[lbo-talk] Americans pissed, sez Greenberg

[Carl Remick]

On 10/30/07, Doug Henwood <dhenwood at panix.com> wrote:
> <http://www.democracycorps.com/reports/analyses/
> Democracy_Corps_October_30_2007_Memo.pdf>
>
> RE: FINDING THEIR VOICE AS THE AGENTS OF CHANGE
>
> The state of the country and the Democrats on[e] year before 2008
> election
>
> If Americans have ever been angrier with the state of the country, we
> have not witnessed
> it; certainly not in 1992 when discontented voters brought the
> Republican Party down to an
> historic low, giving one in five of their votes to an unstable 3rd
> party candidate and putting Bill
> Clinton in the White House.  The scale of today's discontent is
> evident in the 70 percent who
> now say the country is off on the wrong track and in George Bush's
> job approval and personal
> ratings, now at their lowest levels ever.

I'm surprised no one nailed me on this, but when I quoted columnist
David Brooks in an earlier post today -- concerning Americans' high
level of satisfaction with their personal lives and prospects -- I
took his remarks completely out of context.  Since I consider Brooks
perhaps the greatest flaming asshole in journalism today, I feel no
guilt about misusing his prose.  However, I am confounded by his point
-- i.e., polls show that Americans think their private lives are just
ducky, but they also think the wheels are coming off the nation as a
whole.

If that isn't proof positive that Americans are dumber than shit, I
don't know what would qualify.  I mean, how do you make sense of
Americans' typical POV:  "Yes, the ship of state is sinking fast, but
my own cabin is warm and comfy.  So put me down as being personally
clam-happy."

Carl