National Journal reports: Things are bad out in Real America

[xchrom]

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/20/national_journal_reports_things_are_bad_out_in_real_america/

Ron Fournier, the editor in chief of the National Journal, and reporter Sophie Quinton have a story on hard times in Muncie, Ind., as a microcosm of the failure of American institutions as a whole.

It’s a good piece. It’s even an “important” piece, in the sense that the cloistered elites who run the country could learn something of the reality of life out in the country at large if this piece makes it to their desks. D.C.-based news organizations should report from “the rest of America” more often, because in Washington mass foreclosures and double-digit unemployment are usually seen as abstract problems slightly less pressing than the fact that Social Security will, decades from now, pay out slightly more than it takes in. (Joe Klein, who is basically a buffoon, returned from his stunt “2010 road trip” sounding suddenly much less buffoonish. Getting outside the bubble is often instructive.)

The piece is bookended by the story of Johnny Whitmire, a guy who was unceremoniously dropped from the rolls of the middle class by the Very Serious People In Charge of Things. His wife lost her state job. They fell behind on their mortgage. He applied for the Obama administration’s mortgage modification program. His modification was canceled, Citi billed him for back payments, and his home was foreclosed on. Then he got a bill for not cutting the grass at the home his bank seized, because banks keep foreclosed homes in the names of their former owners to avoid liability issues.

So, Whitmire is angry. And he has every right to be.

Whitmire is an angry man. He is among a group of voters most skeptical of President Obama: noncollege-educated white males. He feels betrayed — not just by Obama, who won his vote in 2008, but by the institutions that were supposed to protect him: his state, which laid off his wife; his government in Washington, which couldn’t rescue homeowners who had played by the rules; his bank, which failed to walk him through the correct paperwork or warn him about a potential mortgage hike; his city, which penalized him for somebody else’s error; and even his employer, a construction company he likes even though he got laid off. “I was middle class for 10 years, but it’s done,” Whitmire says. “I’ve lost my home. I live in a trailer now because of a mortgage company and an incompetent government.”

Whitmire’s life was ruined by a few specific “institutions”: Mitch Daniels and the Indiana Republican Party, the finance industry as represented by the bank that decided to screw up his paperwork and seize his home, and the Obama administration, which failed spectacularly on mortgage modification efforts for a variety of reasons.

[coalition_unwilling]

1. A very important article (the National Journal original). I had

not known that Muncie, IN served as the material for "Middletown" (which I read ages ago).

After reporting a petty triumph for Whitmire at City Hall, the penultimate paragraph is just devastating, imo:

"But it’s a small victory for Whitmire. He and his wife are still unemployed. He is no longer eligible for the federal mortgage-relief program. He is bankrupt. His credit is destroyed. And he’s living in a trailer, with no expectation of rejoining the middle class. He has been buffeted, again and again, by forces that never had his interests at heart."

Original article here: http://www.nationaljournal.com/features/restoration-calls/in-nothing-we-trust-20120419#.T5FnSxDbDj8.twitter

Thanks for posting. Should be required reading by all of DU.

[xchrom]

3. i posted the nation article yesterday -- not a lot of interest -- more today. nt

[KG]

8. have Better Believe Post it, lots of interest then!

[xchrom]

10. ...

very true!

[girl gone mad]

24. lol.

[JNelson6563]

36. I think you guys should divide the workload.

I mean, it's so unfair for one member of the group to do all the heavy lifting.

I daresay, it's rather right wing of ya so come on, share the load and get to distributin' those points!1! Many hands make for light work.



Julie

[FSogol]

64. !

[SidDithers]

65. Heheheh....

Sid

[Bobbie Jo]

70. No, he'll post the same thing

tomorrow and claim no knowledge of this thread.

Lather, rinse, repeat....

[Javaman]

38. Do you have the link to the article?

I didn't see your post yesterday.

[xchrom]

41. let me see if i can find it. nt

[xchrom]

42. my memory is awful -- it was the atlantic. same article -- less sexy headline.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/04/how-americans-lost-trust-in-our-greatest-institutions/256163/

How Americans Lost Trust in Our Greatest Institutions



i'm no fan of the national review -- but i am very interested in the topic of our failed/failing institutions.

[Javaman]

50. Thanks for the link. :) nt

[KG]

2. DURec

[MannyGoldstein]

4. It'll get worse quicker under Republicans,

so vote Democratic.

Sounds like a rallying cry to me!

[coalition_unwilling]

5. I agree with you but saying so offers small comfort to Whitmire and

his cohort.

[saras]

11. You understand that that's really stupid logic, and is not going to convince anyone...

...do you think there are that many more sheeple who can be roused by pure emotion that that's really worth doing anymore?

The problem I have with voting Democratic is that, when I vote for people who support evil policies, I feel PERSONALLY responsible for every innocent killed by a drone, for every person raped by the TSA, for every person raped or killed in prison, for everyone who's lost their home, or their community, or their relationships, or their employment, to the corporatists. It makes me want to kill myself, quite literally. The planet is better off without another person who will support those policies, whether they support slightly more or slightly less of them.

Eat more shit faster, because the phony "other side" will force you to eat it EVEN FASTER - is just not a solid program for victory.

Voting Democratic is obvious, and trivial, and unhelpful. It's like saying "and by the way, don't cut your hands off at the elbows." The real questions have to do with how we stop the Democrats from being evil, so that we could have a real debate about which goods to pursue. And honest elections, without a spoiler effect, seem to be the first thing we are missing.

[MannyGoldstein]

12. Sorry, I was being sarcastic

I think it's a horrible rallying cry - but it's the one that Democrats seem focused on.

[AlbertCat]

13. That's the stupidest post I've read in a long time.

I suppose we just shouldn't vote at all I guess...

I mean, so we won't feel "personally responsible" for everything that happens to anyone.

[chervilant]

15. Please think about what you've posted...

I've posted on another thread that End-of-the-World rhetoric is off-putting. I think the same can be said of anti-Democratic Party rhetoric. We've all been raised with organized sports, and we've learned how to root for 'our team,' even when our team is responsible for gross, inappropriate behavior. And, sadly, our pathetic, hedonistic, narcissistic species prefers not to hear that our hubris has measurable consequences.

When we spend most of our time arguing about which party is better--when clearly both have been co-opted by the Corporate Megalomaniacs who've usurped our media, our politics AND our global economy--we remain distracted from the critical work we need to do to recover our democracy.

We are now living in exponential times. Each and every one of our species' missteps is amplified to levels we have yet to comprehend. We've not even had sufficient time to adjust mentally and emotionally to exponential change. Accepting that many members of the Democratic Party have betrayed our party is difficult. In fact, I think most of us are still in the 'acceptance' stage (see Kubler-Ross) regarding our species' apparent rush to self-immolation.

I STILL adamantly refuse to believe that we cannot step off this path of sure extinction. I keep reminding myself that it's hard to see the forest for the trees. I keep reminding myself of the words of one of our most erudite members, Mahatma Gandhi:

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.

[tex-wyo-dem]

23. Excellent post, chervilant!

Your right...one of these days we all have to start seeing reality and stop playing these stupid "red team vs. Blue team" BS games and start really doing things to save ourselves as well as everything else on this planet.

Washington politics and all the crap that goes with it is just illusion...kabuki theatre.

The Dems distinguish themselves from the repubs by being slightly more liberal on social issues. But when the rubber hits the road to what really matters to them (money, capitalism, trickle-down/top-down/supply-side economics that rewards those who already have money) there is absolutely no difference between the two parties, because (and you nailed it!) Both parties have been co-opted by wealthy corporate interests.

[mmonk]

60. Great post.

[AlbertCat]

66. Please think about what you've posted...

I have.

"The problem I have with voting Democratic is that, when I vote for people who support evil policies..." And this is not a problem when you vote Repug? There's no one else to choose from so.... don't vote at all is all that's left.

And my point is.... what do we do NOW, in April 2012, other than vote Dem? I see the "problem" but does anyone have any viable solutions?

I don't at this time, because, as we should know, a small 3rd party helps Repugs. The heartfelt post didn't offer any solutions, just pointed out the problem we all knew was there in the 1st place.

"We suck less" is indeed a dreadful message. But in the real world, who is there to vote for but Dems? And since Repugs have completely lost their minds these days, voting a straight Dem ticket is a sensible thing to do.... in these times.

We can talk and discuss and get all mushy and wish for some world that doesn't exist yet and it can be very helpful, I suppose. But that still leaves what are you gonna do in Nov.?

I say.... vote Dem!

[AlbertCat]

69. We've not even had sufficient time to adjust mentally and emotionally to exponential change.

So... shall we all take a break until we have had sufficient time?


Meanwhile.... teabaggers vote!


When has any country anywhere had a leader who didn't make or have to make decisions that hurt innocent people or that were not 100% successful? (It sounds like religion: "If only so-and-so weren't in the way.... we'd have a perfect world.&quot When has voting EVER NOT been about voting for the ones who do a better job.... not a perfect job, but a better job?

And this does not mean we can't improve and strive to improve. But my point is.... what do we do NOW.... in an election year?

[chervilant]

73. Actually,

I hope to encourage more people to consider that we live in exponential times, so that we can begin adjusting to this reality--AND, so that we can avoid the fear-mongering and hate-mongering that seem to be commensurate with a myopic perspective of our species' evolution.

I intend to vote for the candidates I feel most represent the majority of our population (we both know that means Dems), but I'm well aware that the electronic voting machines will enable the Corporate Megalomaniacs to insure the outcome they prefer.

In the meanwhile, we'd best get our acts together quick, fast, and in a hurry--we must recover our democracy.

[sabrina 1]

21. I thought it was a beautiful post. A post from a real person, a real human being

who cares about other real human beings. Because many of us feel the same way, we feel responsible if the people we hire do not do the job they were hired to do.

We have choices when that happens, fire them, if there is someone else to do the job better, OR, and this is what I believe is necessary, hold them accountable, retrain them and make sure they understand that until they improve, they cannot count on that job forever.

Your way seems to be to do nothing, just look the other way? And, btw, the best time to let them know we mean business is DURING the election cycle. They should never feel entitled to those jobs and they should know that we are the ones they are responsible to, not the Corporations or other special interests no matter how many lobbyists visit them with bags of money.

[AlbertCat]

71. Your way seems to be to do nothing, just look the other way?

Nonsense.

My way is that in a few months from now, we vote Dem because the Repugs have lost their minds. Dems may not be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but they actually ARE better than the Repugs.... and like you said:

"We have choices when that happens, fire them, if there is someone else to do the job better,"


Does this just apply to Dems?

[sabrina 1]

74. "Does this just apply to Dems?"

You can't be suggesting that Republicans can be persuaded to do the right thing for the people? Is that your strategy? To pressure Republicans to work for the people? Good luck with that. I and most democrats have no interest in Republicans or wasting time attempting to get them to put the people first. But go for it, if you think it's worth trying.

You left out the other choice, the most viable choice I presented, I wonder why you did that?

Unless you think we should not let our elected officials know what we expect of them. If so, I could not disagree more.

[AlbertCat]

76. I'm confused.

Your post is exactly what I'm saying! We don't have time for Repugs. Vote Dem.

[sabrina 1]

78. My post is also saying, pressure Dems during the election season when we have

leverage, to move to the left. Giving politicians the idea that they get votes without doing anything to earn them has been a failure as far as the people are concerned. Now is the time to talk about issues.

Each election season there are those who appear on internet forums urging people to be quiet about issues because 'there is an election coming up'. This could not be a worse strategy as we have seen now for the past several election cycles.

Eg, I want to know who will be in the President's cabinet this time. We did not ask that question last time and look what we got. Now is the time to ask and to demand that this time we get Progressive Democrats in the cabinet.

Who will be COS eg? Is there any reason why this position should not go to a Progressive Democrat? Democrats want Democrats in power, not rightwingers even if they have a D after their names.

[JNelson6563]

37. lolz What, are you new here?

Manny's one of the biggest anti-Dems here! lolz

That's the thing about zealots, no sense of humor at all! So often missing high quality sarcasm. What a pity.

Julie

[Occulus]

72. Obama's opinion of gay marriage is that it should be left up to the individual states.

His opinions regarding GLBTs would get him banned from this site.

Why should I vote for that?

[AlbertCat]

77. Why should I vote for that?

Uh.... because that's not the only issue.... or the most important? Perhaps?

One issue voting is not very helpful.

[Skittles]

20. YUP

VOTE DEMOCRATIC; WE SUCK LESS THAN REPUKES is hardly inspiring

[salin]

6. Thanks for posting. I wish more publications

would skip the DC hype and come spend time out in "real" America (meaning everywhere outside of the beltway bubble.)

[butterfly77]

7. Scheiffer on Face the Nation...

acted like he was shocked this morning as Tavis Smiley and Cornell West were describing what is really going on in this country. This is what is the problem in this country a lot of these talking heads on tv talk about America when they don't know a damn thing about America.

People like Peggy Noonan sit at home or wherever sipping on her Mint Julips and writes her bullshit when she knows nothing about America. A lot of them are now seeing some of the consequences of Bush and RepubliCON policies and are now afraid of uprisings in the country.

They still don't get it,but if Paul Ryan's plans for the budget take effect they will get what some of the TEABAGGERS want and more. They keep crying about Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson concerning the Trayvon Martin case but,if some kind of uprising presents itself it won't be just black people.

They don't seem to get that. If some type of uprising does take place they will begin calling on Al and Jesse to calm people down as if they have that much power..

[lovuian]

14. I call it the Marie Antoinette Syndrome

She told the starving peasants to eat cake
not realizing the world they were living in

the Talking heads are telling us "Eat cake"

Soon the Anger will swell to Eruption

[dixiegrrrrl]

17. History tells us that the French Royals were totally clueless

about the reasons for the people's revolution, that they were in denial it could/would happen.
All that rarefied air, don't ya know.
No different than today, really.

[Eddie Haskell]

59. Yes!

Let's put the Talking heads where they belong ...

[Daniel537]

46. The elite like their bubble the way it is.

I think they do know what's going on in the rest of the country, they just don't give a shit. They just want to make sure the problems the rest of us have never reaches their communities.

[IDemo]

9. "cloistered elites ...could learn something of the reality of life out in the country"

The cloistered elites are puzzled that anyone would think they should care about anything happening outside their gated communities or corporate boardrooms.

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. +1.

[Safetykitten]

16. It is a geographic issue also.

The wealthiest counties? Mostly in Maryland. The east coast between Boston and Washington seems completely oblivious to the rest of the nations problems. It really is quite a bubble.

[Egalitarian Thug]

18. Very good. Now, how to pry them out of their bubble?

They don't want to know, that is key to any politician. If you know and are caught denying knowledge, as is inevitable with today's information systems, you're done in politics and are mostly excluded form any juicy appointed positions, so the obvious solution is to be Sgt. Schultz and know nothing about anything, ever.

K&R

[intheflow]

49. I don't think it's that they don't want to know.

It's more that we all tend to concentrate moat on what's swirling around directly in front of us. What's directly in front of most of America is economic reality. What's directly in front of politicians in DC are lobbyists and their accompanying economic unreality favoring stockholders.

[Egalitarian Thug]

56. I think you are being far too kind. You've stretched the benefit of the doubt

to the point that we have to ignore the facts. There was a local talker in LA I heard the other day and he brings up one of the great taboos of American politics; "Look at what they were when they came into office and compare that to what they are now". Bottom line, they become fabulously wealthy while making ~$150,000. The corruption is ubiquitous and is what feeds the system of exclusion.

This applies to both sides of the isle, and every exception to the rule doesn't last in DC.

[bread_and_roses]

19. A K & R for this (n/t)

[progressoid]

22. Marking this for a later read.

[Jerry Frey]

25. the middle class is dying

"A significant and growing portion of the population lives in poverty. In 2007, the rate was 12.5 percent. By 2010, it was 15.1 percent."

http://napoleonlive.info/economics/divided-state-of-america-2/

[Zalatix]

26. Let me guess, Johnny Whitmire ain't gonna vote for President Obama in 2012?

If not then he deserves what he gets, because he's going to get a hell of a lot more if President Obama loses.

[bread_and_roses]

29. "He'll deserve what he gets?"

I am simply staggered that this could be a response to this man's plight - emblematic of so many. Just what did he do to deserve what he already "got?" Do you really think that when things are as bad as they are for him that "it could be worse" has much power to move?

It beggars belief that anyone could read that account and come up with such a statement.

[magical thyme]

31. he voted for Obama in 2008. did he deserve what he got?

Get a clue. Once you hit rock bottom, all bets are off.

A bunch of people worked effing hard all their lives, only to find themselves slammed back to rock bottom in the last few years. Another bunch of people close enough to get a whiff of it...right on the edge of the cliff.

The country is a tinderbox. I was there myself, not that long ago. Obama's student loan income based repayment policy kicked my can down the road, so I have a vested interest in seeing that policy continue.

But I don't doubt for one minute that people who have not only not been saved by his policies, but have ended up worse off, don't effing care.

Misery loves company. Don't think for one minute that at least some of those going off the cliff will drag as many with them as possible, out of utter rage and despair.

[Daniel537]

44. With an attitude like that i'm sure we'll win tons of new voters. n/t

[pscot]

47. I hope you really aren't as clueless and unsympathetic

as that post makes you sound.

[Zalatix]

75. Don't get mad at me, get mad at what will happen if enough people like him sit out the 2012 election

I am merely explaining the consequences if guys like this sit out the election out of anger.

If enough people like him respond irrationally, they will make a bed that we will all have to lie in.

I am but the messenger here.

[Nostradammit]

27. Fuck Ron Fournier

After years of fluffing GW Bush he has a lot of nerve criticizing anybody for anything.

If he and his cohorts had done their jobs we wouldn't be in this situation.

Fuck Ron Fournier.

[JoePhilly]

33. +1

[ProSense]

34. It's positively

hilarious. The guy who fluffed up Bush and shilled for McCain writes that America is screwed up and people are disappointed.

I can't wait to read the next installment, the solution:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/features/restoration-calls

What is the likelihood it will be progressive? LOL!


http://pol.moveon.org/emails/ap_fournier.html

http://mediamatters.org/columns/200807220006

http://motherjones.com/mojo/2008/07/aps-ron-fournier-karl-rove-keep-fight

[Bake]

55. Are you saying America ISN'T screwed up? And that people AREN'T disappointed?

It is. They are. I'm one of them.

And I'm still voting Dem.

Bake

[coalition_unwilling]

67. I'll second that emotion - n/t

[closeupready]

63. Good catch, ProSense. A Republican shill with his marching orders -

I didn't understand it quite in that light, but now I do, and thanks for that.

Makes me livid.

[closeupready]

62. He was the worst of Bush's media shills.

So yeah, I have no use for him, at all.

[malaise]

30. He's on Morning Joe Scum right now n/t

[JoePhilly]

32. The GOP crashes the economy, destroys the housing market ...

Republican Gov cuts state jobs, including his wife's ... and it Obama's fault, apparently.

Makes total sense.

[JNelson6563]

39. It's like a parallel universe, isn't it?

It's quite stunning, really.

Julie

[pscot]

48. It really is a shame that Mr. Whitmire

isn't as clever and objective as we are. Under the bus with the poor slob.

[JoePhilly]

61. Actually, he sounds like a Republican friend of mine.

He started his own business when Clinton was president. Small residential furniture moving company. Grew it to 3 trucks. Was talking about retiring early.

Is business declined under Bush as wages stagnated. The middle class stopped buying new furniture. He had to close it in 2007, and he and the co-owner took their remaining truck and got hired working for a single furniture company. Now, as employees, they made low hourly wages, no benefits. Then mid 2008, he got laid off. Lost his home about a year later.

Since then, he's moved from brief job to brief job. But as a guy in his late 40s, he's losing out on physical labor jobs because the young guys get those. He's tried to find management jobs using his prior small business experience, but again, that business failed under Bush.

On one hand, he hates "big government", on the other hand, he thinks Obama was supposed to somehow rescue him from the banks when he couldn't pay his mortgage any more.

I should note that anyone who thinks Obama was going to somehow save every person from losing their home after the mess Bush and the GOP made, is crazy.

Whitmore, perhaps like my friend, is mad at the world. I have no issue with them. What I do have issue with is people using them to discourage voters from voting at all.

This is exactly what the GOP wants. They hate the government and will do anything to tie it in knots. Then, when guys like my friend and Whitmore give up because "the government is bad" ... the GOP's base of zealots will carry the day, and the GOP will take power and continue to dismantle the government.

[coalition_unwilling]

68. Somehow this country managed to bail out the share- and bondholders of the

TBTF banks, on the taxpayers' nut no less, but thinking that same government might bail out those at risk of losing their homes is 'crazy'? You do have an issue with Whitmire and your friend, since you think they are crazy. That arrogance says a lot.

[Blue_Tires]

57. Not only that, he'll probably happily send his last dime to some teabagger's campaign

[allan01]

35. re: National Journal reports: Things are bad out in Real America

THis is why our parents and grand parents didnt trust the banks ( not banksters , robber barons)

[Whiskeytide]

40. This is the real issue...

... facing our society. 30 years ago, Corporate interests set about a plan to drown the government in a bathtub, and then resurrect it as a slow witted, brainless zombie to do their bidding. It worked beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that they used the same model to create a media zombie that is assigned the job of keeping us misinformed enough to refrain from rising up and killing the government zombie.

It is all about power and money - pure and simple. And they have enough of it that they write the agenda - so no matter how aware some of us become now, I fear it is too late. I don't see how the momentum can be reversed. I really think we may be seeing the end of the American way of life. I'm not sure what we'll turn into, but its gonna look a lot different from the America most of us grew up in.

[bhikkhu]

43. Whitmire is an asshat

Being down on your luck in no way stops a person from being an asshat. There is no rule that says you have to have a certain income level to be an asshat, and one shouldn't have to refrain from identifying asshats among the downtrodden.

To a very large extent, the numbers of the downtrodden would be much less, and their conditions much better, is there were fewer asshats around.

[Daniel537]

45. An asshat based on what exactly?

[Kablooie]

51. No problem! Mitt Romney and a full Republican Congress will fix it all in a wink!

Just eliminate all corporate oversight and taxes for the rich and - poof! - problem gone!
That was easy!

So let's play the cattonica and dance!

[cyberpj]

53. WOW. WHAT A GRAPHIC! Churches and HMOs! (HMOs??!) lead confidence gains (see the link):

The President, Banks and Congress lead the losses.

Followed closely by The Supremes, Media and Labor

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/04/how-americans-lost-trust-in-our-greatest-institutions/256163/

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

54. Amen. with 1 out of 2 Americans in Poverty

great article thank YOU for posting it.

We have been abandoned.

[Evasporque]

58. The Gas guzzling 50'S Sitcom American dream

Was never sustainable. It was all about maximizing profit.

Now that the profit has been taken we have a small extremely wealthy ruling class that pays an excessive amount of money to hold onto the wealth and what money still comes in.

America was a new land full of resource. The combination of unfettered greed and technological advances resulted in the greatest collection of wealth in the history of the world.

Its over now. The rich won.

The zombie apocalypse is happening right now and the zombies are most of us....the underemployed working slobs, the unemployed middle agers, the jobless youth, the fixed income elderly.

The Republicans will suck any ass to keep the house and five cars....and the dead-end job that will leave them sick and penniless in the end.

there is no going BACK to any DREAM...or idea of "how it used to be".

We can only go forward and the fuckhead Republicans, the Tea Party crazies, the uber-wealthy are standing in the way.