Posted on 05/04/2008 11:21:26 AM PDT by The_Republican
Americans are glum at the moment. No, I mean really glum. In April, a new poll revealed that 81 percent of the American people believe that the country is on the "wrong track." In the 25 years that pollsters have asked this question, last month's response was by far the most negative. Other polls, asking similar questions, found levels of gloom that were even more alarming, often at 30- and 40-year highs. There are reasons to be pessimistic—a financial panic and looming recession, a seemingly endless war in Iraq, and the ongoing threat of terrorism. But the facts on the ground—unemployment numbers, foreclosure rates, deaths from terror attacks—are simply not dire enough to explain the present atmosphere of malaise.
American anxiety springs from something much deeper, a sense that large and disruptive forces are coursing through the world. In almost every industry, in every aspect of life, it feels like the patterns of the past are being scrambled. "Whirl is king, having driven out Zeus," wrote Aristophanes 2,400 years ago. And—for the first time in living memory—the United States does not seem to be leading the charge. Americans see that a new world is coming into being, but fear it is one being shaped in distant lands and by foreign people.
Look around. The world's tallest building is in Taipei, and will soon be in Dubai. Its largest publicly traded company is in Beijing. Its biggest refinery is being constructed in India. Its largest passenger airplane is built in Europe. The largest investment fund is in Abu Dhabi; the biggest movie industry is Bollywood, not Hollywood. Once quintessentially American icons have been usurped by the natives. The largest Ferris wheel is in Singapore. The largest casino is in Macao, which overtook Las Vegas in gambling revenues last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Polls results are driven by the way questions are posed. Asked the right way, you could get: “86% of Americans hate Mickey Mouse.”
Let's do a poll right now. Here's the question, yes or no...
DO YOU TRUST POLLS?
“Americans are really glum...” IMO, give credit to where credit is due. The glum mood of the country is because of the MSM and Liberals!!
Oh and BTW... notice it’s a Muslim writing for Newsweak... you know they ran that faux Koran flush story. Trashing America is their daily bread.
He is perfectly placed to do this, and Newsweek has shown unusual prescience in placing him as editor for international affairs. I find myself filling a similar role, on a micro-scale, among my pro-freedom, pro-Western acquaintances.
Does anyone actually believe this? I've seen some pretty bogus polls, this one is beyond ridiculous. Although, maybe he just polled the communist.
What with all the great advances brought about by modern liberal thought, you would think this would not be so.
What with all the great advances brought about by modern liberal thought, you would think this would not be so.
Tall buildings, ferris wheels, casinos? Wow. Kind of quaint that those are still a big deal to them.
I love it when these out of touch morons speak for all of us.
The bigger the skyscraper the bigger the imminent fall.
Yes, I am upset.
schu
Yes, I am upset.
schu
ok, I cheated, I looked at the source...Newsweek!!!...and a middle eastern 'journalist' to boot! What could possibly entice anyone to read this bunk! But here, I think we can fix the whole article....try this:
Practically every Democrat is glum at the moment.
then if you read the article....thinking only of those glum dems, it kinda makes sense....I mean, they lost the surrender, they lost the 'looming recession' (0.6% growth has pretty much never been a recession), they're losing this summer's strike agenda (American Axle union wages are pretty much down the shiiter...from $30/hr+ to $14, $17, and $25.50/hr), and by august, they won't know who to vote for! So, what's not to be glum about, especially if you're a Columbia educated journalist?
Here’s a question — not an argument — just to throw it out there:
You have to look at how many Americans are involved in those overseas ventures. In a global economy, does American ingenuity — not to mention corporate interests — end at the U.S. borders?
could it be that americans are sick of trying to stop socialism’s advance in our country.
the pols keep misleading us as they sell us down the road
America is on the wrong track when people as morally and mentally bankrupt as Obama and Clinton can be serious contenders for the Democrat nomination.
America is on the wrong track when people as morally and mentally bankrupt as Obama and Clinton can be serious contenders for the Democrat nomination.
From Lord of the Rings they are a whole party of “Wormtongues”. FR is one of the sites of the resistance.
FR bookmark , ... PushPoll alert , .. maybe a Truth In Polling Law is in the works , .. (( y-a-w-n ))
oh , and a Truth In Reporting About Polls Law , . . . (( s-n-o-r-e ))
FR bookmark , ... PushPoll alert , .. maybe a Truth In Polling Law is in the works , .. (( y-a-w-n ))
oh , and a Truth In Reporting About Polls Law , . . . (( s-n-o-r-e ))
FR bookmark , ... PushPoll alert , .. maybe a Truth In Polling Law is in the works , .. (( y-a-w-n ))
oh , and a Truth In Reporting About Polls Law , . . . (( s-n-o-r-e ))
Does this mean that Newsweek and the other know-it-all MSM organs will go hector and kvetch in Beijing, India, Europe, Abu Dhabi, Bollywood, Singapore, and Macao?
Or will they stay here and b#tch at us, because in quite a few of those other places, they'd be dragged out of their offices and shot for "speaking truth to power," as they so courageously do here?
In other words, forget the idealistic "liberal democracy for all" approach favored by the neocons, and brush up on your Metternich, Macchiavelli and Kissinger.
I saw Zakaria on Charlie Rose a few nights back and, while I do not agree with his support of the gooey-eyed idealist that is Barry Obama, he made some excellent points about the lack of understanding on the part of American elites of the internal developments in Asia and the Middle East. The fact that such nations are rushing into economic and intellectual development at a pace not seen for some time, and are far from the caricatures promoted in our own country (ie Chinese "slave labor" and reflexive anti-Americanism). Most of the world still wants America to have a leading role, and, while jettisoning reflexive anti-Americanism, still would like to handle their own affairs, while also taking a leading role in policing/exploiting their own neighborhoods.
I see a future where the Americans, Chinese, and other powers will basically be sitting around the map carving out "spheres of influence" in order to avoid conflict. A multipolar world should be welcome by all, as NO single country can bring order, especially with the shift of wealth and productivity from the west to the east.
In other words, forget the idealistic "liberal democracy for all" approach favored by the neocons, and brush up on your Metternich, Macchiavelli and Kissinger.
I saw Zakaria on Charlie Rose a few nights back and, while I do not agree with his support of the gooey-eyed idealist that is Barry Obama, he made some excellent points about the lack of understanding on the part of American elites of the internal developments in Asia and the Middle East. The fact that such nations are rushing into economic and intellectual development at a pace not seen for some time, and are far from the caricatures promoted in our own country (ie Chinese "slave labor" and reflexive anti-Americanism). Most of the world still wants America to have a leading role, and, while jettisoning reflexive anti-Americanism, still would like to handle their own affairs, while also taking a leading role in policing/exploiting their own neighborhoods.
I see a future where the Americans, Chinese, and other powers will basically be sitting around the map carving out "spheres of influence" in order to avoid conflict. A multipolar world should be welcome by all, as NO single country can bring order, especially with the shift of wealth and productivity from the west to the east.
Of course I think the country is on the wrong track. The socialist liberals have completed their long march through the institutions and basically run our society.
Zakaria would be the new Kissinger, if only he would stop kow-towing for a position in the next Obama administration. I think McCain, not being a neocon (ie neoWilsonian) idealogue, would be more than open to getting some realists on his side.
The problem I have with these “on the wrong track” polls is that it means completely different things to different people. To a Democrat, we may be on the wrong track because we have a Republican in the White House. To a Republican, we might be on the wrong track because government is getting too big and our society has lost its moral compass. It’s a completely meaningless poll and it’s impossible to draw any valid conclusion from it other than that 81 percent of Americans have something to whine about.
What happened? Democrats.
This American is glum because in the battles between “right and wrong,” “good and evil,” “truth and relativism,” “freedom and tyranny” we seem to be going in the wrong direction. Leave it to a liberal to make a point about glumness based on the deadly sins of greed, anger and pride. Why are they so blind?
No, not quite. Look at the three remaining contenders for the presidency, and it should be painfully obvious why the country is on the wrong track.
Maybe people are depressed because the Democrats are seemingly on a rise...
Bring ‘em all on! We can still kick all their asses together at once.
Bring ‘em all on! We can still kick all their asses together at once.
First, the poll question is misleading, since “on the wrong track” is so vague. A hard-core Conservative and a left-wing moonbat would both answer “yes” to that question, for dramatically different reasons.
On the other hand, America may not be “leading the charge” as the author puts it, not because we suffer from ennui, but because we have a strong case of “been there, done that”. We may not have the tallest skyscraper now, but we had the first tallest skyscrapers. We may not have the current most lucrative movie production industry, but we did basically invent the movie production industry. We may not have the biggest investment company now, or the biggest airplanes, or what have you, but in all those cases we had the first, or we invented the idea. So sure, 50 years on, the rest of the world is catching up, but they’re doing so because we were there first, and discovered how to do it.
Granted, we shouldn’t rest on our laurels, as we seem to be, but we’re hardly apathetic. More likely jaded, or jejune. It’s not about the biggest, or the most expensive, anymore. Now, I think it’s more a case of the most successful, or the most durable. Our skyscrapers may not be the tallest anymore, but I’ll bet many are still standing after others have been abandoned. Our movie industry may be moribund right now (mostly thanks to the left trying to push its ideological agenda, which no one really wants to hear), but it’ll still be there in some form after others have failed. Our planes may not be the newest/biggest/etc, but the 747 is the benchmark big plane, and the B-52 is half a century old, and still being extended.
if the little “DoublePostingDoublePostingGlitch” had happened to only me , I’d have been flummoxed
{ I’ve been here long enough to know , .. but there wasn’t anything in my PINGs , .. Newsweak gremlins ,*snicker* }
In polls showing the percentage of Americans dissatisfied with the direction our nation is heading, the reasons for their discontent NEVER are asked, giving those reporting the results of said polls free rein to interpret said discontent according to their own biases.
Look at the three remaining presidential contenders and the fact that the country is headed in the wrong track should be obvious.
The United States is currently ranked as the globe's most competitive economy by the World Economic Forum. It remains dominant in many industries of the future like nanotechnology, biotechnology, and dozens of smaller high-tech fields. Its universities are the finest in the world, making up 8 of the top ten and 37 of the top fifty ...The article has its share of foolishness, but it wasn't an anti-American rant. There were some sensible observations and some genuine praise of who we are and what we've done as a country. How anyone could characterize the piece as "anti-American," I have no idea. Of late I've begun to worry about the quality of posts on this truly fine board.
A few years ago the National Science Foundation put out a scary and much-discussed statistic. In 2004, the group said, 950,000 engineers graduated from China and India, while only 70,000 graduated from the United States. But those numbers are wildly off the mark. If you exclude the car mechanics and repairmen—who are all counted as engineers in Chinese and Indian statistics—the numbers look quite different. Per capita, it turns out, the United States trains more engineers than either of the Asian giants. [My italics]
...More broadly, this is America's great—and potentially insurmountable—strength. It remains the most open, flexible society in the world, able to absorb other people, cultures, ideas, goods, and services. The country thrives on the hunger and energy of poor immigrants. Faced with the new technologies of foreign companies, or growing markets overseas, it adapts and adjusts. When you compare this dynamism with the closed and hierarchical nations that were once superpowers, you sense that the United States is different and may not fall into the trap of becoming rich, and fat, and lazy. [My italics. Really, is this to be construed as negativism? He's praising us folks. This is hardly Jeremiah Wright-style ranting]
...American society can adapt to this new world. But can the American government? Washington has gotten used to a world in which all roads led to its doorstep. America has rarely had to worry about benchmarking to the rest of the world—it was always so far ahead. But the natives have gotten good at capitalism and the gap is narrowing. [A fair enough observation.] Look at the rise of London. It's now the world's leading financial center—less because of things that the United States did badly than those London did well, like improving regulation and becoming friendlier to foreign capital. ... Twenty years ago, the United States had the lowest corporate taxes in the world. Today they are the second-highest. It's not that ours went up. Those of others went down. [Again, a fair enough criticism.]
Im surprised it is not higher, Just because they say it is on thwrong track does not mean they hate Bush ,maybe they see that no MATTER WHAT A TRADITIONAL AMERICAN SAYS YOU ARE IGNORED OR CALLED A RACIST, BIGOT OR HOMOPHOBE. They have given up .
Tell me who speaks for the traditional American in this Presidential Race ? Who speaks for or for that matter even mentions or praises the traditional family , a Father or Mother? In schools today it is soon to be verboten to mention A Father or Mother so as not to offend anyone .
I see no hope ,Hillary proudly rants she is NOT going to crack down on sanctuary cities ,a Presidential candidate is not going to enforce the Law,is she going to place her right hand on the bible and swear to uphold the Constitution? WHY? She is a Known Liar.
What is John McCain going to do ? The same thing ,forget Obama he is going to Appoint judges to the Supreme court depending on which Bleeding heart group they belong too.
Add me to the list that says that this country is on the wrong track ,and by the way it is for all intent and purposes dead.
Rasmussen has the “wrong track” number at 77%. The problem isn’t the question, it’s the assumptions made by the media in interpreting the answer. Were I asked that question, I would answer “yes.” The country is on the wrong track. Our popular culture is a cesspool, government spending is out of control, and our Constitutional freedoms are under constant atttack from leftist elements in both parties. Liberalism is killing us.
That fact that I, like the majority of Americans, believe the country is on the wrong track doesn’t mean that I want more liberals runnings things, which is the knee-jerk assumption the media makes. I want the opposite, and I bet millions of others like me who would also answer “yes” want the same thing.
They are not blind.
They are not in office to serve the American people, they are in office to serve their thirst for power.
The country's agenda conflicts with their agenda.
I really want to go see them move that sucker.
Not going to happen. The "spheres of interest" for the USA, China, Russia and maybe India are the same. There is an inevitable clash of interest. The areas in question are primarily, and will increasingly be the oil rich Middle East, Central Asia (where Russian, Chinese and American interests clash geographically like nowhere else) and South East Asia. I can hardly imagine a room for compromise. Unless there is a major change or break in China (Russia is already declining on it's own) there might be another Cold War. Look at Iran and Taiwan... China is going to confront us, not cuddle up.
I agree with most of your post. I should have been more clear in my comment.
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