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Voters want their political leaders to be less compromising, not more. From Wall Street Journal:
Asked whether it is more important to have a president who stands up for his convictions or who seeks common ground, the people surveyed split 56% – 38% in favor of standing for convictions. That compares with a 46%-43% split in June 2007, when George W. Bush was still president.
The biggest increase in demand for a fighting spirit came from Democrats who in 2007 strongly preferred — by a 54%- 35% margin — a president who sought middle ground. Now they favor a president who stands on conviction by 50%-45%.
I find this result deeply ironic, because President Obama ran on bringing both sides of the aisle together and pitched it as one of his greatest strengths. It appears watching the result of Obama trying and failing miserably to do just that, that more of the American people have come to the conclusion it is not something they want.
I don’t find this surprising though. The Republicans showed that a solid wall of opposition does a better job of advancing your goals than trying to reach compromise. The result was often that Democrats got nothing, as with climate change, or still ended moving their legislation far to the right while getting all the blame, as with health care reform. After watching the last four years, I doubt many people on either side of the political spectrum think trying to find common ground with the other side is an effective way to govern.
If Obama is giving up on a message of trying to find common ground, it’s because he’s reluctantly responding to the new reality. Obama thought he could end partisanship, but he has only made it stronger both at the top and the grassroots level.
40 Comments
Baloney…
100% Democratic party propaganda.
Obama and his fellow corrupt politicians have and are continuing to do exactly what they intended to do… this is all just more fake excuse making.
Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit.
The Dems got exactly what they wanted: cover from the GOP to enact policies that benefit themselves and their contributors while ratfucking the public.
I never saw any of that “reach across the aisle” nonsense of Obama’s as anything other than a justification for screwing us out of real reform in order to do what the Industry ordered him to do all along. Like Healthcare: if Obama really wanted a public option why did he have Rahm negotiate it away at the very beginning? Then Obama had the nerve to keep making speeches about it, as if he was still “fighting” for it.
No one is that incompetent — least of all our 12-dimensional chess playing Conlaw prof in chief. And I’m sure Obama’s position evolution from favoring single payer to screwing us out of the public option had nothing do with the bribe, err, “salary” Michelle got from the University of Chicago Hospital after he was elected to the Senate.
Overnight her salary tripled from $100 to $300 K. But I’m sure that was a coincidence.
To this I say a big, duh!
Anyone in politics and/or familiar with it know the repubs going back to Clinton aren’t interested in compromise. Obama was completely naive or misleading the masses because he’s really a repub at heart.
Why would any dem president give up power for bipartisanship after the 2008 elections when they had the repubs by the balls! You think FDR would have done that!
Great comment…
I prefer your choice of words.
Hey, it’s a gift. What else can I say?
BTW, like your perspective on issues, too.
Well, I though “ratfucking” might be as little harsh……..
Then I though about, and decided, no, that’s pretty damn accurate.
You can fool some of the people…uh, all of the people, some of the, uh… we won’t get fooled again.
I’ve spent considerable time workin on the algorithym ofr what we are experiencing.
I figure 99% of us are screwed, but only about 42.7% of us are actually aware of it.
BTW those figures are are corect +/- 2%.
Correction: Voters want less compromised leaders.
There, fixed it for ya. :)
Why are 45% of Democrats still bent on compromise? Are they paying any attention at all?
Why do you all hate America?
.
.
.
/s
Well heck, folks, we’ve got the most compromisingest of cough cough “leadrs” of all times forevah! They are totally willing to compromise endlessly, incessantly and completely to the highest bidder, doncha know?
NOt that I’ve noticed. And I’m pretty observant. Albeit somewhat opinionated.
“99% of us are screwed, but only about 42.7% are actually aware of it.”
You know, that would make a great bumper sticker.
I LOVE America. I just deeply despise our current leaders.
You can do that ya’ know. Be patriotic but not be a simple-minded sheeple.
Sometimes you just break me up. It’s 93 degrees here and it ain;t even June.
Damn…….you’re right. I’m gonna look into that. I heard that the guy who invented the “Jesus fish” is a millionaire.
Thanks!
“99% are screwed
Only 43% know it”
There fixed it for ya. Just gimme a 20% cut :)
Funny how there is a really fine line between bribes and campaign contributions.
12%
I have been looking for one of those fish bumper stickers (with the feet) for years…For some reason they are pretty hard to come by down here in the deep South…
I hope you do! I already have a spot saved on my bumper for it.
Too late. One look at this thread and newcarguy’s copyright infringement case is golden.
My only talent is to recognize talent….
Sigh.
Dude, I’m an honorable guy. I’ll gie you the same 12% as psalongo, after expenses. And a nominal (Bain-like) management fee for myself.
When I first read the quote that’s what I thought it said. When I went back and reread it I was dissapointed.
Tell ya what, I’ll make you a deal.
How ’bout we wait until you get into the one percent and then you make me a loan against earned interest. Then….kickback….tax free….just like the Bainster did for Tag…hedge funds…Aruba…martini’s at the club for everyone; my treat!
Sound good? :)
How so? Please explicate.
The US Congress and both parties are just a very elaborate version of good cop / bad cop. Neither so called party do anything more then whatever their owners ( the 1%) want done. They might argue how to best screw the 99%, but that’s about the limit of the debate.
Deal. My momma didn;t raise not stupid children.
Gotta admit, since 2000, they’ve been doing one helluva job.
I suggest drinking heavily, as we are probably the last Americans to enjoy Constitutional freedoms. Followed by dancing with abandon.
This post is delusional. Obama dumped single payer not because he’s a soft-hearted compromiser, but because he’s a sell out. The “bipartisanship” is just a ruse to sort of mitigate the feeling of betrayal of those who believed in Obama.
When you look at it from that perspective, everything Obama has done in office makes utterly perfect sense, and his future actions are also completely predictable:
Gut social security and medicare, and blame the Republicans because they were mean to him.
Arguably one of the worst political blunders in US history. You don’t throw away a historic mandate to curry favor with the opposition.
Not in a million years. FDR used his political capital. He didn’t lock it in a closet while it rotted.
Hey, Kris –
Just released the other day that I don’t think I’ve seen your folks posting here recently. (Could be I just missed them.) Anyway, hope they’re doing well and still fighting the good fight. (Best as one can hope to do in Texas.)
Our government is a duopoly with zero tolerance for any meaningful debate about anything that matters to the 99%. Bipartianship and reaching across the aisle is complete bullsh*t. It only exists in MSM and the Obama administration propaganda. Obama is about political opportunism and serving the interests of the oligarchy period.
I called in to the Thom Hartmann show two years ago with a diagnosis and cure for Obama. The diagnosis is related to Carl Rove’s signature strategy for winning elections. Rove takes a candidate’s strength and throw enough mud on it so that it becomes the candidate’s weakness. What is Obama’s strength? Bringing disparate groups together and forging a compromise. How can Rove turn this strength into a weakness? By never compromising. Obma’s strength is now his weakness.
My cure for Obama is to use Rove’s strategy against him. The Republicans’ greatest strength is their unanimity. My recommendation is to cast them as Wall Street door mats (I even had one made up). Or they could be cast as Sheep with a Republican brand on the side. By using silly little props, the jokes write themselves:
“When a Republican wants to know what to do, he consults his boss (imagine Allan Grayson holding up a doormat that says “Wall Street’s Republican Doormat”). Oh wait, there is a label on the back that says made in China. It seems the Republicans are governed by the chinese economy more than ours.”
Unfortunately the Dem’s I wrote about this strategy did not have the balls to talk in this fashion (maybe I should have written Grayson).
I can live with that. I’m not some greedy conservative :)
Damn it!
Romney, otoh, will do whatever it takes (see Massachusetts governorship). Once in office, his stated first order of business is to reverse anything that’s been accomplished in the last 4 years: gay rights, Dodd-Frank, Iraq (back in), Afghanistan (new surge), middlemen back in student loans, children on health plans, etc. Otherwise, what’s he bringing but back to Bush/Reagan/Hoover.
Agree completely, best post of the day. 1% v. 99%, rich v. poor (anyone with a net worth under 7.4 million),
People who were told not to buy FB at the IPO v. people who were told buy FB at IPO before it doubles, people with Cayman P.O. Boxes v. people with only one mailing address, etc. Nothing to do with a democratic two party system in any sense.
OT anyone hearing anything about third party registrations trending up due to voter disenfranchisement?! Jon? Seems like it should be at least a statistically reportable number somewhere. Grasping at straws is my only exercise now since I stopped jumping to conclusions and doing leaps of faith.
BOYCOTT THE SILLY PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. There is nothing there for us. Nothing. No matter which way you vote — including third party or ‘write in’ — it will never advance the people’s agenda. Make some noise and garner the media’s attention when you protest the polls on election day!
http://my.firedoglake.com/terridi/2012/06/02/boycott-the-2012-presidential-election/