 by Chris HayesStory of the Week, Up w/ Chris Hayes |
COMMENTARY
This week the Republican party gathered in Tampa to tell a terrible and tragic tale of American decline. They couldn't quite say that, explicitly, of course. This is the party of Reagan and sunny optimism, or so they'd like to present themselves, but you couldn't help notice that the three days of speeches on the convention floor were an orgy of imagined persecution, grievance and doleful recollections of halcyon days gone by.
But the packaging for this message was insistent invocation of American greatness. As Rachel Maddow's team documented in a montage for MSNBC's convention coverage, almost every single speaker told a story of upward mobility, usually taken from their own family's past: tracing the arc of the American dream that had brought them to the podium.
Part of this is just standard political treacle, a way for, say, an extremely wealthy prep school graduate like Ann Romney, to seem relatable. But the larger reason this was such a dominant theme at the RNC is that the Republican Party's platform and tribal identity are zealously committed to the notion of American exceptionalism, and when people talk about American exceptionalism, this is usually what they mean.
The notion that America was different and better than other countries, particularly its ancestors in Europe, precedes America's ascension to the role of sole super-power and global hegemon. That America, unblemished by the legacy of feudalism, a land without nobles and royalty, was a place where each man could rise to any station in life.
Sen. Marco Rubio: "America was founded on the principle that every person has God-given rights... That power belongs to the people. That government exists to protect our rights and serve our interests. That no one should be trapped in the circumstances of our birth. That we should be free to go as far as our talents and work can take us.
Or as Mike Huckabee put it:
"Our Founding Fathers left taxation and tyranny seeking religious liberty and a society of meritocracy rather than aristocracy."
We should note that there is something more than a little odd about the celebration of American meritocracy at a convention convened to nominate a business executive turned governor turned presidential candidate who rose from humble origins as the son of a business executive turned governor turned presidential candidate. A convention that on the same night in which Mike Huckabee decried the aristocracy of foreign lands, featured Senator Rand Paul, son of congressman Ron Paul, uncorking a litany of up by the bootstraps stories shortly before the screening of a video that celebrated the last two Republican presidents, one the son of the other, who, himself, was the son of a senator.
Somewhat oddly almost every single one of the stories of "we-built-it," plucky American success didn't revolve around the speakers own experience of social mobility but rather that of their hardworking relatives and ancestors. It struck me, listening to these invocations of the labors of previous generations as a slightly odd note, a backward looking tour of nostalgia for an America that we are losing. But of course, that's precisely the message of the Republican party this year and its a potent one because it's based on a core reality.
The dream of American mobility is slipping away. We all know about the extreme and accelerating inequality, but much less is made of our stagnating, even declining social mobility. Mobility is harder to measure than inequality, but nearly all studies show that it has plateaued, or declined for the past several decades.
Forty-three percent of those born into the poorest fifth of households will stay in the poorest fifth, while only 4% will make it to the richest 5th. But 40% of those born into the richest 5th of households stay there, and only 8% fall down to the poorest fifth. In other words, those born rich stay rich, those born poor stay poor, just like those stultifying, bygone aristocracies our forefathers fled.
This is the core betrayal at the rumbles beneath the surface of our politics, and while the GOP won't put it in those terms, they understand viscerally the unease and anxiety and even desperation it has caused in voters. And they have a story to tell about why it happened. It's not the excesses of global capitalism or american finance or the rigged game of rent-seeking, oligopolistic corporate entities who have captured Washington, instead it is Barack Obama who, in three quick years, single-handedly shifted America away from its meritocratic foundations towards an ethos of handouts, welfare and dependence.
That's the message. The American dream is dying because the first black president is doling out food stamps and welfare checks to the lazy and indolent. He's seducing Americans into dependence, sapping our natural ingenuity, and in the process making us, in some deep sense, less America.
It is, of course, ridiculous. First, and most crucially, the decline in social mobility is a trend that started well before Barack Obama took office. It's been part of American capitalism for several decades. And the increase of those using the social safety net, simply is not Barack Obama's doing. It's the product of the financial crisis and the Great Recession. In fact, if anything, our safety net has been remarkably stingy. Despite the fact that 2.6 million more people were living in poverty at the end of 2010 than in 2009, only an additional 7,677 people enrolled in TANF, better known as welfare. And aside from one small temporary increase in food stamp eligibility for single people without kids during the worst few months of recovery, Barack Obama has not expanded food stamp eligibility. In fact, the last two expansions of food stamp eligibility came under George W. Bush, one of which rightly restored eligibility for legal immigrants and earned an "Ay" vote from one Paul Ryan.
So it's not really about the reality of what's happened to this country in this maddeningly disappointing recovery. It's about telling voters that the undeserving are making out like bandits, while they're being robbed of their just deserts. For the real subtext of the declaration "We built it" is, as Clint Eastwood said on the convention's final night to ear-shattering applause, "We own this country."
And someone else, someone who's not us has taken it away, "stolen" in the phrasing of Reince Preibus talking about Medicare, and given it to those other people over there. It's an ugly message, but in a time of anxiety and diminished expectations, not a stupid one.
Leave a Comment:
Forward
(Upon Watching the Romans In Tampa Feed Truth to the Lions…
An Op-Ed Po-Em)
They say they want to take the country back
as if the people who elected the current president stole it from the rightful owner
as if it belongs more to them than to the people who don't agree with them
as if the "deed" to America
is in their name and their name alone.
They say they want to take the country back
and when you look at their rhetoric
their protest signs
the laws they are making in the places they control
you begin to understand exactly what that means…
It means they want to take the country back to a time
when women were the property of men
subject to their governance
their ignorance
there arrogance
It means that
under their rule
women can be "probed" and prodded and dictated to at will
or at least
by law.
It means that
under their rule, men who rape and impregnate women
daughters and sisters and children among them
can count on other men to make sure the women they rape will carry their child and give birth to it
unless they want to go to jail.
They say they want to take the country back
and it's clear they mean back to a time
when voting was a privilege reserved for the chosen few
when there were laws in place
very much like the ones they are passing today
designed to discourage, intimidate and inconvenience
Democrats, the poor, the old
Americans of a darker hue.
They say they want to take the country back
and it's clear they mean back to a time
when homosexuals were discriminated against and made to feel ashamed.
The way that young boy must have felt
when the man they hope will lead them to the promised land
(you know, the one to which they have the “deed”)
along with his gang of prep-school bullies
pinned him to the ground and took his hair…
I wonder if he has it still
the hair I mean
hanging on the wall
a trophy for the home
maybe with a plaque:
"scalped a queer"…
They say they want to take the country back
and it's clear they mean back to a time
when feudal lords
their treasure safe in far-off lands
from tax collectors and hordes of starving laborers
ruled on high.
When the 1% owned everything and peasants lived and died according to their whim
Yea, verily
they want the Lords of Bain
to rule again.
They say they want to take the country back
and it's clear they mean back to a time
before the Jesus they claim to love so well told them to be their brother’s keeper
Indeed
they want to pretend he never said
“'tis easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a Romney to enter the kingdom of heaven…”
They prefer the words of "Chris"
"respect over love"
(get a job welfare queen)
to the words of Christ
Chris, with his well fed belly
suits them better.
They say they want to take the country back
back from the socialist, fascist, baby-killing, gun stealing, religion-hating
food stamp peddling, global warming conspiracy hawking
birth certificate forging, secret Mulim
President and his gang of elitist, counterfeit Americans.
Back from the President and his storm trooper wife
She with her "healthy lifestyle" totalitarianism.
They say they want to take the country back.
The president wants to take the country forward.
Into a different kind of greatness
a different kind of wealth
a different kind of exceptionalism.
America can again be a city on a hill
a beacon of light for the rest of the world
but only if she aspires to an even greater good
an even taller hill
an even brighter light
than the one we now convey
freedom is a sacred gift, a blessing and a right
but freedom without compassion is what they have in the jungle
the greater good
if we aspire to it
will lift us up
out of the jungle and into the garden
where the lion looks after the lamb
I still have hope that
a little wiser, a little tougher, a little less naïve
Barak Obama
the "Intrepid One"
(they call him that in my dreams)
will succeed.
I for one plan to help
David Striar
David - take your pill dude or we'll have to put you back in the chair....... David, I said take your pill!!!
Pill? Oh, you mean the one you took when you self-deported your brain and signed on with the tea baggers? Chair? Oh, you mean the chair where rich white, fake tough guy, right wing Republicans in the early stages of dementia put presidents who actually care about people? I'll take the chair "dude." You can keep the pill …
The President "Who cares"???? You make me want to gag. Putting Americans out of work with his EPA....Business has said they want ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with this Socialist..42straight months of 8%+ unemployment the longest in history and still counting. Record high gas prices and an administration where the Energy Secretary states in an interview he is not interested in seeing lower gas prices, A president that trounces on immigration laws and grants backdoor amnesty in a last desperate attempt to hang on to a failed Presidency. Liberals ignore all the facts that makes this Presidency one of the worst in American history.
Thank you Scott, for the opportunity to answer your darkness and hate with hope:
Coda
(Forward - Upon Watching the Romans In Tampa Feed Truth to the Lions… An Op-Ed Po-Em)
They say they want to take the country back.
The president wants to take the country forward.
Into a different kind of greatness
a different kind of wealth
a different kind of exceptionalism.
America can again be a city on a hill
a beacon of light for the rest of the world
but only if she aspires to an even greater good
an even taller hill
an even brighter light
than the one she now conveys.
Freedom is a sacred gift, a blessing and a right
but freedom without compassion is what they have in the jungle
the greater good
if we aspire to it
will lift us up
out of the jungle and into the garden
where the lion looks after the lamb
I still have hope that
a little wiser, a little tougher, a little less naïve
Barak Obama
the "Intrepid One"
(they call him that in my dreams)
will succeed.
Chris provided an outstanding commentary because he wrote the truth as we recognize has taken place over the past decades. The GOP has evolved into being nothing but the corporate party for white males who are willing to enforce and grow their own power to dominate all others in this society. The US has far less upward mobility than most of the rest of the industrialized world, but, some will grasp to myths to drive home the need to maintain a power structure, and therefore, wealth, that is reflective of the "good old days" in the Seventeenth Century.
I don't necessarily attribute this process as a plot, but, rather, the evolution of the worst aspects of pure capitalism, against the social justice that evolves from the greater development, of our contemporaneous explosion of a sense of our society, needing to exist, as a morally just civilization.
Chris,
Honestly what a pathetic article. It was one of the worst I have ever read!!
Well, Fred, it is a plot. A plot to insure that unfettered capitalism (pure capitalism as you put it) is not reigned in by us, the government. Without aggressive taxation to put the money back into the economy, and without regulatory laws with teeth, the natural trend of capitalism is toward radical disparity of wealth. Unchecked, the Lords of Capitalism will devolve us back to those feudal days you refer to. As that happens, we will lose the Constitutional and civil rights, as well as the rule of law, that we take for granted today. We will all be serfs and peons beholding to our Lords and Ladies.
Social justice? Does that equal "hand-outs" to people that do not feel like pulling their own weight? In America you have access to the best education system in the world and can achieve as much as you work for...Either you are motivated to succeed or you are not.....Social justice???? And Chris Hayes is the same guy that is "hesitant" to call the Military heroes...is THAT a surprise from the left? One can hardly be surprised....
Oh dear Scott you just must tell Paul Ryan's speech writer to drop the twenty somethings living in their bedrooms with Obama poster fading on the wall.... that their massively incurred debts and if they can find a low wage job, they are just not pulling their own weight because of our best???? ranked behind Iceland or whatever educational system guarantees success for them.
Then there is that great military hero GW Bush, help for 9/11-go shopping and who shot Osama... yeah the left since the neo com wimps could have cared less to find him. I guess he was not good business for Haliburton.
Hail to Chris Hayes. I would like to express my dismay towards the "Members of the secret Block Obama" meeting. By totally disregarding your country for "party fulfillment", you put your fellow Americans at - risk. i hope you are proud of yourselves. The other Republican Members of Congress should resign their positions for "failing their constituency". Let this be a lesson for all party members. America first, your Party second. Over 5000 American Servicemembers lost their lives defending the rights of each and every Americans, while these members of Congress played their NASTY politics game. Shame, Shame, Shame.
A thought: When Romney's campaign says he wants to 'turn America around' -- now we know he means 'take it backwards.'
the biggest econimic expansion has always accrued after major tax breaks
it happened under Kennedy in the 60s and it happened under Reagen in the 80s
We need to reinvest vigorously in green energy, infrastructure, public education, and in modern mass transit like German and French bullet trains. Our economy will not grow either with our terribly dysfunctional health care system that costs twice as much per capita as any other health care system on the face of the earth. We need to let the Bush tax cuts all lapse, make reasonable cuts to the military budget, but we also have to start convincing people that government has to do things for the greater good of society. Asian-Pacific rim countries are spending much more on infrastructure. China is spending around 9% GDP on infrastructure. India around 7% GDP on infrastructure. The U.S. spends about 2.3% GDP on infrastructure a level that is woefully inadequate considering the $2.2 trillion that the U.S. Society of Civil Engineers says that we must spend in the next five years just to maintain our infrastructure to safe and efficient levels.
Corporate profits are at record levels at $2 trillion in 2011. This year corporate profits are also appear to be approaching a repeat of 2011. Corporate taxes are as low as they have been since the 1950's. The Bush tax cuts have been around for over a decade with an extension of two years signed by President Obama. So we have to wonder where then are all those wonderful "trickle down" jobs that were supposed to find all of us? We should be at full employment according to the Romney/Ryan economics theory of tax cuts for the "job creators".
The problem is that the "job creators" are the middle class. Increasing wealth inequality has squeezed middle class people's incomes into prolonged decline and stagnation. The richest quintuple or twenty percent of households own 85% of the total net worth and 93% of the financial wealth in America in 2007 (Domhoff, 2010). This leaves the bottom four-fifths of households (or those who work for wages and salaries for their livelihood) owned a mere 15% of the total net worth and only a mere 7% of the financial wealth in America as of 2007 (Domhoff, 2010). The richest one percent of households in 2007 owned 34.6 of the total net worth and 42.7% of the financial wealth. The richest 400 families in America own more than the bottom 150 million Americans.
Our democracy can not continue without a robust middle class. Nearly 70% of all of our economic activity is driven by commercial consumption of goods and services for the middle class. When the middle class have no money and no more lines of credit during the 1929 stock market crash or the 2008 real estate bust our economy falls into a serious decline resulting in a depression or a very prolonged severe depression. When the middle class has no more lines of credit, equity, and jobs start to dry up our Main Street economy falters in tandem with the decline of middle class disposable incomes, savings, and jobs.
Paul Krugman called the 2008 Great Recession by its real name a "lessor Depression". Five years on we are still stumbling with foreclosure problems, millions of Americans with underwater mortgages, and sluggish job growth for Main Street businesses. When wealth inequality grows more severe and the upper classes engage in wildly speculative "get rich quick schemes" like stocks in 1929 and real estate in 2008 lead to booms that go to severe busts. The problem is that the stimulus bill worked just fine in 2009 it just needed to be twice as large to get the economy moving again. Paul Krugman said the stimulus bill should have been at least $1.3 to $1.5 trillion. Also the GOP House has failed to pass the American Jobs Act that would have saved or created two million jobs. The GOP Senate filibustered the Small Business Tax Credit bill that would have generate one million jobs. The GOP House also failed to pass the Farm Bill which directly helps farmers, ranchers, agribusinesses, and small businesses all across Main Streets in states across the Midwest, South, and Western U.S. So when you wonder why our economy is so sluggish look in the mirror and say the letters: "G-O-P".
What I find as strange is for the GOP voters to buy into all of this. The Conservatives have worked very hard, over decades, to make all, non defense, aspects on government exceptionally ineffictive by dragging out and even blocking needed increases in efficiency to make programs more effective and more economical.
The GOP seems hell bent to privatize every conceviable aspect of government and push as much as they can, into the private sector. The result is the creation of enormous mega global corporations that, within the limits of being profitable, generate further mobility of wealth and power to a more limited number of people. This effort is making America more economically out of balance and frustrating efforts to promote upward mobility. Do the GOP voters realize that this is certainly against the interests of small business, competition, and the future of our democratic principals, and in favor of creating a more complete corporatology. Is this, truely, what they believe is in our best interests?
Meanwhile, the Conservatives spread their myths and lies, giving the masses deceptive descriptions of upward mobility for the worthy (white conservative males) and images of true happiness, without the capacity for individuals to reach for the stars. Surely, there are some who can see through all of this. We have been watching the GOP "plan" unfold over a period of 40 years.
We need to CONVINCE PEOPLE that Government needs to "do more" for the good of society? You are a caricature...a bad joke...and BTW, good luck with that argument. Not an easy job that whole Government is your friend argument. Americans cringe at crazy talk like that.
When Romney needed to "save the Olympics" he sure convinced government to do more and besides scott, there is a public good. Perhaps to educated you get from behind your computer and take a trip around the world in places like Syria or how about Haiti and see just what no government or government not for the needs of the people looks like.
It does not take a statistical genius to figure there is a relationship to countries who look towards their government for a good standard of living and people living in those country rank highest in happiness.
Chris, If I may reply to your comments about the response to your book, and the Bloomberg columnists response to the presidents full ‘You Didn’t Build that’ comments...
There is, IMHO, a wildly held view in the mind of many successful people that informs them that ; ‘If I was born in Antarctica, and had to everyday trudge back and forth to school, across the ice-sheet, through a blizzard, uphill, both ways! I would have done it; because that’s just how awesome I am.”
Which of course is untrue, but their ego's are so invested in this myth of there own exceptionalism; that any suggestion that the truth might be otherwise will of course engender a Visceral response, as any challenge to any deeply held article of faith will. They simply cannot accept that their enviroment had any impact on their outcome, because that would mean they are not truly, 100% in control of thier own lives; and are there fore potentially vulverable.
So in other words....if you wait on the government....they WILL provide? fishes will fall from the sky after Bammy acts? Sickening.You wait in the welfare line...think I can make it WHOLLY on my own,thanks.
When I wait for Exxon Mobile to help me or how about BP, fishes will fall from the sky. You can make it on your own, sounds like when my kids were potty trained and they could do it themselves. It must be the terrible twos that you are experiencing and accounts for your lack of any insight into the way things work.
Scott, you should make an effort to connect the political/economic dots, at least from 1980. You should also learn to read between the lines of your party's tired rhetoric. The convention speeches were a lazy anthology of false narratives, easily deconstructed for their manipulative, ad hominem sentimentality. Here are 3 dots to get you started, Scott: Reagan, Heston, Eastwood. Right? Three demented old clowns pining for some muddled, delusional heyday of national might and personal potency. Like Cheney, McCain, et al, these are the predictably emotional, impotent old white men who covet the power to get younger men killed; which, predictably, they usually do. There's a reason, a patriotic reason Chris (and many, many vets) "hesitate" to call our servicemen & women heroes. Did you follow the arc of the Pat Tillman coverup? I would. I would examine the inability of America to even bury its hero KIAs in the right plot at Arlington. Oops. Scott, save your adolescent hero worshipping for rock stars & athletes. Pat Tillman the soldier has no use for you; nor does his family. The DOD is the most bloated of bloated, sacred-cow entitlements. Try putting your emotionalism and mindless jingoism aside long enough to vote. Otherwise, when you step into the voting booth, armed with nothing more than your flaccid weapons permit - bare even of the minimum civic literacy - then you, Scott, are committing an act of treason. You are, in fact, a "low-information" voter (loyal to a party which depends more and more heavily on your ignorance/idiocy), but who fundamentally fails the test of democratic responsibility. You are the best argument for the cynical practice of voter suppression we see resurrected in every state with a GOP-led legislature. In other words, you need a separate drinking fountain. By the way, "low-information" voter is your party's word for you (see Mike Lofgren @truthout.org.)
Thankyou for making my point. BB.
Stay in the sewer then...check first of the month, a little section 8 and food stamps and Bammy provided health care...lifes good in the sewer....
WE will get out of the sewer when your mind gets out of the gutter. Shoo now troll.
BB, I waste my time with Scott and Ho-lee-cow so that someone more articulate or more informed than myself doesn't have to. What Scott fails to recognize is that his "sewer" is populated by what used to be called the middle class. His mindset and his vote are paid for by the free-market fundamentalists that brought us economic collapse. His low-info vote is bought and paid for to expedite the push to plutocracy. A plutocracy which, Scott fails to realize, would never even let him in the same stable with their dressage horses/tax write-offs. Scott is the pawn in the GOP playbook who will wonder why he's inexplicably limping after he votes; because he's shot himself in the foot again. BB, read Mike Lofgren's "Goodbye to All That" piece at truthout.org. He is a former GOP insider gone apostate.
Damn, Scott...under the assumption everyone receiving gov't assistance is a mooch, but probably the same guy who has no trouble with corporate "subsidies" and zero tax bills for alleged "job creators". I just find it funny at the convention how the discussion of meritocracy comes from the crowd of inheritocracy. Oh, and "Bammy", Scott? Really, grow up.
everybody get's their money from inheritance....ignorance on parade.
Media itself must take blame for the lack of actual politcal reality awareness of the public. Folks don't trust the media. Folks don't understand what is going on. Folks are misled and misinformed and led down false paths by corporate interests who pay the media and buy off politicians. .We can' expect aveage folks to weigh arguments, ferret out mistruths, sift kernels of history, research issues, and reach objective and impartial judgements based on factual realities. Folks in general don't do what AAA-academicians do. We needthe edia to truthfully inform us. The GOP exspertly manipulates and misinforms folks who aren't equipped to discern the difference.
We can't expect average folks to weigh arguments, ferret out mistruths, sift kernels of history, research issues, and reach objective, impartial judgements based on objective criterion. Most folks turn to folks who they trust to reach fair judgements and conclusions. Folks turn to those whom they can trust, and therein lies the rub. People don't trust American political media. American media allows GOP/corporate lies to go unchallenged all the time, although media does seem to be getting the hint that folks expect the truth. Politi-media is in a state of failure, declined trust, and corporatization. We're finding out that some people in the country can get weird when they run out of straight forward media to trust. But then again some folks live in Glenn Beck world year round.
i am loving this, God must be up there having a good laugh, stop fussing and and pray Americans.
The internal mechanics of the blog are responsible for the typos in the above comment.
Try #2 ... The GOP expertly manipulates and misinforms folks who aren't equipped to discern the difference between foolishness and actual reality. The media is supposed to fact check as a matter of routine procedure. The media is directly indictable for the prevarication of misinformation by the GOP. The media is a misinformation conduit for the GOP.
There is a pervasive arrogance in our society when talking about American "Exceptionalism". I’ve always felt uncomfortable with it, but its part and parcel of Republican speech and thought. It even gets into the thinking of a Liberal like Chris Matthews, as in one of his MSNBC plugs.
However, from a reading of a Chris-Rodda's article in the Huffington Post, i.e. "Tocqueville Was Actually Insulting America When He Referred to It Being ‘Exceptional’ “, it’s clear that we should be more humble as Americans (especially when comparing ourselves to those limited gun possession and universal medical care European nations/societies).
As a Washington Post “Style Invitational” winning phrase said: “Never underestimate your ability to overestimate your ability.”
Anyone think that the Republicans would even consider such a Calvinist frame of mind?
Michael T Bernard
Los Angeles, CA
Thanks for citing the Rodda reference to Tocqueville's meaning of "exceptionalism." I'm eager to review the contexts. Of course, conservative exceptionalism is mere code. Look how eagerly they reject and try to out-do the exceptionalism of Obama's narrative. Look how they clamor to invent a personal narrative that's more "American." The conservative brand of exceptionalism carries all the typical hallmarks of evangelical, neo-confederate secessionism. This is the political pedigree of Tea Party candidates, by and large. Look at Michelle Bachmann's official reading list. The issue of humility (god forbid shame) being un-American spells the full decay of a formative republic shaping and shaped by civic-minded, responsible, active participants in the flawed but vital experiment of democracy. Instead, we have voters like Scott who wear their ignorance as a badge of citizenship. Our rates of gun ownership & incarceration are all anyone needs to know about lip-service notions of American exceptionalism v. humility. Right? If our rates of gun ownership are rivaled only by Yemen, then judging us by the company we keep precludes the convenient refuge of hollow exceptionalism. If our rates of incarceration actually rival Stalin's gulag archipelago or slavery's numerical heyday... if the wealthiest nation in the world is also the fattest, most violent, and most incarcerated... "exceptional" is hardly the word that comes to mind. Given this survey, I have to concede Romney/Ryan are the perfect pair to lead because their backwards vision better fits the facts.
Well not PBS, or the history channels? Which "Romney said he want to get rid of PBS, and you know why? because they tell true information, and is not going to let any party have them lying to the people, I think a lot of folks should watch the History channel, they might be surprise with all the education they can get! I have to give MSNBC, NBC, and CNN credit for fact checking and getting the truth out there for the folks, unlike Fox, that is so oppinionated, full of lies, and half truths! But most people they claim they are telling the true are not being trueful to themselves because they know it is lies, but some folks don't want to accept it, and usually has some sort of mental distrub behavior. Keep up the good work Mr. Hayes, Ed, Christ, Melissa, Tamara, last but not least Martin, he know how sock it to them and all others, that we rely on for the truth, no matter if it hurts, or helps, more than I can say about your neighbor over at "Fox. Vote congress out come Nov 2012, people vote it's your right!
Micheal I don't know what kind of folks are up there in this new congress party, they are crazy dividers, blaming everything on the president so people will take the focus off their crooked selves, people should be taking their fustrations out on their congress, because that is were the problems lie, which they are trying to win the election on lies, Mitt Romney sure proved me wrong about him, when he started using the President's talking points, telling lies, accused the President of dividing the country, I could say , everything they accused the President of is what they are doing, saying and who want to vote for someone that has put the poor and middle classs down, by insinuating, they are all on foodstamps, hate america, welfare people, if they seem to be an Obama supporter! The poor and middle class wants jobs, so they can take care of their families, just like them, and I'm sure we love our families too, as Mrs. Romney kept saying as if other people don't love their families, and want a good future for their kids, People think this country is messed up, and think Romney will fix it, will be like giving his special interest the country, working for the highest bidder, and tell the working class he want to help, why wasn't he helping years ago, instead of sending jobs over seas, he would of been keeping in america, now that is what you call unpatriotic, and hate america, then try and talk about the President, is a shame the games they are trying to run on the nieve folks, that are so ignorant or in denial!The Congress need to be fired, and if those voters in Ohio vote Crying Boehnor, and Cantor back in their then things will only get worst, don't fall for the hype! Vote 2012
Perhaps a lot of older white folks simply expect advantage over others, and at the expense of others. Older white folks are among the last of the generations of accepted and expected white advantage in America. Older folks are also simply being regressed by the GOP to pre existing fights over Welfare. There is a strategy to relive previous political skirmishes like recreations of historic battles. The GOP are historic re-enactors. :]
"The GOP are historic re-enactors." ...In a "Write your own history" play.
I suppose we are the true Americans--without fear to challenge the unknown. Go Forward, not back to the days of old, where the laziest enjoyed the best of America. When it took three white men to supervise one Black man to dig a trench to lay a gas line.
Where young Black high school students washed and ironed the lazy White woman's clothes while she sat back and gossiped on the telephone. Where the Black man goes out to pick the cotton for a living for 3 cents a pound all day. While the white man sits in a cool office getting paid by government subsidies to the county. Tell you what there were more Whites on welfare where I come from than Blacks. So, I say cut the welfare to all and see who hollers the most. NO cheating Please!!
This episode was the first I have seen and I have to say that it was surprising in its mostly erudite discussion between the panel members. Mr. Hayes's remarks during the program moved me enough to research his background a bit. The fact that he studied philosphy is telling. In fact, I cannot think of a more useful undertaking for our pundits to pursue save perhaps for political philosophy.
Rather than add my own invective or defense of (pick any topic from the preceding entries) I would like to suggest that a special presentation of Up with Chris Hayes (UwCH) could include a roundtable of well-known political philosopher's (is that an oxymoron?) to discuss today's politics in light of non-modern historical examples.
The citizenry of the United States, for the most part, seem to have chosen political sides, Republican or Democrat, with a small band of gypsies traversing the proverbial no-man's-land when necessary dependent upon whatever drives them. If most of us are choosing party affiliation based on ideology then that ideology should be examined in an intimate way rather than in the usual bullet point format.
I look forward to more clever reparte on Chris's show. Glad to see this kind of enlightened discussion. I do wish you could have someone with an opposing view on but do understand that in the age of "talking points" (what about thinking points?) there may not be as many truly open-minded debaters as there once was.
Scott 1.3 "The President "Who cares"???? You make me want to gag. Putting Americans out of work with his EPA...."
The EPA was started by Republican President Richard Nixon. Its mission is to enforce the Clean Air, Clean Water Acts and others. Big polluters have always hated this agency. But ask moms of kids with asthma if they would like toxic chemicals in the air. Folks in West Virginia are upset but mountaintop mine removal ruins the land for all time. There are other jobs in WVA in recreation and tourism which benefit from EPA protection of the environment. You might want to read up on this before you spout laughable GOP talking points.
Last night at the windup of the DNC right after Barack Obama said that climate change is not a joke there was a twitter comment on MSNBC's crawl. The tweat may have been from Jack Welch, legendary businessman and head of G. E. for years. The tweat said 'solar ... + wind ... BAD ARITHMETIC'
So, first question was this tweat really from Jack Welch? Second question who at MSNBC approved this tweat for your crawl? Now, I did not hear anyone say that 100% of our energy needs would be taken care of by solar and wind. The tweat seems to imply this. The Dems always say 'all of the above' and even name drop 'clean coal' which I take as a sop to Sen Joe Manchin [D-WV]
Just wondering.
8 years of GWB 5.5% unemployment rate.
3 1/2 years of obama over 8% unemployment rate.
Just think if we could go back to the 5.5% rate.
Now add in the over $$$$16 trillion in debt.
The democrats have a long way to go still.
The USA growth rate is a dismal 1.5% and people like hayes think that is great.
Over 20 million people still out of work.
Over 40 million on food stamps.