Not at all. I don’t think I’m smarter or better than anyone else. Just luckier.
Hard to believe it was only six years ago that the Dean Scream ended his campaign because the right tut-tutted about how America didn’t like angry candidates. Now anger is patriotic.
You must have heard a different Dean Scream than the rest of the country did.
His scream wasn’t angry.
He had already lost that primary, and most of his momentum with that loss, before his scream.
The right didn’t end his campaign. Whoever beat him in the primaries, did. The Scream merely heralded it’s end.
The right didn’t say that America didn’t like anger. They said America doesn’t like people who make wild screams in their speeches (I know, I know.)
Now, as to the main: I think anger is generated by both sides, in every election. It is the stock in trade of the politicians in an electoral system. If one thinks about it, both sides are always scapegoating. That is why you have liberals with their spittle, and conservatives with their bluster.
That is why, when I get elected, I shall end all elections afterward, and create a regency; but, that is another story.
Best wishes,
handsomeharryrex
Me too.
Asking about anger on the internet will tend to get a skewed response.
Everyone doesnt need to be angry, only enough to influence election results. Hardly surprising that in times of unemployment or political polarisation that there will be more of it about.
Otara
But that is how the right chose to portray it. That is my point; they said it was angry, and they said anger was unpresidential.
I’m not angry, so much as I am demoralized at times. I’m fortunate in that my job has lasted, but I did have to take furlough cuts, our staff has been halved without the workload being halved, I just found out my health insurance is going up, the Regents are looking at making any sort of retirement package a lot less useful, I’ve not had any increase in my modest salary in the time I’ve worked here in spite of outstanding reviews, and what’s probably most demoralizing of all, all current gains within the economy seem meager and dwarfed by the sheer size of the problems.
I still like Obama, but I’m not starry-eyed about it, and I’ve been disappointed he hasn’t been able to accomplish more. Than again, the size and number of things that need fixing is immense, and something so large takes time to turn around, though it seems at times that there’s just not enough gains there to turn the whole mess around.
Oh, and I think that I’ll probably end up with Meg Whitman as my next Governor.
Not angry though.
No anger here. Of course, this time around I didn’t get burned by the bubble busting…unlike in the last bubble bust where I lost just about everything, including my job (and any immediate prospects of getting a new one), and tons of money. I was pretty angry then, to be sure, but mostly at myself for being such an idiot as to think that a bubble would just go on forever.
I think that the anger quotient has to do with what effect the current recession is having on you directly, as well as who you think is to ‘blame’ for the mess. Dems blame Pubs (and Big Business™ of course), Pubs blame Dems (and Liberals™), everyone points the finger (usually the middle one) at someone else and heaps all their scorn and anger on Those Other Guys, who are the font of all their woes.
Couple that with the way that the political rhetoric and rancor has steadily been ratcheted up (by BOTH sides), and you have a lot of resentment and simmering anger that is being stoked and fueled by politicians and political activists in either camp to a fever pitch.
-XT
What rights do you think are being taken away from you?
It’s a Democratic President, Democratic controlled House and Democratic controlled Senate. If they can’t get anything done it’s their own fucking fault.
For the record though, I think the economic problems that were created are too big to be solved in a few years.
@suranyi - Yes, if you haven’t lost your job or you have money, you probably haven’t been hurt by the recession. But even if you have a job, there is still the stress of dealing with layoffs, not meeting sales targets and whatnot.
Please explain how the Democrats control the Senate with less than 60 votes.
You do understand that most of the people you know is not necessarily a representative group.
In my group (the 55+ crowd) most of the jobs that are gone, are gone forever. I’ve seen my share of careers destroyed, marriages that have broken up and people trying to start their own businesses that are doomed to compete against other businesses started by their former co-workers. Others are being pushed into early retirement.
On the other end of the scale, my daughter works in a commercial real estate office. First she got cut back to a four day week, then two, and now her boss has told her in effect, he’ll call her on the days he needs her. And with that, she’s still earned more this year than two of the commission agents in the office.
And the ones who are still employed are looking over their shoulders.
The overall emotion I see isn’t anger, it’s fear. And resignation. Those aren’t signs of optimistic consumers, or voters.
It would be good to know where posters in this thread are living.
I’m in Arkansas, and we are weathering it pretty well, perhaps because most of the employment is from agriculture. I am a state employee and none of us got our dinky 3% cost of living raise this year, nor a job evaluation bonus.
I think a lot of anger is environmental. I’m in the NY-NJ metro area. After working 6 months on a multi-million dollar proposal, my boss fired me and took credit for it (to take credit, because he, in turn, is pissed about the same firm laying off his wife). It takes me 1 1/2 hours to drive 10 miles (and mass transit isn’t much better, since NJTransit increased fares by 25% and reduced service by 25%).
Where I’d previously always been described as a rock-star level employee, I’m finding that not wanting to work 14 hour days six days a week (in IT) doing things that are completely unrelated to my specialty draw the ire of employers.
I’m getting the fuck out of this area.
On a positive note, everyone in my family lives in less congested areas and they all seem happy. This area is soulless. I want my own island with my own airport. And my own shotgun to take out any of the Jersey Shore pricks who try to invade New Freeland.
I’m more angry, but I don’t think it has to do with external pressures much. It’s all personal things.
For example, the only thing related to the recession that makes me angry is that my parents are paying bankruptcy. But, then again, we were officially foreclosed on before the bubble burst, and it probably gave us a lot more time. What I don’t get is why all the sudden defaults wouldn’t make FHA more likely to accept refinancing our mortgage, instead of being told that, since they don’t have the exact amount, it won’t work, and we won’t credit any checks you send (including ones we’d already sent, which is why we shut down our bank account).
59 > 41. In other news, 2 + 2 = 4.
Apparently the GOP have never controlled the Senate. Who knew?
Regards,
Shodan
Only in Conservatopia is 59 greater than 60
This. The President’s opponents have had zero ideas of their own since he took office. They know they have had no agenda other than to stonewall and embarrass Obama at every possible step, and this Contract with America bullshit was hastily thrown together when the Republicans realized they had nothing substantial to bring to the voters this election cycle.
60 votes are needed to break a filabuster.
Maybe angry is too strong of a word but I certainly get frustrated that each succeeding generation seems determined to overcome the mistakes of the previous one and, in doing so, throws the good out with the bad. So we seem to swing cyclicly from one extreme to the other and rarely find that healthy middle ground.
People. Why are we so reactionary?
And another thing. Why do we insist on the “us against them” paradigm? We talk about diversity and acceptance but we don’t model it. Why is society stuck in seventh grade?
Sometimes i’m angry, but mostly i am depressed. I don’t even know if winning a lottery would help at this point because then i have a list of stuff we need. I don’t have anything, i need a house and retirement savings, my mother has a mortgage, school loans. I’d need to pay for my father’s nursing home care.
I’ve got a 23 year old sister who probably needs a new hip, so she doesn’t have to use a crutch.
I never wanted to be unemployed for years on end, I’ve applied for just about everything from fast food, retail, grocery, Walmart, Target, Publix, dollar stores, government and wherever. I have to live at home and do chores for my mother just so i don’t feel like a complete waste of space. Whatever she needs, mow the grass, scrub bathrooms and shred documents…