Do you think the economy will improve in 2009?

Do you think the economy will improve in 2009?

  • Yes :-)

    Votes: 24 52.2%
  • No :-(

    Votes: 22 47.8%

  • Total voters
    46
  • Poll closed .
This mess is a long way from "over" -- whatever that means.

I have to laugh when I see folks attempting to place blame on Democrats or Republicans. Who's fault is this mess? I put it squarely on the electorate, the citizens, the dopey masses who allow Democrats and Republicans to fool them over and over again. And we allow them to point fingers at each other when both parties are entirely complicit for the wars, the wasted lives, the financial disasters, all of it.

Sadly, most people are really not that interested in the truth. Instead, they continue to look for a saviour in some elected politician who will tell them what they want to hear. We may have finally reached that point where the truth has begun to overtake us. I hope so.

Believe it or not, this is the best part of democracy. It may not have start out as a blame game but when things goes wrong you can always trace whom did what and why.

Some of you said it's citizen's fault, for over-spending, falling for political rhetoric... This is a country that encourages it's citizens to have dreams and dream big and work hard/smart to accomplish those dreams. You take away that stuff and we'll all be living in boxes singing Kumbaya.
 
How do major changes come about?

How do major changes come about?

Let’s list some major changes for reference purposes.

  • Voting rights for Women (Women’s Suffrage)
  • FDR’s new deal (Social Security, Medicare, Disability)
  • Bonus Army (G.I. Bill)
  • Voting rights for minorities (Civil Rights Act)
Were the changes listed above written into law by our Congressional Representatives because they believed it was the right thing to do? Of course not, We the People demanded these changes. Marches and protests occurred at the Federal, State and Local levels with sufficient numbers to suggest that these rulers may be removed from power if they failed to act.

No “ruling class” in the entire scope of human history rules in a manner that favors the lower class over the ruling . Those rare deviations from this business as usual self serving stance, occurs only when a ruling class feels threatened with the loss of power brought about by a unified uprising from the lower class.

Real unity is where I am headed with this.

Real change requires unity, movements require unity, Democracy itself requires unity. Without our collective public interest and participation, We the People are effectively asleep at the wheel. However, public interest and participation is ostensibly rendered null and void due to a lack of being accurately informed.

The Nation’s Megaphone, the Television media that most of us rely upon to inform our opinions are overwhelmingly peopled with spin doctors whose primary job it seems is to make us all take sides and thereby suppress unity. We essentially become fans of the Red team or the Blue team.

If you are worried about the course ahead for your Nation’s ship of state? Firstly we must recognize that we are ALL aboard this ship of state. We are the crew, we are on the same team. Every race, creed, color denomination or party. Listen to the diversity of opinions your shipmates have to offer, become informed, find a consensus and then inform your ship’s Captain that he might wish to make a course correction, or else!
 
otherthoughts,

I think that some of the issues you raise do have an impact. I think the biggest issue though is that policy making and peoples priorities for change are tend to be geared towards the short term while many of the problems the world faces are long term. E.g. A U.S. President is only in power for about 3 years (before campaigning begins again) and can only be elected twice - i.e. in office total of 8 years with 6 being "active" duty. So it would be difficult to apply policy which creates short term pain in order to solve a problem that won't manifest during their term of office.
Same thing happens with corporations. They need to show positive results to stock holders quarter to quarter and annually. Shareholders are not interested in promises of results decades in the future.

It's worth revisiting Charlie Chaplin's words from the Great Dictator as much of what he said then still applies:
YouTube - The Great Dictator - speech

best, gordon p

my photos here: Gordon Pritchard's Photography
my print blog here: Quality In Print
my sketches here: Sketches by Gordon Pritchard
 
otherthoughts,

I think that some of the issues you raise do have an impact. I think the biggest issue though is that policy making and peoples priorities for change are tend to be geared towards the short term while many of the problems the world faces are long term. E.g. A U.S. President is only in power for about 3 years (before campaigning begins again) and can only be elected twice - i.e. in office total of 8 years with 6 being "active" duty. So it would be difficult to apply policy which creates short term pain in order to solve a problem that won't manifest during their term of office.
Same thing happens with corporations. They need to show positive results to stock holders quarter to quarter and annually. Shareholders are not interested in promises of results decades in the future.

It's worth revisiting Charlie Chaplin's words from the Great Dictator as much of what he said then still applies:
YouTube - The Great Dictator - speech

best, gordon p

my photos here: Gordon Pritchard's Photography
my print blog here: Quality In Print
my sketches here: Sketches by Gordon Pritchard

I agree with you Gordo about our collective nearsightedness as a people. As an antidote I recommend we become acquainted with our collective human history. Doing so gives us the altitude required to see more clearly.

However I do not agree with your argument regarding term limits. I would argue that my "Major Change list" occurred despite the term limits. Perhaps you are suggesting that we have somehow lost this capacity? (BTW thanks for your understanding my Northern Neighbor).

Thanks for the Chaplin link, I enjoyed it greatly, the irony is fantastic!

For real inspiration though, nothing beats the histories and sacrifices of those rare souls among us who've born any burden in exchange for better days for all ahead. We all know their names, Mandela, Ghandi, King, Susan B. Anthony, the Bonus Army, etc. etc.

I believe that more understanding brings, more understanding. More war brings, more war. More community brings, more community. More suffering brings, more suffering.

Which leads me to the informed conclusion, pursue what you want more of.

Best Regards Gordo
otherthoughts
 
The Nation’s Megaphone, the Television media that most of us rely upon to inform our opinions are overwhelmingly peopled with spin doctors whose primary job it seems is to make us all take sides and thereby suppress unity. We essentially become fans of the Red team or the Blue team.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Check out The Real News for analysis and reporting you will not find in our so-called "free press."
 
The Nation’s Megaphone, the Television media that most of us rely upon to inform our opinions are overwhelmingly peopled with spin doctors whose primary job it seems is to make us all take sides and thereby suppress unity. We essentially become fans of the Red team or the Blue team.

I couldn't agree more with this statement. Check out The Real News for analysis and reporting you will not find in our so-called "free press."

prepress@labels
Thanks for the link to the Real News site, they sure make it easy to hear other points of view.

The results of a study looking at TV news sources and the degree of viewer misinformation regarding the Iraq War is attached to this post. It clearly shows that there are differences. Specific source rankings start on pg-15.
 
otherthoughts:

this is a very indepth study on republican misperception. I wonder exactly how they came up with the numbers for which news sourch they used. You should check out www.howobamagotelected.com for even more slightly biased reporting.

rob
 
otherthoughts:

this is a very indepth study on republican misperception. I wonder exactly how they came up with the numbers for which news sourch they used. You should check out www.howobamagotelected.com for even more slightly biased reporting.

rob

Thank you rob!

Your link pointed out with appropriate clarity that members of BOTH/ALL political parties are often misinformed in many crucial ways. My apologies to rob and all readers of this thread for my lack of respect.

As I was writing this reply I began to wonder(a nasty habit, I know). I began to wonder how much better, if at all, the voting public would be informed if they had spent equal amounts of time viewing the entire gamut of TV news sources?

My guess is that the viewers would receive a more balanced throughput, however that more balanced throughput would still be bounded by the range of opinion expressed within the scope of TV news. My curiosity being; how much misinformation would be eliminated by this balanced throughput? My personal guess is, roughly 40% might be eliminated, the remaining 60% likely requires an overall greater interest and participation from the Voting public.

Anyone else care to hazard a guess? Come-on, otherwise I'll start to wonder again, and I'm trying to break the wondering habit:D

Ya done good rob!
Best Regards
otherthouhts
 

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