Have you lost your faith in Americas ability to turn around?

[digsbe]

We got Carter and and immediately replaced him with Reagan after 1 term. I still think america has the ability to turn around.

 

[disneydude]

I don't doubt for a minute, America's ability to turn around. We are already turning around, albeit slowly. The only question is whether Americans have the patience to continue the slow process or whether they will foolishly return power to the party that got us into this trouble in the first place.

 

[tryreading]

It's just a stage in the cycle, the current down turn. There are ups and downs. Market crash in 1987, recession 1991, then a boom from 1992 to 2000, just one example of the sine wave. Boom 2001 or so to 2007, bust about 2008, recession in 2009/2010/2011, recovery and upturn on the way. Soon the economy will begin to rebound, stocks will rise, home values will come back higher than ever. Take it to the bank.

 

[LiberalAvenger]

People dont want to consume less because they dont want to change their life style. I dont think that the BP leak will change american energy policy within the next 5 years. Only more government regulation can force Detroit to build electric cars for example. People wont change if their not forced to.

GM is building electric cars as we speak, Benny H. We must invest more in alternative energy sources in order to break away from the yoke of our enemies and the people who want to destroy freedom.

 

[LiberalAvenger]

You have to be one of the least informed Europeans I've seen on this board. You obviously don't comprehend the magnitude of the demographic differences between Europe and the US. You can't just take European policy and scale it up....it doesn't work. You must really think we have come as far as we have by being stupid. You can continue listening to your populist/progressive talking points about America, or you can open your eyes and use common sense. We are not like you, we didn't start like you.....so don't try to transpose your way on us. This country became great through hard work and personal risk, not government policy.

Benny's not stupid or misinformed. If France had not helped us during the Revolutionary war we would not exist today as an independent nation. Thank you France.:2wave:

 

[cpwill]

Interesting you say this.
I had thought that the two Bush terms would lead to a generation of the democrats holding the white house.

alot of liberal-leaning people did; forgetting that people never hated Bush for his conservatism, and certainly never had the intensity of feeling that the Democratic party and Left in general did; that s--t was insane. people didn't approve of Bush because they thought he was incompetent; he seemed to be losing the war in Iraq, and Hurricane Katrina got horribly bungled (though that was more the fault of the mayor and governor both refusing to do their jobs, but hey, perception is reality, right?). Then when the financial crises hit, Bush tacked hard left, giving his supporters whiplash and irritating the grand center-right mass of the populace.

Now, just about 18 months later it seems that the dems have dropped the ball.

actually they've done amazingly well, given that they are attempting to push wildly unpopular ideas onto the American people. I honestly never thought they would pull off Obamacare, but their discipline and willingness to do literally anything to get it through was impressive.

the problem isn't that they've 'dropped the ball'; it's that they have carried it as well and as far as they have. If Obama had chosen to govern as a second-term Bill Clinton, he would be soaring in the polls still, and heading towards easy reelection. The country simply isn't left-leaning, and Democrats forget that at their peril. That's what gave us Reagan, it's what gave us the 1994 Republican sweep; and it's what's going to give us 2010/2012.

The problem is that this country is set up for a two party system. So the tea party can either evolve into a piece of one of the larger parties or could go on it's own for a while like Ross Perot did. The irony is that the tea party can set up a surprise win for the democrats in November if they split with the republicans.

The Tea Party is unlikely to do that for the simple enough reason that most of it's members don't want to. Tea Partiers are better described as enforcers within the Republican party; and they will force out those whom they feel are part of the problem rather than the solution. which is just a-okay with me.