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Title: Down on the Fourth of July: the United States of gloom (unprecedented uncertainty and self-doubt)
Source:
the Daily Telegraph
URL Source: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/t ... ly-the-united-states-of-gloom/
Published: Jul 3, 2011
Author: Toby Harnden
Post Date: 2011-07-03 22:26:08 by Hondo68
Keywords: anxiety and anger, deeply disillusioned with Obam, good times will never return
Views: 18982
Comments: 32
The Stars and Stripes flying in Beaufort, South Carolina. Photo: Toby Harnden NEWS REVIEW: America’s deepening recession and widespread pessimism about the country’s prospects add a bitter note to Independence Day, reports Toby Harnden, US Editor. Across America today, people will gather for barbecues in their backyards, parades through their towns and firework displays lighting up the night sky. They’ll be celebrating Independence Day – the birthday of the United States and the 235th anniversary of shaking off the oppressive yoke of British rule. On this day in 1776 a group of 13 colonies broke away to found a new nation free to govern itself as it saw fit, pledging that each citizen would have the unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. A nation, as Americans are apt to declare without equivocation, which became the greatest on the face of the earth. That’s the good news. On the flip side, however, a country whose hallmark has always been a sense of irrepressible optimism is in the grip of unprecedented uncertainty and self-doubt. With the United States mired in three foreign wars, beaten down by an economy that shows few signs of emerging from deep recession and deeply disillusioned with President Barack Obama, his Republican challengers and Congress, the mood is dark. The last comparable Fourth of July was probably in 1980, when there was a recession, skyrocketing petrol prices and an Iranian hostage crisis, with 53 Americans being held in Tehran. Frank Luntz, perhaps America’s pre-eminent pollster, argues that his countrymen are much more downbeat now than in 1980. “The assumption with the Carter years was that it was a failure of the elites, not the system. We thought the people in charge screwed up. We didn’t blame ourselves.” Remarkably, many Americans think things will only get worse and the good times will never return. A recent New York Times/CBS poll found that 39 per cent think that “the current economic downturn is part of a long-term permanent decline and the economy will never fully recover”. That was up from 28 per cent last October. Last month, a CNN poll found that 48 per cent of Americans believe another Great Depression is somewhat or very likely. Luntz has found that 44 per cent of Americans believe their country’s best days are in the past, 57 per cent that their children will not achieve the same quality of life, and 53 per cent that they are less free than five years ago. So what is going on? How did the land of the free, the home of the brave, and a country that less than three years ago elected a young, untested black man as president on a platform of hope and change, get into this funk? The parlous state of the economy is only part of the explanation. More significant is the recession’s length. Obama’s promise of a national transformation after the Bush years, moreover, means that the thud of coming back down to earth has been that much harder. The intoxicating atmosphere of the 2008 election and Obama’s inauguration has given way to a hangover. Americans were promised that the $787 billion Obama stimulus package would cut unemployment by funding so-called “shovel-ready projects”. Instead, unemployment is at 9.1 per cent compared to the 7.8 per cent Obama inherited, while the national deficit has tripled from less than $500 billion to a staggering $1.5 trillion. To add insult to injury, at a recent gathering of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, during a discussion about the length of time it took to get projects funded, a smiling Obama interjected: “Shovel-ready was not as shovel- ready as we expected.” Members of the council sitting around him tittered but most Americans were not amused. There is gridlock in Washington over raising the national debt ceiling, with Democrats demanding tax increases as well as deficit reduction, and Republicans adamant that no taxes will be increased. In a characteristic illustration of a bipartisan assumption of bad faith in such debates, Democrats have accused Republicans of wanting to damage the economy as part of a plot to harm Obama’s re-election chances. The US Treasury is warning of “catastrophic economic and market consequences” if no deal is reached in July and the country defaults on its debts, though there are signs that both sides would prefer this to political compromise. Obama summed up the Republican position as “Are you willing to compromise your kids’ safety so some corporate-jet owner can get a tax break?” Six times, he mentioned the scourge of tax breaks for corporate jets. To the uninitiated, it might have appeared that eliminating these evil tax breaks might make a significant dent in the national debt. But it was quickly calculated that doing so would save about $3 billion over the next decade, or 0.03 per cent of the $9.5 trillion in cumulative new debt contained in Obama’s current budget plan. On foreign policy, there was a brief spasm of celebration over the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But Obama’s decision, against military advice, to capitalise on this by withdrawing 33,000 US troops from Afghanistan has been accompanied by a sense that the US is retreating, if not surrendering. It was on the Fourth of July last year that General David Petraeus assumed command in Afghanistan and declared: “We are in this to win.” But in announcing his recent decision to withdraw troops, there was no mention by Obama of winning or victory – or, for that matter, of Petraeus, who is returning home to take over the CIA. Futhermore, having cast doubt on American exceptionalism, Obama has allowed Europe to spearhead the Libya operation, prompting a White House aide to coin the term “leading from behind”. But Americans do not just blame Obama; and the national malaise is to do with far more than one president. “Every institution in America has gone through a collapse," says Luntz. “The Church is not what it was, thanks to all those religious scandals, the media is much less trusted today than it was 20 or 30 years ago. Big business does not have credibility.” The growth of blogging, social media and cable TV together with the decline of the broadcast networks and papers like the New York Times means Americans have access to more news, but this is often partial and drowned out by opinion. Because there is greater choice, more and more Americans are choosing to read only things that reinforce their existing beliefs, shutting out the other side. When Republican presidential candidates Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann made assertions about historical events, their supporters rushed to Wikipedia to change entries about those events – altering reality to advance their argument. “It means a lot more shouting,” says Luntz. “It means a much less unified America on the Fourth of July and a lot more division. You’ll hear a lot more political arguments while we’re watching the parades. While we will appreciate the celebration of tradition, there’s so much anxiety and anger that it makes it really unpleasant.” One of the few news stories of recent months that prompted unanimity across the political divide was the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then head of the International Monetary Fund, on suspicion of raping a chambermaid in a New York hotel. Only in America, most people here agreed, could the rights of an African immigrant trump those of a powerful, arrogant politician. But even that illusion was shattered last week when it turned out that the accusing woman was a liar with criminal ties who allegedly hoped to profit from the incident. Now, the sleazy Frenchman is poised to resume his presidential quest, doubtless to be fuelled by Gallic anti-Americanism, back home. The 2010 mid-term elections showed that the Tea Party movement, drawing its small-government, low-tax inspiration from the revolutionaries who overthrew the British, was a phenomenon that could turn American politics upside down. Previous elections had been about choosing the lesser of two evils but 2010 was about throwing the bums out. Luntz, a Republican, predicts that 2012 will be a “none of the above” contest. What is needed above all is optimism: it is a prerequisite for the risk-taking needed to invest and start new businesses. Its absence could turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy as belief in American decline helps ensure that the halcyon years are indeed in the past. The 1980 election was won by Ronald Reagan with his “Morning in America” message. Today, a 10ft bronze statue of Reagan will be unveiled outside the US Embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square, which, in another sign of the times, is due to move to Battersea next year because of concerns about its vulnerability to terrorists. Thus far, there is no sign of a new Reagan emerging. More worryingly, the optimism he embraced and came to personify is all but absent in America this Fourth of July.
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#1. To: hondo68 (#0)
Reagan's policies led to this collapse - ironic.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Reagan led us to the boom in the 90's. Clinton deserves some credit also for doing a passable job on sending the budget towards balanced. He did a better job then Bush. There are many factors that lead us to where we were. Some of the factors include parents not bringing up their kids with a proper work ethic. There are a lot of lazy people out there. What we need to do now is get the democrats out of power permanently. Get a conservative in office who will destroy everything the liberals did to stain this great nation.
Where did those big deficits come from that Clinton balanced?
LBJ is and FDR are the major reasons for the budget. Get rid of their unconstitutional laws and we will be better off.
Herbie Pappy Bush.
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
That would be Poppy.
I have what I consider to be a stupid question.... Why do some people think Clinton balanced the budget when he had nothing to do with it other than sign what came across his desk from the House and Senate????? The only thing Clinton "DID" was Monica!!!!!
When asked by a Liberal what I bought my Granddaughter for her 1st birthday I replied, "MORE AMMUNITION"!!!!
He started deficit reduction in 1992 with the tax increases. He supported deficit reduction throughout his presidency.
Clinton never balanced the budget. They only had a projected balance in the future. It never happened. He does deserve some credit for signing on the the Republican spending cuts.
And that was the beginning of what we are going through right now.....
When asked by a Liberal what I bought my Granddaughter for her 1st birthday I replied, "MORE AMMUNITION"!!!!
Did he really have a choice if he wanted to be re-elected????? Of course he could have been stupid and vetoed any balanced budget legislature and only served one term (which would have been good for the American people and our economy). Maybe then we wouldn't have had to suffer through the current idiots term....
When asked by a Liberal what I bought my Granddaughter for her 1st birthday I replied, "MORE AMMUNITION"!!!!
That's probably the only decent thing he's ever done in his life....... Too bad the Monica scandal didn't hit the papers in his first term......
When asked by a Liberal what I bought my Granddaughter for her 1st birthday I replied, "MORE AMMUNITION"!!!!
Why did you skip the Bush recession before the Clinton boom? That's 4 years in between.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
There was no Clinton boom. Things lag. We are now in the Clinton/Bush, Obama economy.
Conservatives are dead. It is the ideology of soon to die off white racists who were shafted by their own party's free market ideology which they were tricked into accepting and lost their jobs to China as the rich in America laugh at them. The free market did not create the middle class in America after WW2 but union wages in union manufacturing shops. And the Reagonomics crowd convinced you all that that was a bad thing. Now your jobs are in China. The future generations will piss on your graves.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
You have to be black to keep throwing out this racist crap. By the way Clinton signed NAFTA not Reagan.
The deregulated economy of the Reagan era - accepted by Clinton as well - created the collapse of the Western economic model. You are of the opinion this is a long recession. It is in fact, a civilizational collapse. Your ideology is as failed as communism. The economies that are flourishing right now - are those built around the social model of the German state - mixed economies that are regulated by the state with a safety net. America is dead. It is just a third world country with nukes now. Good riddance. The world is better off without the yankee filth.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Why do you hate freedom? Can't you make it on your own? The problem isn't deregulation. The problem is slave labor goods flooding our markets. No one is against all regulations. Some are obviously needed. But there are still way to many regulations. More regulations means less freedom. So again why do you hate freedom so much. I never hear you liberals talking about freedom. Unless it is something sicko like the supposed freedom to murder baby humans. Liberals are they type of people who smash bird eggs.
Why do you assume I support Clinton or the Democrats in general? Because I consider the Republicans the crazy peoples party now? The Democrats at least sound sane even if I think they are also a captive party of the Military Industrial Complex.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
I know you don't support Clinton. I'm just pointing out that he along with Newt and the gang signed us up for that terrible deal You probably like Hitler better then conservatives.
You don't know shit about freedom. The Athenians who invented the concept of freedom - and this is a point agreed to by every thinker on the matter - considered a person who did not own their own lively hood a slave. That means an "employee" who was paid a salary in ancient Athens was still considered a "slave" (servant) because he was dependent on another person for his wages. A man who depends on another for their life is not free. That includes small business owners - they depend on customers. The Athenians considered freedom came when a man could grow his own food - not dependent on others for his life. When America had free surplus land, after we ran off the Indians, people could own enough land to be self sufficient. That ended in the late 19th - early 20th century. That requires a new paradigm to make sure that the people can be free from the power of those richer then them rather than dependent on them. So in reality, you hate freedom under the pathetic (and failed) economic system you advocate.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
What a dumb comment. What if someone wants to start their own business. They aren't free? You're a nut.
Godwin's law states that the first person to use Nazi in an online argument is a loser. (That's a real thing - look it up).
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Nope. That is why the Founding Fathers had property clauses for voting and not "small business owner" as a criteria. Reality just kicked you in the face.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
A few years ago in Kansas you could get free land. I don't know if it is sill in effect.
You praise Germany and socialism. You sound like a German Socialist. What was the German socialists called again?
Christian Democrats. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890558,00.html Monday, May 25, 1953 Looking out over devastated Europe at war's end in 1945 the journalists of the world—plain reporters and exalted pundits—considered the future and, to a man, came to the same conclusion: Europe would go left and socialist. The right, dishonored by the Petains and Papens, and by its devotion to 19 century capitalism, was doomed. The center, caught between the stridencies of right & left, and forced to choose, would have to go left. Communists and Socialists had made a name in the undergrounds and concentration camps. And in the end, Socialism, the wave of the future, would triumph, as it had in Scandinavia long before, and in Britain only recently. The experts were wrong. Instead, postwar Europe's dominant force turned out to be Christian Democracy. Today, Christian Democrats govern or share heavily in the governing of every war-torn country of Western Europe; most of their Premiers and all of their foreign ministers (except The Netherlands') are Christian Democrats. All are disciples of European unity, all share an overall philosophy, all—perhaps by political accident—are Roman Catholics. When Italy's De Gasperi, West Germany's Adenauer and France's Bidault sit down to negotiate a treaty or discuss the future, they draw from a common religious inspiration that sees Europe reunited as it was before Europe burst asunder in post-Reformation strife. They share, too, the paradox of having come to power frankly religious men, in a Europe heavily influenced since the Age of Enlightenment by secularistic and often anti-religious political doctrine. In such a scene, the Christian Democrats have learned not to accent their sectarian differences, but to stress what they have in common. What is their credo? Fundamentally, it is the common heritage of Western civilization, a Judeo-Christian heritage with which men of all faiths may agree. Their basic philosophical faith may be generally stated as a belief in 1) the fatherhood of God, 2) the brotherhood of man, 3) the essential dignity of man, and 4) the right of the individual to hold and administer private property, subject to his responsibilities to his fellowmen. Christian Democracy began as a Christian Socialism and gradually moved towards center and right. Originally, its intention was to escape the bleak godlessness of both left and right, while avoiding the charge of church domination, particularly domination by the Vatican. Trying to oppose materialism, while meeting it on its own good ground of material welfare for all, involves difficulties. "The Christian is a citizen of two worlds," says Catholic Philosopher Heinrich Rommen, "the City of God and the City of Man. He is destined for the former, but he must live and work for his salvation in the latter." From a deep and common tap root, the Christian Democrats of Europe branch out in a variety of directions. Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890558,00.html#ixzz1RErqEX97
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Wrong..Nazis. Are you sayint "christian democrats" are nazis? Or at least like nazis?
They're not nationalist enough to be Nazi's, so they're Fascists. They want one big socialist government to run the whole world. Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
Yea, Fascist were known for strong human rights values and for holding regular elections. PS: America has more people in prison now than the Nazis ever placed in camps.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
Can you see the European Union packing up the Acropolis and shipping it to Dubai, from your window? You Greek socialists sure know how to spread the ol' wealth! The rich oil Sheiks thank you. Too bad all of the rich people were bled dry, or you could have taxed them some more. It's all due to insufficient socialism. /s
Obama's watch stopped on 24 May 2008, but he's been too busy smoking crack to notice.
The EU is socialist? Then why are they demanding Greece privatize her assets? Americans are inbred retards it seems - well the online conservative versions in any case. How can I respect you even less, hondo? We can find out by you making even stupider fact challenged statements.
"Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!" - Various Tea Party signs.
. Today, a 10ft bronze statue of Reagan will be unveiled outside the US Embassy in London’s Grosvenor Square, which, in another sign of the times, is due to move to Battersea next year because of concerns about its vulnerability to terrorists. Thus far, there is no sign of a new Reagan emerging.
#2. To: Godwinson (#1)
Reagan's policies led to this collapse - ironic.
#3. To: A K A Stone (#2)
Reagan led us to the boom in the 90's.
#4. To: NewsJunky (#3)
#5. To: NewsJunky (#3)
Where did those big deficits come from that Clinton balanced?
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#6. To: hondo68 (#5)
#7. To: NewsJunky (#3)
Where did those big deficits come from that Clinton balanced?
#8. To: CZ82 (#7)
(Edited)
I have what I consider to be a stupid question.... Why do some people think Clinton balanced the budget when he had nothing to do with it other than sign what came across his desk from the House and Senate?????
#9. To: CZ82 (#7)
#10. To: NewsJunky (#8)
He started deficit reduction in 1992 with the tax increases.
#11. To: NewsJunky (#8)
He supported deficit reduction throughout his presidency.
#12. To: A K A Stone (#9)
He does deserve some credit for signing on the the Republican spending cuts.
#13. To: A K A Stone (#2)
Reagan led us to the boom in the 90's.
#14. To: Godwinson (#13)
Why did you skip the Bush recession before the Clinton boom? That's 4 years in between.
#15. To: A K A Stone (#2)
What we need to do now is get the democrats out of power permanently. Get a conservative in office who will destroy everything the liberals did to stain this great nation.
#16. To: Godwinson (#15)
Conservatives are dead. It is the ideology of soon to die off white racists
#17. To: A K A Stone (#14)
There was no Clinton boom. Things lag. We are now in the Clinton/Bush, Obama economy.
#18. To: Godwinson (#17)
The deregulated economy of the Reagan era - accepted by Clinton as well - created the collapse of the Western economic model.
#19. To: A K A Stone (#16)
By the way Clinton signed NAFTA not Reagan.
#20. To: Godwinson (#19)
#21. To: A K A Stone (#18)
Why do you hate freedom? Can't you make it on your own?
#22. To: Godwinson (#21)
That includes small business owners - they depend on customers.
#23. To: A K A Stone (#20)
You probably like Hitler better then conservatives.
#24. To: A K A Stone (#22)
They aren't free?
#25. To: Godwinson (#21)
When America had free surplus land,
#26. To: Godwinson (#23)
#27. To: A K A Stone (#26)
What was the German socialists called again?
#28. To: Godwinson (#27)
Christian Democrats.
#29. To: A K A Stone (#28)
(Edited)
Or at least like nazis?
Mussolini in Italy
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#30. To: hondo68, A K A Stone (#29)
They're not nationalist enough to be Nazi's, so they're Fascists.
#31. To: Godwinson (#30)
"We (government) need to do a lot less, a lot sooner" ~Ron Paul
#32. To: hondo68 (#31)
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