I’m angry and confused. Part of my job is to read political news, which I do every day, while gritting my teeth. I’m angry because, despite fairly decent legislation being proposed, it rarely gets passed (with the exception of the health care reform bill) because we have an obstructionist minority in Congress who has stated that they will not work with the president. Then the majority in the Congress does a shitty job of explaining and marketing the legislation they do manage to pass.
Regardless, I’m mystified and angry at how many people truly believe that healthcare reform would result in elimination of Medicare benefits. It’s like there’s a complete lack of common sense and critical thinking in the general public. Even my preschooler thinks more clearly. And it pisses me off and confuses me because it’s like these people want to believe the worst. I guess it justifies their hatred.
Every damn day I read the news and legislation that causes the news and sometimes I wish I didn’t have to because what you hear and read and see through the media is such a vast deviation from reality it boggles the mind.
With respect to jobs - I can understand people being angry. I’m lucky that I have a job, and if I didn’t, I’d be terrified. But the current climate reminds me of a Daily Show skit where the correspondents were trying to disavow global warming because it was winter. There’s a complete inability to look at the bigger picture - it doesn’t matter who started it and why, people need to shut the hell up and figure out how to fix it, not point fingers. It’s very disheartening.
I give presentations regularly to disabled individuals and seniors, and so many of them are afraid because they’ve really been targeted hard by all the scaremongering going around. It sucks that people make money of scaring the crap out of such vulnerable populations. That is what makes me most angry and the most sad.
IMHO it really seems to me that the rhetoric that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al - and the followup encore from McCain, Palin et al - used in every speech is really when the 50-50 line was drawn. Before then, we didn’t have this whole red state/blue state nonsense. (Sidenote: Am I the only one who had a hard time remembering initially which was which?)
I am fed up with the two-party system now that each side just stonewalls the other. Nothing can be done, good, bad, or otherwise. Reminds me of history lessons about WWII trench warfare, when our teacher emphasized just how *many *men died horribly just to advance the line a few yards here or there, and how much blood was shed while the line just … held still.
I have some trouble with the buzz word stuff too. Am I supposed to be red or blue? I want to be with the kewl kids if I could remember which ones they were. Hah.
It does seem that with the politicalization of nearly everything that we’ve gotten ourselves stuck in the mud.
It will be interesting to see what positives, if any, come out of it all.
I can see why. It’s always been easy for me since blue is my favorite color and my “team.”
I am angry at the political and economic situation right now. Without going into too much detail, while both major parties do play (and always have) the spin and gotcha ya game, the current situation of conservatives and Repubicans just telling outright lies, engaging in smears and fearmongering, and refusing to debate on the merits of any real disagreement withe the current administration, and voters who actually believe them without any in-depth thought whatsoever just leaves me completely disheartened.
Although I found a job a few months ago (at a much lower salary) after 1.5 years of unemployment, it’s still disheartening to see how many people are still un/underemployed and need help, are struggling to keep their homes and need help, and how many politicians politicians are playing the political game of “No,” “No way,” and “No way, Hussein,” and not governing for the good of the country and the people and need to wake up.
There are people saying the American Dream, fueled by boundless optimism, may be in trouble. As we see more and more the likelihood that the next generation will have a similar, or even lower, standard of living, even though they’ll spend more for college, medical care, etc. than previous generations, it is hard to stay optimistic. Upward mobility used to be the dream of most Americans, but growth of the wealth of the middle class has slowed over the past decade. Therefore we see more and more people turning introspective and looking to hold on to what they have, rather than risk it on entrepreneurial ventures.
I’m not sure. I’m dismayed by the foolishness of the mortgage bubble, and the hijinks of wall street have me pretty irritated, but I think the US still has a lot going for it. I’m diversifying my investments to developing nations, but I’m not divesting myself of US holdings.