Thursday, February 4, 2016
America Is Angry -- Everybody but Obama Knows Why
BBC News has published an article titled "Why are Americans so angry?" by Vanessa Barford, noting that : "Americans are generally known for having a positive outlook on life, but...polls show voters are angry. This may explain the success of non-mainstream candidates such as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Bernie Sanders. What is fuelling the frustration?" Barford answers with polls. A December CNN/ORC poll shows 69% of Americans are "very angry" or "somewhat angry" about "the way things are going" in the US. A November NBC/WSJ poll shows 69% are angry because the political system "seems to only be working for the insiders with money and power, like those on Wall Street or in Washington." A January NBC/Esquire survey shows 61% of Republicans, 54% of whites, 42% of Democrats, 43% of Latinos and 33% of African Americans are more angry now than a year ago. Candidates, says Barford, sense the mood and adopt their rhetoric -- Donald Trump says he is "very, very angry." Ben Carson says he has encountered "many Americans who are discouraged and angry as they watch the American dream slipping away." Even Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders says: "I am angry and millions of Americans are angry," and Hillary Clinton says she "understands why people get angry." ~~~~~ Barford gives five reasons why many voters feel the American dream is fading. (1). Economy : It has failed to deliver progress to middle-class and working-class Americans over the past 15 years, with household incomes falling. In 2014, median household income was $53,657 (US Census Bureau), compared with $57,357 in 2007 and $57,843 in 1999 (inflation-adjusted). Many jobs are lower quality or part-time. Opportunity has vanished. (2). Immigration : the US has taken in 59 million immigrants since 1965. In 1975, 84% of the American population was non-Hispanic white -- by 2015, the figure was 62%, according to Pew Research. Its projections show that by 2055 non-Hispanic whites will be only 46% of the population. "It's been an era of huge demographic, racial, cultural, religious and generational change," says Paul Taylor, author of The Next America. The US now has 11.3 million illegal immigrants, who often become a target of anger, says an immigration expert at the University of Southern California. (3). Washington : When asked if they trust the government, 89% of Republicans and 72% of Democrats say "only sometimes" or "never," Pew Research finds, and 60% of Americans think the government has too much power, says a Gallup survey, while the government has been named as the top problem in the US for the last two years -- above the economy, jobs and immigration. The appeal of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders is their ability to express frustration with what many see as a failing system. Democratic outsider Bernie Sanders calls for a political revolution. (4). America's place in the world : America is used to being a superpower but Americans who think the US "stands above all other countries in the world" fell from 38% in 2012 to 28% in 2014, Pew Research says, and 70% of Americans think the US is losing respect internationally, according to a 2013 Pew poll. The rise of China, failure to defeat the Taliban, slow progress in defeating ISIS, and fear of terrorism contribute to the anxiety. (5). Divided nation : Democrats and Republicans are deeply ideologically polarized. The typical Republican is now more conservative socially, economically and politically than 94% of Democrats, compared with 70% in 1994, according to Pew Research. The median Democrat is more leftist than 92% of Republicans, up from 64%. ~~~~~ Dear readers, the missing piece in Barford's analysis is President Obama. His rhetoric has divided Americans along racial, income, political and religious lines, turning the US into a welfare state where minorities receive Obama largesse that is paid for by a shrinking majority angry about special treatment that's socially unjust and unconstitutional. The 2016 election is about returning to the non-Hispanic white majority its fair share of America and its Constitution.
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Obama has lied and lied about his Iies so often that he has no sense of the truth and therefore has no understanding that people actually blame him for all the troubles that this country is facing.
ReplyDeleteHe can't or won't connect the dots between his lack of honest leadership and failed agenda after failed agenda.
America wakes up in the morning and finds nothing to hope for or to believe in. They believe that their America's best is behind it. And they blame Obama - no matter what the polls say
How have we got to the place that Big Gulp drinks are banned in the state of New York and marijuana smokers are welcomed even sought out in Colorado?
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot more to govern than that big, obtrusive animal that dwells inside the beltway in Washington D.C. that we call “our government.”
If the American people are angry – and they certainly are – then maybe the root cause is not the federal government but rather ourselves. Just maybe we the people are not pulling our own weight in our communities where we are the government not just the governed?
Our anger is the result of a massive federal government that is into every facet of our life. If I want a Big Gulp drink at a unhealthy fast food restaurant in New York that is my choice, not Obama’s health crazed wife in Washington DC.
We are angry because we are controlled beyond our wildest dreams just 8 years ago. We regulated, we are categorized, we are sat on a shelf (so to speak) and arranged by height, weight, color, religion, and every like and dislike imaginable. We work for 50% of our earned monies with the rest supporting a government that we have no ties to any longer because we allow it by not governing ourselves as we were once able to do.
And Obama is simply doing what the New Age politicians believe that the presidency is all about the past 50 years or so..
Action not anger can settle our plight.
And it was Obama who just a month ago in his State of the Union Address that took credit for the lower price on gasoline friends
DeleteWe finally begin to get relief at the gas pump and Obama today proposes a new $65 BILLION dollar gasoline tax. Heaven only knows what entitlement/welfare program for future potential democratic voters this theft of our dwindling disposable income will go for.
ReplyDeleteDoes no one in Washington DC feel the anguish, the total disconnect from the Federal government that exists not only in the United States, but in every country where this great power grab is in motion.
e dry day I find zone personal choice that I have lost . It's only a matter of time until they are all gone- unless we make the hard choices at the Ballot Bowe need a Congressional Constitutional upheaval NOW
We are ANGRY … but WHY? Obama for one, a Congress that is not Constitutionally functioning at all, official lies galore from every corner of this Administration, an economy that is very bad (worse than the ‘fudged’ weekly/monthly reports indicate) and may come crashing down. Employment is becoming “part-time” jobs employment. Tensions in the world are at a never before seen level.
ReplyDeleteFamilies are suffering. The California Housing market is being predicted to fall again or is falling as we speak.
We have a president that goes to a Baltimore Mosque, Terrorist Infused Mosque and speaks about the beauty and decency of the Muslim religion and its loving kindness to others. How the Muslim people are an integral, necessity for the future of the United States. Imagine Eisenhower going to Berlin and preaching the undutiful beauty, and miss-understanding of the SS and Hitler ???