. Bush for current economic conditions.
Asked which administration is to blame, 52% of Americans blame the previous Republican regime, while only 32% point a finger at Obama and Democrats.
That 90% number is staggering. What it shows is that pretty much everyone who is not either rich or in the upper middle class knows that our economy is sinking. If they were all to suddenly start voting the same way against the oligarchs, things would either change very dramatically in a hurry or there would be a right wing coup d'etat to prevent it. And if the latter were to happen at least it would remove the silly pretense that we all live in a representative democracy.
I actually have a dream. That dream is that somehow, magically, working and middle class Americans wake up from their Hologram-induced stupor and get behind the Occupy Wall Street protesters. Because you see, the young college students out there risking their necks at the hands of Officer Tony Baloney and his thuggish cohorts are there because they KNOW they are getting screwed. The rest of us are getting screwed just as badly, it's just that most of us have no idea who's doing it.
C'mon, already. When 90% of us think the system "stinks," it's time to get a new system, or at least expose the hypocrisy of the old one.
"C'mon, already. When 90% of us think the system "stinks," it's time to get a new system, or at least expose the hypocrisy of the old one."
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those human or American genetic/psychological traits that drives me crazy. You have 90% majority who are unhappy, but you are unable to affect change.
In part, this seems to stem from our need to blame somebody other than ourselves. Obviously, if the politicians in office are losers, and we put them there, we must be losers. Whoops! That can't be right. It must be everybody except me who elected the losers. They need to vote their losers out!
In part, it's the system, where democracy long ago gave way to something else, maybe a plutocratic kleptocracy, in which money is speech (and votes).
In part, it's because we have been so thoroughly beat down and indoctrinated in "the American Way" that we are no longer capable of meaningful thought, analysis, or action. We have been told, when we see the rich doing their thing, "don't stop them, that could be you some day". But that's bullshit. For 99.99% of the bottom 90%, that will never be you. But the "dream" keeps us from thinking. It keeps us from properly focusing our anger on the right targets. It keeps us from seeing that there has been a class war raging in this country for the last 30 years (and probably longer), and that we, the bottom 90%, have lost it. We have gotten, and continue to get, the shit kicked out of us.
Will we ever learn? Will we ever change? Will we ever stand up and take action with our votes, or with pitchforks and torches? Or are we just what we appear to be... screwed?
@bmerson - spot on, as always.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Occupy Wall Street' movement is going national.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.occupytogether.org/
How can you say the system doesn't work? It works perfectly. PERFECTLY. It was designed by rich people to increase their share of the nation's income and resources, and it is doing that. It is a very clever system of bread and circuses. The same clever people who built it have immense resources, including intellectual, to figure out how to keep it going. Why would they stop? Divide and conquer worked for decades and it will continue to work. The designers of the system understand human nature, having perfected the advertising business. The only way change will happen is if ... oops, there isn't any way.
ReplyDelete@Anon - Do I expect change? Not at all. But I won't dump on those who are trying to do something outside of the political system to try and effect it, even if their efforts are doomed from the start.
ReplyDeleteYou could be right Bill maybe they are doomed from the start, but their courage and restraint in the face of such outrageous and barbaric NYPD behavior is a wonder to behold. They are big news here in Europe, and they are very effectively exposing the conceits at the heart of the western plutocracies.
ReplyDeleteI have a growing admiration for this upcoming generation, they have layed to rest the idea that young people are too self centered to care, too narcissistic to act. They are turning out to be made of more heroic stuff than us middle aged people.
Time will tell, how it all shakes out, the future is not yet written. If I have learned one thing in 48 years on this earth, it is that political orders which seem immutable can fall apart overnight and efforts that seem doomed to fail can suddenly succeed. Remember Soviet bloc communism, or the Tzarist regime that proceeded it. There is nothing about Western plutocracy that makes it immune to this kind of collapse.
In 1920 at the height of the Anglo Irish war Irish revolutionary Terence McSweeney said "victory will not go to those who can inflict the most suffering but to those who can endure the most". McSweeney was right the weak endured and achieved victory over the strong, a rag bag guerrilla movement beat the most powerful empire on earth. The NYPD have demonstrated an ability to inflict suffering, the protesters have demonstrated an ability to endure it.
On a final note the NYPD what a great global brand, famed in story, film, TV and song. This brand is being badly tarnished by what we have witnessed in the last two weeks. As an Irish person, it pains me to see the NYPD with its close cultural connections to Ireland being turned into attack dogs for the banksters.
The NYPD usually send a group to Ireland for St Patrick’s Day, if they continue to act like this on our TV screens until next march they may not receive a universal warm Irish welcome. We Irish are one of histories great underdogs and the scenes we have witnessed in NY will offend many Irish peoples political sensibilities. It pains me to write this but if this goes on, I for one will say to hell with the historical and cultural connections, the NYPD are not welcome in my country.
@iwe - sadly, the NYPD, like any other police force, has its good members and its bad members. The bad acts of the bad members are amplified because of the power they hold.
ReplyDeleteIt is only in recent years, especially after 9/11, that the NYPD has largely enjoyed public adulation. Traditionally, it has always had a problem with thugs and crooks wearing the uniform. Officer Bologna is just the latest in a long line of rogues to tarnish the honor of the badge he wears.
But looking at the footage from NY the NYPD were atacking protestors without any visible form of provocation. This is not corruption but some kind of policy, to protect the banks from the people. Sure there are good cops and bad cops, but this is a case of the NYPD acting as attack dogs for the banksters.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really odd about the footage is how relaxed the cops are as they arrest and abuse protesters, they have no riot gear, no body armor. Their equivalents in Athens don't have it so good.