Decatur embraced Obama in 2008. Voter turnout surged, and he carried some precincts by 85 percent or even 95 percent. Yet now, as in struggling cities across the country, some independents and conservative Democrats—particularly white men who supported Obama before—say they no longer believe Obama and the Democratic Congress can help them.Religion isn't the only magical thinking that people indulge in. They also indulge massively in political magical thinking. They believe that if something isn't going right, the thing to do is to vote out the party currently holding office. The magic they count on is that the party they vote for next time is the one that will fix things and save us.
If the major religions of the world were bitheistic, believers would start praying to the other god after a few prayers to the first as usual failed to secure any results. Amazingly, with monotheism, they just keep praying to the One anyway.
But of course the First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right of the People to believe any damn fool thing they please.
Succinctly said and well said! The trouble is that the public doesn't have a clue as to how we got here, why more hasn't been done to alleviate the suffering, and why the situation would be infinitely worse if none of the New Deal reforms weren't in place at this time. While the Democrats lost some seats in 1936, the public then had a first hand taste of the price of real inaction in a financial crisis generated by the usual plutocrats—all that they change is the size and shape of the walnut shell they use to gull those who have forgotten what happened at the county fair last year.
ReplyDeleteThe frustration is unbearable to know what may happen because of the ignorance of the voting public!!!
ReplyDeleteTIM C