Democracy Works!

[stevENTj]

Americans by and large have realized they've made One Big Ass Mistake, America. The Dems have had two years to make a bad situations which was the fault of both parties EVEN WORSE, Americans have realized their mistake of giving way too much power to one party, and now they're going to correct for it. With the far-left in charge of both the Oval Office and Congress with strong majorities in both houses we've seen TRILLIONS in additional national debt, unprecedented levels of spending, unprecedented federal overreach into private markets and people's personal lives, and unemployment still at 10% which means the unprecedented spending has done _nothing_, and now with the new threat of a Greek style second financial meltdown from unsustainable debt levels on the horizon.

No surprise that in polls Americans are now personally identifyng themselves as conservatives at a 40% rate and liberal at only 20%. That was actually fairly close but still leaned conservative during the last election cycle, but now it's back to more historical levels. This is an overall conservative country, not liberal, and are going to put a government in place that's hopefully a bit more to their liking.

People were displeased with the GOP in 2008 and threw them out.
Now people are even more displeased with the Donkeys in 2010 and are going to throw them out even harder.

These things go in cycles. I once saw a picture in someone's house that illustrated which party had control of the oval office and congress going all the way back to the 1800s, and what it showed was that no single party has ever held onto power for more than about 12 years at a time, with a lot of shorter term trends as well. Democracy is and has been working just fine. Just because the party YOU want to be in power is losing doesn't mean "democracy" as a whole isn't working. When the Dems took control of everything in 2008 you woudn't have found me whining about 'democracy not working' or some dumb crap like that. What I was actually saying is that people weren't paying attenion putting such hard left people (Obama, Pelosi, Reid) in power. Despite being a conservative, I might have even been able to vote for Hillary because I was never really a big McCain fan. But what I feared more than who took the White House was that Pelosi and Reid would have so much power. Look at the Congressional approval ratings and the personal approval ratings for both of them - they're MUCH lower on average than Obama himself, and they're most of what people are upset about - not Obama.

So yes, Democracy is working just fine here thank you very much.

[tcaudilllg]

Well I disagree with you. You state your opinions as though they are facts.

[olduser]

far left? you've got to be kidding me. There is basically no discussion of real left wing politics in America. State and business dominate in every sphere of influence and labor is truncated at every end.

[FDG]

wow lol americans must be still in the cold war if Obama is a far left wing guy ahahahaa

look this is far left wing:









not a boring people-pleasing meek guy @ the White House.

[stevENTj]

far left? you've got to be kidding me. There is basically no discussion of real left wing politics in America. State and business dominate in every sphere of influence and labor is truncated at every end.

uhhh... not quite. Government bailouts and takeovers of entire private industries like health care, banking, and even a car company? The massive propping up of corrupt labor unions and their contracts? Which direction do you think this is? Oh I didn't even mention, a prime piece of 'Obamacare', the requirement that all people 'must' buy health insurance is probably not even constitutional. There's lots of lawsuits gearing up to challenge that now.

wow lol americans must be still in the cold war if Obama is a far left wing guy ahahahaa

look this is far left wing:

When I say "left-wing" I'm referring to specifically American politics. Yeah, I know our left-wingers here are really quite moderate or perhaps even conservative compared to what's considered 'left-wing' in other countries. Those guys are funny.

[olduser]

uhhh... not quite. Government bailouts and takeovers of entire private industries like health care, banking, and even a car company? The massive propping up of corrupt labor unions and their contracts? Which direction do you think this is? Oh I didn't even mention, a prime piece of 'Obamacare', the requirement that all people 'must' buy health insurance is probably not even constitutional. There's lots of lawsuits gearing up to challenge that now.

When I say "left-wing" I'm referring to specifically American politics. Yeah, I know our left-wingers here are really quite moderate or perhaps even conservative compared to what's considered 'left-wing' in other countries. Those guys are funny.

Those were bad actions(the exception being nationalized healthcare). I think a real left wing movement would end the collusion between state and business and try to form a collusion of state and labor.

[FDG]

When I say "left-wing" I'm referring to specifically American politics.

I'm sorry but american politics are just a small small part of whole-world politics. I know you (americans, and western society in general) love to take the center-stage, but that's a feeling which might not correspond with reality. Obama, normalizing american politics with a whole-world political distribution, is by no means a far-left guy.

[stevENTj]

Well I disagree with you. You state your opinions as though they are facts.

It's opinion backed up with facts.

BTW what's up with all of the Glenn Beck references? Do you think he's an ILI? Don't watch him and don't listen to him, but somebody did get me a book of his once that I've never had time to read. I thought the left was all about openness, tolerance, diversity, and freedom of speech. Why would you want to sensor or muzzle (or ban) him?

[Hot Scalding Gayser]

Wow. You really are an idiot if you think this country is far-left. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. We need to be as liberal as possible IMO.

This is an overall conservative country, not liberal, and are going to put a government in place that's hopefully a bit more to their liking.

You don't get to say what this country is or isn't. That's up to many different people. And apparently, the majority of people want more left-wing stuff since they voted for Obama and not the other guy....so deal with it. Not that Obama could ever be considered a true leftie. At best he's a centrist.

[Skeptic]

This country isn't a bloody democracy, it's a place where we elect people to do the democracy for us, making it less democracy and more republic. I never voted for a damn thing and never will if our 'democratically elected leaders' have anything to do with it.

The voting we can do is a joke. It's like voting for one candidate; ultimately, they will all not support your interests equally.

So no, democracy isn't working at all over here, more like a republic that is working very well for anyone who has a membership, which is not sanctioned to you or I.

[stevENTj]

The voting we can do is a joke. It's like voting for one candidate; ultimately, they will all not support your interests equally.

Yes. Well I don't entirely agree, but I do know where you're coming from. And that's where the strong anti-incumbent attitudes are coming from. Keep throwing them out until they do what we want them to do. Like I said, the same anti-incumbent attitude currently hitting the Dems hard could easily turn around and hit the GOP in 2012 depending on how things go.

[stevENTj]

In 2008 I was puzzled as to why an overall conservative country would elect a left-wing government but whatever. I predicted things would go very very badly between 2009-2010 because the Dems are clueless on economic and business matters, like taking a fighter jet in a nose dive and hitting the afterburners rather than pulling up 'bad'. And that's exactly what happened. They have no clue how to fix things and have only made things worse, while piling on an additional and unprecedented $5 TRILLION in national debt. I predicted a huge revolt in 2010 and that's pretty much a given at this point. I also predicted that Obama would be a one-term president like most Democratic presidents in this country have been. Clinton was one of the few exceptions. Gotta wait another two years to see how that turns out.

Things work themselves out over time, and sometimes it takes a few election cycles. Part of the reason why our government was constructed the way it was was to ensure that things would indeed move slowly and that one party or group couldn't gain too much power too quickly, to sort of mediate people's tempers and emotions in difficult times. The GOP will take the House, and all house members are up for election every 2 years. They probably won't take the Senate, and only a third of them are up for election every two years, with six year terms. The House is more responsive to people's immediate needs, and being more isolated from the yearly churn the Senate can focus more on longer term goals and projects. 2010 will swing things back towards the GOP, but even then their power will still be limited. Even with strong majorities in both houses, the Dems were still more limited in what they were able to do because the moderate and conservative members of their caucuses wouldn't just go along with everything they wanted to do. Same with the GOP. There's more than a few liberal members of the GOP that won't just go along with an ultra-conservative agenda. Typically American's moods or sentiments change before any one party gains enough power to really enact ALL of what they want to do. Like I mentioned, the longest any one party ever manages to hold onto power is about 12 years here.

Democracy does work, just very slowly.

[stevENTj]

Wow. You really are an idiot if you think this country is far-left. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course. We need to be as liberal as possible IMO.

Exactly. It's not 'left-wing', yet that's the type of government that Americans elected back in 2008 which was really quite fascinating. Why do 'we' need to be as liberal as possible?

You don't get to say what this country is or isn't. That's up to many different people. And apparently, the majority of people want more left-wing stuff since they voted for Obama and not the other guy

Wrong.

If you look at historical polling data, self-identified conservatives have always out-numbered self-identified liberals in this country. Right now the polling data is showing people identifying themselves as conservatives over liberals by a 2:1 margin, 40% to 20%. Google that and you can find the polling data. The big ones out there like Pew Research among others tracks this. The thoughts among liberals after the 2008 election was that the American political landscape had dramatically and permanently changed, hence a 'left-wing' governance with respect to American politics. That mindset turned out to be dead flat wrong, and even some prominent liberal commentators and analysts have admitted this. This really is a conservative country at heart. People were justifably mad at the GOP in 2008 and threw them out. They're now even more mad at the Democrats going into 2010 and are going to throw them out too. The GOP had better watch out though. Strong dissatisfaction with both parties has created a lot of anger and an anti-incumbent attitude out there. If the GOP hoses up in the next two years, especially if they take both the House and Senate, things could easily swing back in the other direction and Obama could very well win re-election in 2012. The conditions are also ripe for the emergence of a strong centrist third-party, especially if things don't go well in the next two years.

Not that Obama could ever be considered a true leftie. At best he's a centrist.

What little political record he had as a legislator before being elected president was about as far to the left as it gets in American politics. Yes, with respect to global politics he could be considered more of a centrist but that's irrelevant here. His governance style is more moderate which people still respect. It's Pelosi and Reid that people are the most upset about, and wanting to throw out or at least strip power from. Pelosi is safe in her district but is almost assuredly going to lose the house. Taking the Senate is still a bit of a long shot for the GOP, but there's a fair chance that Reid might actually lose his reelection bid. That'd be a huge blow to the Obama admin as well.

[CloudCuckooLander]

Democracy is the worship of jackals by jackasses. It is letting an ill-informed rabble, a mob of easily-manipulated uneducated louts decide on measures related to public policy, matters generally well beyond the intellectual level of the general public. In the case of direct democracy, this involves them crashing an iron fist down on the other 49% of society - societies being pyramidial (not a word, I know) as they are, typically the more productive members of society. In the case of representative democracy, electing pandering borderline-sociopathic hacks beholden to corrupt special interest groups to make decisions because the idiotic sheeple are incapable of efficiently doing it themselves.

Frankly, an autistic monkey could come up with a better system.

[stevENTj]

Charles Krauthammer - The great campaign of 2010

Krauthammer - I like that guy. So basically 2010, no matter what happens, the brakes will be slammed on this liberal progressive agenda. But nothing will get done in the meantime. Yes, even if the GOP takes the Senate, Obama will have presidential veto which requires a two-thirds majority in the Senate to override. Won't happen. So 2010 is slamming on the brakes, and 2012 will be the real election for the people to decide which direction this country should go in. Sounds about right to me.