Why Are Voters so Angry--Republican Edition (Team Blue not immune)
After a pleasant conversation with my brother, who is lefter than Bernie!--I thought about: why is the electorate so angry in 2016. So a Google search for answers was only partly rewarding. The best article about anger concerned the Republican Party: Republican Revolt First a little background: limiting my search to 2016 articles about the anger in politics 2016 style , I came across an article from January appearing in the Washington Post (WaPo), now a post-Bezos Revisionist Rag. The article in question was as out of touch as the WaPo generally is:
Angry 2016 electorate. Almost all the articles Googled up were relevant to either disaffection or general electoral disaffection. A search for Angry Democratic electorate will be made soon--in fact, some of you may have already done so.
Citing from the Atlantic article:
Comments
You have a coin to flip
One side of the coin is a depiction of an elephant, which of course, represents the republican party.
The other side depicts a donkey, which of course is the democratic party.
No matter how many times you flip the coin, you lose.
That's why we're angry.
Regardless of the path in life I chose, I realize it's always forward, never straight.
Angry voters protesting at CNN
Angry voters protesting at CNN not a story tonight on CNN.
Occupy CNN: Protest Breaks out Against the Lack of Sanders Coverage
"We've done the impossible, and that makes us mighty."
We are angry because we have no leadership
FDR had his 100 day whirlwind ushering in the New Deal. From Digital History:
JFK said that we will put a man on the moon in the decade of 1960.
Here are some goals for the next ten years:
1) Median real household income will increase by 25% and every able American will have a job
2) CO2 emissions will be cut by 50%
3) Elections will not be financed by the wealthy or by corporations
4) Health care will be a right
5) Education through 16 years will be a right.
6) Job training is a right
7) Equal pay for equal work is a right
Eight) The US respects international law, that the military can only be used for imminent defense or common goals enumerated by the Security Council.
9) ...
You get the point. I'm angry because there is almost no movement towards these goals, instead we have become a totally regressive society supporting the status quo of wealth and power. The word regressive may not be strong enough, perhaps reactionary. I can enumerate my frustrations, but I think that most people sense that something is terribly wrong as we keep doing everything the same way and get the same results, that is ... no progress.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.
In a word ... reproletarianism
The same as when the government of the
USSR collapsed and the vultures of Capital
swooped in.
BTW, search for that term and see how many hits you get.
Only connect. - E.M. Forster
I'm angry for a few reasons
Angry because too many Democrats act like Rethugs, or they're in cahoots with Rethugs, to give corporations, banks, the religious reichwingnuts, Wall Street, the military-industrial-mercenary complex too much business (and it's largely illegal and unconstitutional, to top it all off; they violate their oath of office by catering to those interests). All Dems have been for the last quarter of a century is "the lesser of two evils." Enough, already.
Angry because our legislators ignore us once they're elected. That's why we got that corporate hash known as ACA/Obamacare, and before that (under Dumbya) Medicare Part D. We all wanted something sensible, like a buy-in to Medicare (which would be cheaper than corporate insurance with deductibles), plus which there needs to be negotiations for drug prices and no deductibles for those of us who buy drugs necessary for our health. Instead, we got lame excuses like "the other side just won't go for it and we don't have the numbers." (I've never figured out the pre-counting behind the scenes, only voting on legislation if they know in advance what the vote is going to be. No one is in chambers when these clowns speak, so there's no swaying the minds of anyone when Congress is in session.) Even Dems glad-handed the corporate version(s) and lauded themselves for passing that tripe. Ugh. SCOTUS can use pretzel logic to re-name insurance premiums paid to a corporation as a tax all they want, thus eliminating the "middleman" (i.e. the US government paying insurance instead of us), that still does not render our money paid to corporate insurance companies a tax. It does mean that we are forced, by law, to contribute to the profit margins of corporations so they can pay their shareholders, pay out obscene amounts to their CEOs as bonuses, buy company jets, provide all-expenses-paid vacations to their executive officers, and the like. THAT is truly obscene. Switching over to a government-administered not-for-profit single-payer Medicare for ALL would be so much simpler and save m/billions of dollars for We the People. Even if we pay more for Medicare withholding (via paychecks and Social Security), it would still be far cheaper than paying insurance companies and/or outrageous amounts for prescription drugs.
Plus: Jobs, jobs, jobs. Switching to Medicare for ALL means hiring US residents to handle the increase in paperwork. Their paychecks would mean increases in local, state, and federal tax revenues. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.
The largest SNAFUBAR would be TPP, since pharmaceutical corporations would be one of the biggest beneficiaries for their patents, copyrights, trademarks, and selling their pills/meds for huge amounts of money once they have exclusive marketing rights. See the Hatch-Waxman Act:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Price_Competition_and_Patent_Term_Res...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Research_exemption
I got caught in that nonsense with one of my meds, see History:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colchicine#History
Most of all, I'm extraordinarily angry because so few of our legislators seem to possess any common sense. They certainly don't use it if they even have it. WTF is behind electing legislators who are known religious freaks who want to pass legislation to control women's bodies?!? Adding insult to injury, letting these freaks attach amendments for accomplishing just that to "must pass" legislation, like budget bills. There is a serious disconnect between logic and the belief systems these idiots want to impose on us, all contrary to the US Constitution's separation of church and state.
I could go on and on and on and on some more - and have done so in the past. Suffice to say, I'm really tired of so many of our elected Representatives and Senators being such awful crooks because we are only given the choice to vote "for" the lesser of two evils.
I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute ..., where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference. — President John F. Kennedy, Houston, TX, 12 September 1960
100% agreement
To paraphrase, those who are paid see things from the payor's view.
My kind, generous and somewhat-apologist view
is that much of the American public goes along through life fairly unaware of Governmental influence other than police and taxes. Unless there is a harsher nudge. Then really angry.
Every few years we are asked to pick-a-team to not bother us. There is Super Bowl TV hype to split the Read Sea and drive the rah-rahs. And then it's done and Nothing.Really.Happens that overtly affects the majority. So things slide.
Back to Super Bowl hype (or at least playoffs leading up) and suddenly many sense in 2016 something is Wrong, and some of those understand that it is like changing course in a 1000ft Laker (ship, not bb team) before it hits a bridge. Some of the division of this year's rejectionists (T or S leaners) just do not agree Port or Starboard.
Hey! my dear friends or soon-to-be's, JtC could use the donations to keep this site functioning for those of us who can still see the life preserver or flotsam in the water.
Convergence of issues
I think several things are in play.
On the economic side, Asher Edelman explains, most of us have been in a recession for the past 15 years. Titans of Wall Street video. (I believe the video I am referring to is the second one down on that page.)
On the political side, I think Billmon hits the nail on the head with his Presidential vs Congressional politics theory.
Add the two together and you have what we are experiencing today.
I think it's simple. The Why.
It's an ages old reaction to stress.
The people in America are terribly stressed.
As if the economic and societal stresses weren't bad enough. The people are under constant surveillance and their communication are monitored, and they know it.
It's an evolutionary and evolution produced reaction.
Much the same as the lion in the dark. You can't see him but you know he's there, and you know he knows your there and you know he's hungry.
I think 'They' have miscalculated.
Bernie or bust.
With their hearts they turned to each others heart for refuge
In troubled years that came before the deluge
*Jackson Browne, 1974, Before the Deluge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SX-HFcSIoU
From Conversations I've Had
And I use the term conversation loosely since I don't really talk much during them.
I have the misfortune of having a lot of thuglicans around me, both related (which is a long story) and just folks I've known for a long time. Generally these are nice people. Some are church-goers, most are not. Most are heavily armed and proud of it. All of them are living in defiant rage over the day Obama comes to snatch their Second Ammendment toys away from them.
And none of them take much nudging to start unloading their angers and frustrations. Sometimes all it takes is to say hello, and that may be because they know I'm a Democrat.
But the thing that amazes me is that, most of the stuff they're reallyreallyreally pissed off about is a complete and utter fantasy. It doesn't exist, it never happened, and isn't about to do either one.
Some of it's mild, if tragic. Like my neighbor who just signed up for Social Security. He intended to wait another year or two, but he heard Obama has passed some sort of law that shuts SS down effective May 1st. You don't sign on before that and you're SOL!
Fact, there are some minor changes coming May 1st. I told him what they were, but I'm not sure he believed me. Demoncrat ya know.
Then there are those of the paranoid delusional fringe, and they'd scare me if I wasn't trying so hard not to laugh out loud.
Like one I know who... and I swear I'm not making this up... assures me that those lines on money? Those are so when you walk into a store scanners can tell how much cash you have on you. YES! Most people don't know that. And they ("they" always being the nefarious gummint) THEY also have satellites that can scan your house to see how much cash you have stashed away.
And most people don't know about the food laws. If you have more than a thirty day supply of food, "they" can arrest you.
And if I know what's good for me, I'll put some duct tape over that little camera eye on this computer because "they" can hack in and watch me. They can also take a picture of me for their files. I came this close to enlightening her to the fact that "they" already have a picture of me. It's called a driver's license. And they have one of her too!!!!
There's a lot more, but you get the idea. And yes, some strong medications are in order on that second one.
I don't know where this shit comes from, but it's out there and the less educated and savvy among our population swallows it hook line and sinker. Especially since that brown guy has been in the WH.
The rest of us? I'd say we're angry because we're tired of having people piss on our heads and telling us it's raining.
Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons - For thou art crunchy and good with ketchup