Charles Pierce on divided America

[MBS]

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/president-obamas-illusions-040913

One day, when the final accounting of this presidency is made, anyone arguing that one of its major flaws was that the president relied too little on the rhetorical power inherent in his office is going to have to account for what appears to be the administration's imminent failure as regards its attempt to pass reasonable regulations to control this country's abnormal attraction to its firearms. Nobody can say that the president hasn't been out there pitching on this one. Nobody can say he hasn't used the full symbolic and rhetorical arsenals available to him. And yet the whole thing appears to be as dead as Kelsey's nuts.

. . .

Watching the administration's momentum fade on this issue is to see a president presented with the final, practical refutation of the speech that made him famous.It turns out there is a red America and a blue America. It turns out that there is a conservative America and a liberal America. It turns out that the things that divide us are stronger than the things that unite us. Or, at least, that the things that divide us are more politically salient than the things that unite us. The failure on guns is the last, final refutation of what Barack Obama said he believed about the people of this county.

It always depended on the notion that we were all together in the creative process of self-government. The fact is, most of us aren't. Most of us have checked out. At the encouragement of two generations of ambitious politicians, we have accepted the notion that "government" is something alien, and therefore that it is something we cannot influence. You tell me that 91 percent of Americans support background checks. Wonderful. Put them on the ballot. They'll pass, but only 40 percent of the eligible voters will bother to go to the polls, so where's the danger to anyone in acting contrary to the expressed public will? Who does Mitch McConnell really fear in this particular controversy? He knows that there is a solid, active core of support behind the work he's doing frustrating the expressed public will.

This is the fool's gold that this president has been chasing ever since he broke onto the scene. He staked his entire career — and certainly, his entire presidency — on the notion that the right person at the right time could heal the "divisions" in our society — which, he told us, were not the real products of our politics, but the temporary fever dreams of a country led astray. The fact is that those "divisions" are our politics. They're all we have, since we have determined as a political entity, that politics and government are a show, that nothing is permanent, that the scoreboard starts at zero every day. Who will win the morning?

[Demeter]

1. Obama is red meat to racists--and by truckling to the 1%, he also kills his base

The President is stuck in a cleft of his own forming. Instead of playing to his strengths, he sells out, every single time. Bipartisanship is only camouflage for screwing over the People in favor of the Corporations, especially banksters and warmongers.

[Doctor_J]

2. Yeah, I hope at some point we find out what happened. He either

1. became convinced during his term that the neocons were right, on everything from guns to health care to taxes
2. Still believes in the real Dem platform but is governing as a neocon to get rich after retiring, or
3. Has always been a neocon and BS'd a few million of us during the campaign.

Either way he's maneuvered himself to a place where a big chunk of the electorate (still) despises him, and another big chunk has lost all respect for him. He's dealt a crushing blow to the party. Alot of young potential lifelong Dems voted in 2008. They are very disillusioned at this point.

BTW a DUer recently posted that liberals are to blame for the president's failure on firearms. Apparently we distracted Obama with too much talk about drone warfare, and thus diverted the conversation away from guns, and so sunk any chance for success on that front

I am not kidding.

[KoKo]

3. We have almost four more years...

He's hit the ground charging in his second term...and he's not accountable to anyone any more. It's the Party and the Local, State elections we have to take back and how are we going to do that when he has been good for Wall Street Crooks & Bankers and now THIS.... How do we run a Dem candidate in our more conservative states using the "Repugs are Crazy" they will feed cat food to Grandma and they will raise your taxes and promote Austerity while WE DEMS will protect you?"

We already have Blue Dogs...in our more conservative states...what will we have to show for the "mixed up ACA" that is still being "worked out" as its implemented and bargaining with Repugs on Dems backs to rob from one hand to put it in the other.

Tough times ahead.

[cbrer]

4. YES! Plus...

This is what we get to look forward to in the future of American politics. Our masters are clever enough to not approach the tipping point of what will cause mass activism in this nation.

[Demeter]

5. No, I don't think they are that clever

and I take as my proof the global economic instability which will wipe the 1% out when it tips over too far, again, and Joe Taxpayer refuses to bail them out, again.

Because in 2008, the 1% was substantially wiped out. Until W and Paulson rode to their rescue, over our vehement protests. That WON'T happen again.

[cbrer]

6. As much as I like your crystal ball

I believe that the 1% are well prepared for a global financial collapse.

It MAY be true that the 1% opts to limit their losses by perpetuating the current paradigm. That would forgo the necessity for another bailout.

But when (not if) that bookkeeping scheme fails (again), I believe they'll want, and get another bail out. It will be of prime importance, bipartisan, and on the backs of the taxpayer.

Maybe that'll be the match that ignites the bomb, but I believe they'll try for it.

[Demeter]

8. They may be "clever" short-term, but not long-term

and nobody is "clever" enough to repeal natural law.

The 1% has been kicking this can down the road for several decades, depending on when you start counting. What cannot continue, will not. And this is one thing (a big con game/ ponzi) that cannot continue.


And the people with paper assets (and that's the 1%, with a little bit in the rest of the population) are going to become paupers. They will lose their wealth on paper, their cushy jobs and golden parachutes, their stocks and bonds and tax loopholes.

As the chaos continues, they will lose a whole lot more, and they will not be prepared to deal with it, having lost the basic survival skills over several generations.

They will be lucky to stay alive, frankly, because they will have mortally wounded so many people, that "natural" selection will occur.

[cbrer]

7. Or they could just change the rules...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/101660429

[Demeter]

9. Rules mean nothing

they've destroyed all the rules. Soon, the Law of the Jungle will prevail. What are they gonna do, throw worthless pieces of paper at the mobs? When all their hangers-on desert them, there will be no security, no safety, no escape.

It sucks to be stupidly greedy. It's a death sentence that wipes out entire families.