This is not the country we thought it was when we were younger . . .

[Anonymous]

Talk me off the ledge. I'm just getting so disenchanted with the direction our country is taking. As soon as one party does something, the other party undoes it. The rich are getting richer, people are attacking the middle class. I just read this article today http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/12/us-usa-taxes-corporations-idUSN1249465620080812 - it basically talks about how most major US companies don't pay tax on their earnings. Perfectly legal (because Republican lawmakers make it so). Now they've passed the law allowing private companies to finance elections . . . . I just have to ask, where is our country going?

Maybe I just need to move back to small town Wisconsin and bury my head in the sand. Maybe it is just because I'm not from around here. Tell me things have always been this ugly, and I'm just overly sensitive.

[jsteele]

Sorry, but things are getting significantly worse. The rich are getting richer and the middle class is under attack. One point of clarification, it wasn't a law that allowed companies to finance campaign advertising, but a Supreme Court ruling. Please support efforts to pass a law undoing that judgement.

And, if you do move back to Wisconsin, do so now so that you can join the protesters in Madison. What the governor is doing is another part of the attack on the middle class.

[Anonymous]

Consider if your biased mind will allow it, the Democrats had the White House, Senate and House for two years until just recently.

What else could you ask for and what did they accomplish concerning your concerns?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Consider if your biased mind will allow it, the Democrats had the White House, Senate and House for two years until just recently.

What else could you ask for and what did they accomplish concerning your concerns?

Unprecedented use of the filibuster by the Republicans resulted in a very watered down series of accomplishments by the Democrats. I actually think that more could have been done and I blame Obama for being a bad negotiator. But, you can't ignore Republican efforts to prevent Al Franken from being seated, then the controversy over Roland Burris, and the death of Ted Kennedy and subsequent election of Brown. All of those things prevented the Democrats from having a filibuster-proof majority. Essentially, the Democratic agenda was set by Senators Snow and Collins.

I would like to have seen compensation limits placed on the firms that benefitted from the Wall Street bailout, a stronger financial reform bill, a public option for health insurance (actually, single-payer would have been even better), and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts above $250,000. All of these things were prevented by the Obama/Snow/Collins alliance.

[Anonymous]

Consider if your biased mind will allow it, the Democrats had the White House, Senate and House for two years until just recently.

What else could you ask for and what did they accomplish concerning your concerns?
[Report Post]

I'm not happy with them, either. What we needed was meaningful health care reform. What we got was a watered down mess of a bill that the Republicans are going to undo (by cutting the funding). Obama should have just pushed a universal health care system through - that is what he's blamed for doing anyway, so why not just freaking DO IT? We've been taking one step forward, two steps back.

I don't understand how people can be so angry at teachers, firefighters, and police for somehow being the cause of the bad economy, but not be up in arms over the extension of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy. Or the bonuses being paid out on Wall street. Or the private companies evading their taxes.

I am tired of both parties. I want them gone - ALL OF THEM - and I want to start fresh. New parties representing people, not companies.

[Anonymous]

Democrats from Wisconsin and now Indiana are migrating to Illinois. Chicago being the seat of hard core corruption now for several years and the talent pool for Obama, my vote is the Democrats take Illinois and stew in their own juice.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand how people can be so angry at teachers, firefighters, and police for somehow being the cause of the bad economy, but not be up in arms over the extension of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.

Federal taxes (i.e. Bush tax cuts) are not relevant to the budget problems at the state and local level. The real problem there is that the governments allowed public workers to drive compensation up too far/fast on the presumption that the good economic times would stick around forever. They haven't and the reality is that the benefits are not affordable. I definitely believe it was Wall STreet that got us in this mess, but that doesn't change the fact that states/local govn'ts cannot afford to keep paying the really high benefits. And the benefits have also gotten to be really out of line w/ even what other professional sector employees have in terms of benefits so it is time to look at them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Talk me off the ledge. I'm just getting so disenchanted with the direction our country is taking. As soon as one party does something, the other party undoes it. The rich are getting richer, people are attacking the middle class. I just read this article today http://www.reuters.com/article/2008/08/12/us-usa-taxes-corporations-idUSN1249465620080812 - it basically talks about how most major US companies don't pay tax on their earnings. Perfectly legal (because Republican lawmakers make it so). Now they've passed the law allowing private companies to finance elections . . . . I just have to ask, where is our country going?

I think you may have unintentionally put your finger on the problem. One party does this shit, but your average American has been exposed to so much propaganda, that they're incapable of escaping the fallacy of false equivalence.

One party is turning the country into a third-world South American plutocracy, while the other party....FAILS TO STOP THEM! Yep, both sides are exactly the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't understand how people can be so angry at teachers, firefighters, and police for somehow being the cause of the bad economy, but not be up in arms over the extension of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.

Federal taxes (i.e. Bush tax cuts) are not relevant to the budget problems at the state and local level. The real problem there is that the governments allowed public workers to drive compensation up too far/fast on the presumption that the good economic times would stick around forever. They haven't and the reality is that the benefits are not affordable. I definitely believe it was Wall STreet that got us in this mess, but that doesn't change the fact that states/local govn'ts cannot afford to keep paying the really high benefits. And the benefits have also gotten to be really out of line w/ even what other professional sector employees have in terms of benefits so it is time to look at them.

Sounds like we got ourselves some Economics 101, here!

You should sign up for a few more classes, Econ 102, 201, etc...

[Anonymous]

No it's not the country we thought it was when we were younger. Women have so much more opportunity! There is so much less discrimination against people of color! Gay people can live normal lives and even get married in some parts of the country! We are a more diverse and more interesting place than we used to be. I am sooo happy we are not the country we were when I was growing up and I'm proud to live here.

On the other hand, economic inequality has grown tremendously and I fear for the future of our democracy now, as pps have pointed out, the rich are getting richer and becoming more effective at controlling elections while many are permanently squeezed out of the middle class. This is very troubling, OP, and I wonder if it is a turning point for our democracy. But let's not forget all the good changes that have taken place, too!

[Anonymous]

I am not doomed to endless breeding.

[Anonymous]

I admit I am in a good mood this morning, and therefore prone to optimism, but I think we tend to cycle, and this is not the first time in our history that the rich have had unfettered influence. My hope is that the vast majority will eventually see what is happening and even the most adamant tea partiers will realize where there interests lie. Sanity will rise again.

I hope!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I admit I am in a good mood this morning, and therefore prone to optimism, but I think we tend to cycle, and this is not the first time in our history that the rich have had unfettered influence. My hope is that the vast majority will eventually see what is happening and even the most adamant tea partiers will realize where there interests lie. Sanity will rise again.

I hope!

Me too. If there's one thing we learn, it's that conservatives tend to win the short-term battles in this country. But, they lose the long-term battles. Every single one of them. Slavery? Lost. Women's sufferage? Lost. Black sufferage? Lost. Ending Jim Crow? Lost.

And the funny thing is, they don't just lose. They lose so comprehensively that within a decade or so, all but the most revanchist conservatives recant their previous deeply held convictions in the strongest possible terms. Opposition to civil rights was actually a widely-held position among American conservatives (who were to be found in either parrty). When Civil Rights legislation was passed by the Democrats, pretty much all the virulent racists scuttled over to the Republican party, and hence you have the short-term GOP electoral successes of the last forty years or so. But ask a modern American conservative about ending Jim Crow, and it's always, "Oh! Of course! No one ever supported Jim Crow!!" Right.

For a trivial example, think of men wearing earrings: thirty years ago, you'd get your ass kicked if you were a guy wearing an earring in most parts of the South. Now that everyone else has moved on, the only folks you see wearing an earring are country music dudes and NASCAR fans. Same with long hair.

The substantial modern equivalent of this is gay rights. In two decades, gay marriages will be commonplace in the Deep South and other parts of Benighted America. Redneck shitkickers will have moved on to whatever the next boogyman is, and we'll get to hear from right-wing demogogues how "the only *real* gay marriages are in *real* America! You think Geoge Soros knows anything about gettin' gay married? No!"

That's what conservative is: you hang onto the worst of the culture as long as you can, crouched in a cave until everyone else has moved on, and when you're finally pulled kicking and screaming into the light of day, you puff out your chest and pretend it was your idea all along.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I don't understand how people can be so angry at teachers, firefighters, and police for somehow being the cause of the bad economy, but not be up in arms over the extension of the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy.

Federal taxes (i.e. Bush tax cuts) are not relevant to the budget problems at the state and local level. The real problem there is that the governments allowed public workers to drive compensation up too far/fast on the presumption that the good economic times would stick around forever. They haven't and the reality is that the benefits are not affordable. I definitely believe it was Wall STreet that got us in this mess, but that doesn't change the fact that states/local govn'ts cannot afford to keep paying the really high benefits. And the benefits have also gotten to be really out of line w/ even what other professional sector employees have in terms of benefits so it is time to look at them.

Congrats. The best words I have seen on this site ever.

I would only add that Barney Frank should be in prison playing cards with Bernie Maddoff. It could be a TV sitcom, Barney and Bernie.

[Anonymous]

That's what conservative is: you hang onto the worst of the culture as long as you can, crouched in a cave until everyone else has moved on, and when you're finally pulled kicking and screaming into the light of day, you puff out your chest and pretend it was your idea all along.