According to at least two recent polls, the American public is in a funk -- or perhaps I should say, is still in a funk, or is back in a funk, or worse, is maybe showing signs of fixed and permanent funkdom.
Although, says USA Today/Gallup, 6 in 10 Americans assume "the country will be better off in three years" -- by the end, that is, of President Obama's first term -- only 1 in 4 is "satisfied with the country's direction."
That may seem incongruent, and in statistical fact it is. One could write it off as the rather typical contradictoriness of public opinion polls; or, if one is acutely mired in what appears to be the nation's chronic funkness, conclude that our characteristic optimism still yearns to be free, but is being pulled under by a countervailing current of gloom.
In short, what we may be experiencing is not so much a crisis of character, but of confidence. That's bad enough -- especially in a recessionary period, despite what the econometricians tell us -- but worse is that the latter may be corrupting the former, and with a certain lastingness.
It is instructive, I think, that a year ago an almost invisible 13 percent of the public were "satisfied with the country's direction," which was quite understandable; but today, after a thoroughgoing change in upper management, the gauge remains at a depressingly low 26.
Says Democratic pollster Peter Hart, co-conductor of the latest (and equally depressing) NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll, "The mood in America may be blue, but the attitudes toward Washington are jet black." But why so suddenly? Why did the "right direction" number uptick briefly, which it did, but plummet just as dramatically?
Why, that is, does the latest NBC/WSJ poll "highlight," above all else, "the public's disgust at Washington"?
Is it substantially, pointedly directed at Mr. Obama? No, not really. Not yet, anyway. But when it comes to the United States Congress, national confidence has disintegrated.
So much so that a whopping 46 percent of respondents to the NBC/WSJ poll "support building an independent political party to compete with the Republicans and Democrats." What's more, "nearly six in 10 (57 percent) blame both Republicans and Democrats for the partisanship in Washington" (my emphasis), to which the electorate attributes aggravating gridlock (my conclusion).
As far as I know, the public wasn't asked how much they themselves have contributed to Washington's partisan gridlock -- remember, given the Senate's current configuration, even 40 Republicans assure a do-nothing majority out of 100 -- but it's undeniable that a stultifying polarization reigns on both Capitol Hill and throughout the republic.
On the matter of Afghanistan, 47 percent of America support more troops there, 43 percent don't. Within the health-care debate, 38 percent believe the proposed reforms are a good idea, 42 percent don't. On the (recently deceased or dying) public option, 48 percent favor it, 42 percent don't.
And when it comes to the folks in charge -- that sizable body elected to do the nation's housekeeping, the Democratic Party -- only 42 percent of the electorate which put them there have a favorable opinion of them, which, one assumes, means at least 42 percent hold an unfavorable opinion. The rest, one further assumes, are through caring.
But what can we make of all this?
Third-party advocates will be inspired by the remarkably high percentage of support for an independent party, but American political history stands vigorously athwart their higher hopes. Good or bad, the contemporary two-party system has a lock on both the electorate's ultimate actions and "the system" itself.
In other words, we are (as is Obama) stuck with the folks who have brought us gridlock -- and both political parties just happen to be quite content with that. As long as each member of Congress services the basest of ideological allegiances, fragmented as they are -- be they hyperliberal or pseudoconservative or even milquetoasted -- he or she will be returned to Congress. That is, he or she will have achieved the highest of ideals among modern American pols: one's own reelection.
The outcome? An utterly disarrayed, dysfunctional Congress, an institutional joke. There is, in reality, no majority party -- just 535 separate fiefdoms of self-preservationism -- and thus little national accountability (a few local lords do trade seats from time to time), and thus no national confidence in a representative democracy infused with a comprehensive and guiding vision.
Put simply, we are adrift, and there's no sign of a rope. And that leads to a massive, and possibly inescapable, funk.
Buzz this on Buzzflash.net
Hmm, must be a quiet day to
Hmm, must be a quiet day to justify pure boilerplate.
Another spooky, scary polarized Carpy funk
Carpy deludes, "In short, what we may be experiencing is not so much a crisis of character, but of confidence."
Carpy, did you ever once think that the "crisis of confidence" is caused by the "crisis of character"?
Perhaps your own "crisis of character" is getting in the way?
Oh, and by the looks of your pathetically dark and gloomy rant today, you are off your anti-depressant meds, again.
Or perhaps this is the cause:
'the [Healthcare] bill does include a “medium-strength” public option, in which the public plan would negotiate payment rates — defying the predictions of pundits [like Carpy] who have repeatedly declared any kind of public-option plan dead. It also includes more generous subsidies than expected, making it easier for lower-income families to afford coverage. And according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, almost everyone — 96 percent of legal residents too young to receive Medicare — would get health insurance.'
~ Paul Krugman
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/opinion/30krugman.html?_r=1&th&emc=th
Hmmm, that does not look like any "crisis of character" or "crisis of confidence"!
Now if you really want to see character AND confidence on steroids:
Why I Am Risking Arrest for Medicare for All
By Margaret Flowers, M.D., Congressional Fellow, Physicians for a National Health Program
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/47390
What Is Independent?
So what is the independent party that 46% of Americans want? Unfortunately in the national discourse, "independent" is almost always assumed to be "moderate", as in halfway between Liberal and Conservative. But I doubt that, especially in this context.
The comments section of this blog site gives ample evidence that a goodly number of that 46% would very much like to form a Progressive Party or a strong Socialist Party. The Teabaggers and the NY-23 race suggests similar support for a Conservative "Independent" Party.
There is also a final third who would like a Moderate "Independent" Party. I have never really understood what such a beast would really be. Would it be comprised of people with Liberal social values who want lower tax rates? Or maybe it would be people want stronger social safety nets but a robust military approach to the Mideast. Or maybe it be people who are naturaly contrarians who just like claiming to be "independent" to buttress their critical thinking bone fides. It is probably all of the above and then some, which means they will never form an "independent" party.
The real cause for a large thirst for an "independent" party is two-fold. First, the Republicans and Conservatives are having a crisis of faith. So a large portion of the Republican Party seeks to find their Promised Land by becoming even more conservative, whatever that means. In a religious analogy, Dad is giving up smoking and drinking, has thrown out the TV and takes the family to church three times a week. But Party Republicans, no matter how much they might agree with the teabaggers, know they just can't sell an extreme form of conservatism.
Democrats are having the opposite problem. After 30 years of villification of the word "Liberal", many Democrat leaders run around with their hair afire at the thought of a political ad painting them as a Liberal. We progressives have a different viewpoint. We stood our ground and watched the world come to us. We watched a large majority of the country come to share the ideas we already had about Iraq, W, regulation, healthcare and so forth. So, we can clearly see that current progressive benchmarks are not radical.
This where Obama has let us down and confused the country. yes, his moderation is appealing to many. So he has high personal appeal. But unlike Ronald Reagan, he is NOT unapologetically selling progressivism. So, the people in the middle are not getting a clear choice between us and the Teabaggers. Further, we on the Left believe an opportunity is being squandered. So we are also disaffected.
Thus, about half of us are singing "Is that all that there is? ...".
And We Do What About This?
I'm beginning to wonder about you, Carpenter! The nation gets to the point where a forward-thinking journalist could begin a public movement toward accomplishing real change in our society, and you begin to preach that it can't be done and why. You did this with the public option, and now you do it with the third-party option.
I will stipulate that the list of problems you present are real and viable, but you concede defeat long before the first shot is even fired. Is this something you were infected by from blindly following Obama so closely? We know from Limbaugh and the other flaming Nazi gasbags blathering daily on hate radio that people can be led. Why are we progressives not learning from how they do it? Why aren't we tailoring our message for their easy consumption? Or is that too hard? OK then - just declare defeat and go back to the World Series.
Surely pushing for the third party would take some effort, and all it might achieve would be some temporary improvement in the behavior of those entrenched interests who are, as you correctly write, content with only bringing us gridlock. But maybe in the course of pursuing a third option, the people will begin to understand that gridlock is the ultimate goal in political conservatism, for the prevention of change locks in advantages for the few at the expense of the many.
The pressure toward this revelation will continue to grow as the condition of the typical American remains worsening. That is what these polls tell us. That is the energy we need to harness before the corporofascists do.