There’s No Voter Insurrection — Americans Are Poorer, Unemployed, and Not Fired Up About Politics

via AlterNet:



Posted by danieldenvir at 5:35 pm
May 25, 2010

There’s No Voter Insurrection — Americans Are Poorer, Unemployed, and Not Fired Up About Politics


It is in the nature of the 24-hour news cycle to dissect each and
every vote, poll and throwaway comment, searching for meaning like an
ancient seer rummaging through bird innards or a boom time stock
trader decrypting Alan Greenspan’s every word. Joe Sestak’s victory
over war (or Trojan) horse Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s Democratic
primary is just such an event, launching a thousand prognostications,
talking heads chomping at the bit to control the spin. Combined with
Tea Partier Rand Paul’s win in Kentucky, Arkansan Blanche Lincoln
getting forced into a runoff, and Utah GOP Senator Bennett’s primary
loss, a narrative is coalescing: the American electorate–as amorphous
a thing as the much mythologized “Arab street”–are in an
“anti-incumbent mood.”

The New York Times Matt Bai well summarized the conventional wisdom:



For Bai, the lessons are clear: outsider candidates are now better
poised to topple the mighty; less identification with the two major
parties leaves primaries vulnerable to energetic ideologues; and a
resurgent outside-the-Beltway sentiment threatens all that was sacred.

But if Philadelphia is any indicator, Bai and others largely miss the
bigger point: most Americans are back to their well-deserved cynicism
towards politics. They’re poorer and unemployed and aren’t really that
fired up about anything.

In Philly, almost no one voted. As usual. People (especially Specter
supporters like Governor Ed Rendell) blamed the rain. But Tuesday’s
turnout was on par with other years. Just about 2 out of 10 registered
Democrats bothered to show up, and it really wasn’t that rainy. The
Obama phenomenon–what Discovery Channel host Sarah Palin likes to
call “that hopey, changey stuff”–was a blip. Obama took over the Wall
Street bailout and two wars, while rolling out a diminutive stimulus
package that barely staunched runaway job loss.

I voted for Sestak. Despite his profoundly uncharismatic delivery on
the stump, I didn’t think Specter could be trusted. But almost no one
in Philly, and throughout the entire Keystone State, gave a damn. And
that’s the story the media isn’t telling. Reporters are biased towards
finding a narrative, and towards trumpeting change instead of trying
to explain persistent continuity. We also tend to assume that other
people think about politics as much as we do.

Sometimes news isn’t new. Indeed, some of the most troubling things
about this country are very, very old. The Tea Party, for instance,
has never been that much of a mystery. Why did we need a New York
Times poll to tell us that this was the same old far right? It’s
not breaking news because it’s the same old story. But it bears
repeating.


http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/05/25/americans-arent-angry-theyre-cynical-and-apathetic/

to take off and vote. Afraid they will get fired.

the anti-Obama crowd is fired up. They'll gladly go back to the polls and vote for Rand Paul and the other tea partiers.

That's it in a nutshell.

After a few decades of being active in politics, innumerable emails, letters, phone calls and dozens of personal meetings with my "representatives" and still being in the same bucket of shit, I'm done. There is simply no point in getting worked up about anything anything anymore and it's not good for my health.

The guy you vote for will do whatever the guys who give him money tell him to do.