American elections

I confess I don't really understand the American political system or the
American psyche. The mid term elections seem to me to show America as a
country that doesn't know what it wants.

Bush and the Republicans were dumped two years and Obama was elected on
a wave of euphoria and hope. Clearly expectations were far too high so
some decline in his popularity was inevitable but I don't understand why
the voters have rounded on him and the Democrats so badly. I also
really don't get this whole "Tea Party - we hate the government" thing
either. Surely the State has to provide some things or this is simply
not accepted by a lot of Americans who seem content to see the poor
starving, without homes and without recourse to adequate health care?
They also seem happy that the government (federal or state) allow
important infrastructure to go to wrack and ruin.

I know the US economy is in a bad way with stubborn levels of
unemployment but this has hardly featured as a prominent reason for the
rise of the Republicans and the Tea Party.

What am I missing?

 

An entrepreneur mind, you crypto-commie!

 

Oh that's rich from coming from a froggie where half the country spends
half its time on strike and rioting in the street and the other half
moaning about wanting to be on strike and rioting ;-)

I don't see that entrepreneurship has to align with heartless
selfishness which is how I perceive some of the views being expressed
with ever louder voices in the US. You can see why they took so long to
recognise equal rights for non whites if this the prevailing mind set.

 

An understanding of what is really going on. This problem is shared by most
"Tea Party" supporters. It has been said that the Tea Party is an
"astroturf" movement i.e. something that appears to have grass roots but
which, when closely examined, turns out be a manufactured imitation. There
are lots of Tea Party cannon-fodder who are understandably angry that their
jobs and homes have been put at risk by the recession. However, they have
been skilfully manipulated into believing that "government" is to blame for
everything that has happened and that the solution to all their problems
lies in bible-bashing, gun-toting individualism. Meanwhile most of those
who are really responsible for what happened when the world's economy went
tits-up continue to rake in the profits and look forward to an even more
de-regulated market that will allow them to pillage even more of the US and
world economy.

Here is one example
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/13/tea-party-billionaire-koch-brothers

 

Only oil and education. For the State to provide anything else is
"socialism".

The general thinking is that poverty is simply down to not trying hard
enough. And if any sort of "charity" is needed then it's up to
individuals to give if they wish, not for the State to take and
distribute as it likes. A lot of the placards read along the lines of
"rescue America back from the government". This seems to be a genuine
sentiment rather than simply a slogan.

 

You're talkin' bout socialism, and that's an 'ism right there,
Americans don't do socialism because socialism is communism in a
dress. If you don't believe me wait until they ressurect John Wayne
and he'll tell ya straight.

Poor people don't need infrastructure, rich people can afford to build
all the infrastructure they need, and gates to keep the poor people
out.

Share options.

Health insurance..

...and a true American spirit.

But, mostly share options.

 

ITYWF that one bugbear is that vast amount of tax dollars are raised but
infrastructure continues to be sub standard in many areas.

 

The ignorance of the masses. It really is astounding. The Republicans
were responsible for the economic debacle, and the problem was so bad
that the solution will take considerable time to get out of it. Obama
said this numerous times over the last 2 years, and even before he was
elected, yet masses of people expect miracles and are pissed that he
hasn't turned the economy around instantly. So they of course want to
return power to those who got us in trouble in the first place. People
are also outraged at the Economic Stimulus Plan, which bailed out many
financial powerhouses, but that plan was created, revised, and agreed
upon by all parties when Bush was still in office. It was one of the
first bills that Obama signed when he took office.

The Tea Partyers are against government, yet they are mostly old
people who rely on Social Security and Medicare, which comprise the
largest chunk of government expenses. When you ask them what programs
they want to eliminate, the first is support for the arts, which
account for <.01% of the federal budget.

 

Not quite. The American government has 3 branches - legislative
(Congress, which is the House and the Senate,) executive (the
President,) and judicial.
Judiciary - 9 Justices of the Supreme Court are nominated by the
President and confirmed by the Senate, and serve for life. Lower
courts may be appointed or elected for various terms.
The President serves four 4 years, and a maximum of 2 terms
House terms are 2 years. Every seat in the House comes up every 2
years.
Senate terms are 6 years and 1/3 of the seats are up for election
every 2 years.
There are no term limits for House or Senate seats.
BTW, there are 2 Senators per state. House seats are apportioned by
population, currently ~650,000 per seat.

HTH.

 

ummm, Personally, I'd like to see the State do a bit more.
National security, roads, sewer, and criminal justice, at least. And
of course, criminal justice means regulating businesses to deter child
labor, environmental pollution, fraud, etc. But I don't know that
government should provide oil.

 

Well, in that sense, the heart is really Wall Street. Madison Avenue
is just the advertising face of it.

 

That'll never happen.

 

In message

And when BP provided it for free the septics got all shitty about it

 

Replace "The Republicans" with "Labour", "Obama" with "Cameron", "2
years" with "6 months" and "Bush" with "Brown" and that's what we have
here! )

 

I agree with that. I only did it for comic effect, hence the smiley.

How dare you suggest that I would buy an Apple product!

Actually, it's all Thatcher's fault. Always was, always will be.

 

Assumption is the mother of all **** ups.

 

I think it's even more simple than that.

Capitalism as it's evolved completely relies on the concept of growth,
rather than balance. It's coninualy trying to achieve growth that
causes all the negative effects.

 

Apparently you have never worked there to say something so daft

 

As seen in the stock market system where dividend was sacrificed to share
price rise, which turns the world topsy turvy.
And, in fact, that syndrome is a large part of what went wrong in America
(and here) and in reverse why the Germans have been so successful.

 

My money's on Milton Friedman.