Election 2010 a tale of two nations
It’s Glenn Beck vs. Jon Stewart. It’s white vs. multi-racial. It’s senior citizen vs. twenty-something. It’s rural vs. urban.
And this year more than ever before — more even than 2008 — the threads and ligaments binding these two clumsy, disparate nations feel fragile and tenuous.
I was at the Bill Clinton-Scott Murphy event this morning in Saratoga Springs. Inside, more than a thousand activists, labor supporters, and college students chanted and sang and shook their fists.
They expressed sincere outrage that just two years after Democrats were given control of Washington, voters appear to have assigned them the lion’s share of blame for the country’s terrible malaise.
Clinton pointed to a raft of legislation — from healthcare to finance to college loans to the stimulus package — and said that it offered a slow, tentative path out of the wilderness.
A wilderness, the former president insisted, that George Bush and his Republican allies led us into.
Outside, Republican and conservative protesters backing Chris Gibson painted a fundamentally different picture.
I interviewed one man who argued vehemently that President Barack Obama promised to fix the economy fast. But nearly two years later, there’s still a lot of pain out there.
To him — and to millions of Americans — the conclusion is obvious: the Democrats had their chance to turn things around and they blew it. Now they must go.
If they capture majorities in Congress, Republicans are promising bluntly to repudiate any real compromise with Democrats.
Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader in the Senate, has said point-blank that his number one legislative priority will be to make certain that Obama is a one-term president.
Democrats, meanwhile, have failed to craft an agenda that attracted more than a handful of Republican votes; and the popularity of landmark programs, from the stimulus to healthcare, has continued to sag.
In the end, it seems clear that the biggest losers in this year’s vote will be the centrists in both parties.
Some — like Arizona Senator John McCain — have been forced to abandon their independent streaks, conforming to their party’s increasingly polarized rhetoric.
Others — from Charlie Crist to Scott Murphy — are scrambling just to keep their political noses above water.
Without these moderates, it’s difficult to see how the epic work of the nation will get done.
We need fixes for everything from healthcare (yup, still broken) to the climate (yup, that’s broken too) to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and (of course) the economy.
The problem, increasingly, is that we can’t seem to agree on what a “fixed” nation should look like, or what sacrifices (if any) we’re willing to accept to get there.
Higher taxes? Nope. Cuts to major entitlement programs? No way. More modest pay and benefits for government workers? Forget it.
As we ping back and forth between the two parties, it’s hard not to see America as a frightened and self-doubting society, balanced precariously between the competing desires, whims and myths of two very different tribes.
Tags: election10
FLORIDA ELECTION ALERT – Crist announces he is running as a woman – SHOCKING story at:
http://spnheadlines.blogspot.com/2010/11/florida-crist-now-running-as-woman.html
Peace! :-)
This is one rural, left center senior citizen, following our leader on the slow, tentative path out of the wilderness of fear, anger and greed. And hopeful that bipartisanship will be the fruits of the contentious rallies by the extremes of our parties.
It’s simplistic, isn’t it, the way you have divided things? Don’t many of us fall on one side of the division in one category and into the other side in another category. I do.
Let’s not forget all the self-described smaller govt activists who refuse any cuts to military spending, prisons, etc.
Cry the Beloved Centrists!
Simple solutions for simple minds.
We need to realize the foundations of our current problems have been brewing for over 30 years and maybe even more.
The foundations I am referring to are automation, growing populations and globalization.
Automation requires fewer people to produce more goods. More people simply means there are more people looking for fewer needed jobs. Globalization means companies can tap from the entire world to find where they get the best bottom line.
Both we the people and government at all levels have used borrowing to fill in the gaps.
As governments and people now start looking for ways to lower their budgets, more and more people will be out of work or accept work they wouldn’t have dreamed of accepting at lower wages.
Forget about bandwagons. How many people can get on a life raft before the life raft sinks?
Sorry to be so negative here but I only wish to point out how quick and simple solutions will not work.
Create jobs? Sure but jobs are not created by snapping the fingers. First there NEEDS to be a product or a service for which there is a demand and people who have the money to purchase the product or service. Remove just one item from the equation and you get what we now have.
I guess after all is said and done, and all things are considered, we all went a little too far out on the limb. It seems to me the so called American Dream was designed and marketed by business and government to get us to want more and more of everything, and it didn’t much matter if we really needed it. Buy, throw away and buy so you can throw more away. Borrow if you can’t afford it but whatever you do – BUY! Not to buy became Un-American and the American Dream became the American Nightmare.
“it’s hard not to see America as a frightened and self-doubting society”. Brian, what is this all about? I don’t see that at all. Maybe that is how you get when you have your head in the news all day.
Much of this has a lot to do with promises that politicians make. When you make them you need to keep them or you get the boot. The president promised certain things and he had a chance to deliver (even if he only had a few years to do it). Tax cuts for the middle class are a good example. As I understand it the middle class will be taking a relatively large tax increase come January with the expiration of the “Bush” tax cuts. Why no action there? Inexcusable. That was a huge mistake when you need independent voters on your side. The health care bill was not a promise kept. In the end it was a joke, that still needed strange deals and arm twisting. Again, inexcusable.
Why are some candidates running now not making the kind of promises, or putting forth the kind of platforms, that some have been asking for? Perhaps, they have gotten smart and decided that they should stop making promises they cannot keep. Personally, I would rather vote for an honest candidate than a dishonest one. If the president can move to the right I think things will start to get done. Bill Clinton should be advising Obama on his next move, he has been there.
But maybe that is the issue, maybe one group says we don’t need to be “fixed” there is nothing wrong and if we do need to be fixed the government can’t fix us.
The only thing more frustrating than being blamed for not fixing someone else’s mess fast enough… is when the people doing the blaming are the ones who created the mess in the first place.
Bill Clinton is in this mess up to his eyeballs and he has the gall to throw the blame elsewhere?! Why am I not surprised? As Pete said, this goes back a long ways, and there’s no quick fix. We’re left with 2 basic choices- continue on in the status quo, no tax cuts, no spending cuts, no attempt at stopping the snowball from heading down the hill, or we make some hard choices, choices that will hurt us all in one way or the other, but ones that will eventually get us out of that ditch the Dems love to talk about.
The problem is neither party has any real backbone when it comes to saying “No, you can’t have that.” So I’ll go waste my vote tomorrow and at least know I did what I could. But the takers will demand the Gov’t steal from the producers and give it to the takers in exchange for votes. Eventually the producers will die off or leave, pull a Galt if you will.
Good Lord, this is so depressing. This is the best we can do?
No, Brett, it’s not the best we can do. I’m voting for the Green Party across the ticket, at least where I can, simply because I’m tired of both parties. Howie for Governor!
Bret says, “Eventually the producers will die off or leave, pull a Galt if you will.”
The producers already left. They’re in China. It had nothing to do with government. It had everything to do with cheap labor. The producers aren’t patriots, or smarter, or better people. They’re in it for themselves, and they’re more powerful than you, and they’re coming after your pension next, Bret.
This comment from a Wall Streeter doesn’t say a lot for our producer class:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/sex-and-drugs-and-markets-role/
“The markets want money for cocaine and prostitutes. I am deadly serious.
Most people don’t realize that “the markets” are in reality 22-27 year old business school graduates, furiously concocting chaotic trading strategies on excel sheets and reporting to bosses perhaps 5 years senior to them. In addition, they generally possess the mentality and probably intelligence of junior cycle secondary school students. Without knowladge of these basic facts, nothing about the markets makes any sense—and with knowladge, everything does.
What the markets, bond and speculators, etc, want right now is for Ireland to give them a feel good feeling, nothing more. A single sharp, sweeping budget would do that; a four year budget plan will not. Remember that most of these guys won’t actually still be trading in four years. They’ll either have retired or will have been promoted to a position where they don’t care about Ireland anymore. Anyone that does will be a major speculator looking to short the country for massive profit.
In lieu of a proper budget, what the country can do—and what will work—is bribe senior ratings agencies owners and officials to give the country a better rating. Even a few millions spent on bumping up Ireland’s rating would save millions and possibly save the country.
Bread and circuses for the masses; cocaine and prostitutes for the markets. This can be looked on a unethical obviously, but since the entire system is unethical, unprincipled and chaotic anyway, why not just exploit that fact to do some good for the nation instead of bankrupting it in an effort to buy new BMWs for unmarried 25 year olds.”
I would direct anyone interested to the below link to an article in today’s NY Times which hints at how the GOP has manipulated the Tea party into creating the firestorm which may bring the “elite” GOP into power. And how the Tea party will be irrelevant on Wednesday morning……Yes sir, another victory for corporate America and Wall Street.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/opinion/31rich.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&src=ig
“it’s hard not to see America as a frightened and self-doubting society”.
Frightened? Perhaps. Certainly people like Palin and Beck appeal to fear as a political weapon.
But you don’t get to be a political and/or religious extremist, you don’t get polarization with crippling self-doubt. You get it with the absolute, unwavering self-assurance that you are right, 100 percent right and that anyone who doesn’t agree with you lock, stock and barrel is a malcontent who wants to ruin the country. But self-doubting? I’d say quite the opposite. I’d say there’s too LITTLE doubt.
As Billy Joel sang, “The only people I fear are those who never have doubts.”
When there’s doubt, you talk to other people to try to figure out the best way forward. Do you really see too much of that going on?
“Election 2010 A Tale of Two Nations” & “It’s Glenn Beck vs. Jon Stewart. It’s white vs. multi-racial. It’s senior citizen vs. twenty-something. It’s rural vs. urban.” – Baloney!
Will Doolittle is correct, Brian, you’ve simplified disagreements too much. If you don’t believe me or Will read Morris Fiorina’s book – Culture War? the Myth of a Polarized America, 2nd edition. The chattering class – Bill O and Bill Moyer are polarized – as are the two parties in Congress. But, the mistake you and others in media make is to assume that the deep and wide divisions amongst media and political elites (not meant as a pejorative) exist across our society. Public opinion poll after public opinion poll demonstrates that this is simply not the case. Across even the culture war issues (gay marriage, abortion, etc.) most American’s have moderate (& modal) answers and are converging – not diverging. Please, as a member of the media, get it right.
I’ve read many many arguments and counterarguments about this question: just how divided are we?
And yes, obviously, a blog post is something of a quick dart of thinking.
But my own view of this has changed over the last couple of years.
Standing outside a Chris Gibson event this year, I had a chance to really talk with some of his supporters — people convinced that Democrats are really, truly trying to wreck the nation.
The level of distrust and rage was startling.
I’ve also talked with many progressives who feel something akin to disgust or disdain toward conservatives.
There was a time when these binary approaches to politics relaxed significantly between elections.
But I’m not so sure that’s true anymore.
For a senior national political figure (McConnell) to say point blank that his primary legislative agenda isn’t fixing jobs or tackling healthcare or mending the economy, but is toppling a sitting President…
Well, yes, I think that is a new level of polarization.
But again, yes, I cop to the fact that my blog post was a quick-fire nod at something very complicated and intricate.
–Brian, NCPR
even that old saw about being entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts seems to have broken down. Its hard to see how we solve anything in the next few years.
Brian M said:
“I’ve also talked with many progressives who feel something akin to disgust or disdain toward conservatives.”
I’m not sure those are the exact feelings I have but I’ll go along with that. Here’s why; conservatives wont be consistent in their views. We’re trying to have a serious debate, and hopefully to reach some kind of consensus with people who are simply playing Calvinball. There is a reason people have started calling the Republicans the Party of No.
You begin to feel like Charlie Brown while Lucy holds the football. Come on Lucy, just once let me get a kick at the ball and see if I can put some points on the board. But Lucy would rather lose than see Charlie Brown have a chance to be the hero.
I don’t see Democrats any more willing to compromise than Republicans right now.
Compromise will have to be forced and that is why it will be good to have a divided government like we did with President Clinton, which is when his best legislation was passed. Leaders are elected to accomplish the agenda they ran on. If they don’t have to compromise to get that agenda they will not compromise, in fact they would be wrong to compromise for the sake of compromise that would simply be selling out the people who sent you there. I don’t blame the Democrats for many of the things they did during the past two years, they had a window and they had to get some big things done and they did. I happen to think some of those things were the wrong things and misguided, but I don’t blame them for not compromising on them when they didn’t politically have to. Our leaders represent their constituents they should not be going there to get along for the sake of getting along.
Mervel – so no compromise. If you need 60 votes in the senate, and there is no compromise, nothing can get done.
this no compromise stuff sort of plays to the conservatives since they, as the party of “no” really dont want the government do anything in the first place. On the other hand, its not much of a legislative agenda.
“Well, yes, I think that is a new level of polarization.”
Brian, a story on NPR tonight that I heard last week on another network said that the president said that Hispanic voters need to turn out to “punish their enemies” (republicans). That is about as polarized as you can get. I agree.
Mervel. You don’t think there were compromises on the health care bill? It’s got alot of Republican ideas incorporated into the bill.
As for the next two years, I see an increasing national debt due to more tax cuts. Unfortunately, it’s somewhat likely conservatives will refuse to raise the national debt limit and the US will go into default on its debt.
PNElba, tax cuts? The feds just decided to raise taxes for the middle class and more. Yet, another broken promise.
He cut my taxes. And yours too I bet… if you don’t know about it, that isn’t too surprising – you are not alone: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/19/us/politics/19taxes.html
Indeed there were compromises in the health bill; I think the compromises were all within the Democratic Party however and their constituents, large Drug Companies, health care unions, to name only a few. It is the reason that we have no real cost control or competition in the bill.
What I mean about compromise is that good leaders will compromise to get things done only when they have to. If they don’t have to then they won’t. Democrats didn’t have to compromise, they got health care without Republican support, of course the downside is that they know own it.
But if things go as they probably will tomorrow I think President Obama may have the opportunity to become the President that he can be, he will have to compromise to get anything done, and that is a good thing in my opinion.
As Brian said – their main legislative goal is to get a Republican president – evidently so they can repeal the health care bill. Obama is going to compromise with that how?
Of course it is the Republican goal to get a Republican President.
The art of being a great President as Bill Clinton was; is to know that and still lead and still get some of your legislation passed, certainly you won’t get 100% you might not even get 50%.
The country is divided I don’t think any one agenda should totally prevail.
I’m sorry, but some of the distortions here are simply staggering. Whoever was ranting about the Republicans wanting to “topple a sitting President”, get real. What was the Democrats sole agenda during the Bush years? Topple GW Bush, block his every move, run him over in every way possible. And those who think the TP will cease to exist tonight, you and Frank Rich haven’t got a clue. Let me repeat, yet again, TEA PARTY DOES NOT EQUAL REPUBLICAN! It’s only just beginning folks.
It seems Obama, The King, The Messiah, did in fact provide a small tax cut of some sort. I still haven’t been able to determine just where the tax cut is, but every article I’ve seen references the stimulus so apparently it’s paid for with borrowed money. And since no one has taken the expiration of the Bush tax cuts off the table we’re in for a huge tax increase soon, one that will completely wipe out Obamas tax cut. So forget the concept of any tax cuts anytime soon. And spending isn’t going down, that’s for sure. So just how do our leftist friends here see us crawling out of the hole we’re in? You guys aren;t willing to cut anywhere except defense, you don’t want to deport the illegals, you don’t want to try and entice business to remain here by cutting any costs, so how do you propose to “fix” the problems?
I don’t know about anyone else here, but we’re hurting. Fuels up, taxes are up, groceries are up and rumored to be going up by12-18% over the next 2 months, feeds up, parts are up, tires are up, lube oil is up and nobody is getting any wage increases. Better get Jimmy Carters old “Misery Index” dusted off, we’re going to need it.
When the minority leader of the Senate states openly that his main job is to ensure Obama is a one-term President, how can the Dems possibly compromsie?
It’s not as though the Repubs have shown musch interest in compromising themselves.
“What was the Democrats sole agenda during the Bush years? Topple GW Bush, block his every move, run him over in every way possible.”
Exactly, like when Democrats nearly unanimously voted to pass the Patriot Act, overwhelmingly supported the Iraq war resolutions and TARP, and had enough compromisers to easily pass the Bush tax cuts for the rich.
Utter obstructionism. Plus all those impeachment proceedings against Bush.
“I still haven’t been able to determine just where the tax cut is,”
Compare your income tax statements and get a calculator. Then check what the rate is before Obama’s tax cuts versus after.
Bret – remember that right-wing rant “53% of the country isnt paying any income tax… can you imagine!!!!” It wasnt welfare chiselers sitting on urban stoops – it was most of you who make less than 50K who got the “obama tax cuts”. Its all in the spin.
One aspect of this year’s election rhetoric and polarization that was NOT present was the Christian Right. They have been muzzled by the Republican operatives. The Christian Right rhetoric has been replaced by a faux libertarian– i.e. the Tea Party. The cynical side of me says that “they” (read Republican power brokers) have realized that the Christian Right does not have enough support to swing elections but… the disenfranchised do. Has anyone noticed the change in strategy? Is anyone paying attention to how the Republicans will change their “favored child” as it is convenient?
We might ask– why did the Christian Right agree to this? Where did their campaign dollars go? Under what banner did they find support? Whether visible or hidden?