The Fury Failure | Gail Collins- NYT

[BootinUp]

Rage is not working out.

In Delaware, the Republican voters were so angry that they rejected a popular congressman and gave their Senate nomination to an apparently unemployed 41-year-old woman whose major life success had been an ongoing performance as Wacko Conservative Girl on late-night talk shows. In Alaska, they were so mad that they tossed out their incumbent senator for Joe Miller, a lawyer who believes unemployment compensation is unconstitutional, except when his wife is receiving it.

So now in Delaware the unangry Democrat candidate is way ahead. In Alaska, Miller keeps dropping in the polls, which made him so mad that he had his private security guards take an inquiring reporter into custody.

That did not go over very well even in Alaska, an extremely angry state that hateshateshates all forms of government, despite the fact that 40 percent of its economy comes from government aid, and the state’s oil-revenue-sharing program gives families thousands of dollars in payments every year. “Unemployment has never been lower; there is no housing crisis; banks are solvent. We just got Permanent Fund Checks — and, boy, are we pissed off!” said Michael Carey, an Anchorage Daily News columnist.

Really, people, rage never gets you anything but overturned garbage cans and broken windows. If you want to do rage, go to France.

[mwb970]

1. There's no way to put a spin on it. The right wing has gone insane.

Was this high a percentage of Americans this crazy before they all found each other on the Interwebs? I swear, America must have the overall stupidest (and most religious, duh) citizenry in the entire world. Or is there some another country where 1/3 of the citizens are batshit crazy?

[whathehell]

2. Historically, countries turn to the Right during bad economic times..The U.S. isn't alone in that.

Americans, deliberately, IMO, given less and less news of Europe over the years are not only largely uninformed about its greater safety net and citizen-friendly policies, they also know little of it's negatives, for instance their rising right wing leaders and policies. So no, despite it's appearance, we're not "the only nut on the cake".

http://www.fpif.org/articles/racism_and_recession_in_europe

As you will read at the above link, there's no shortage of right wing, anti-immigrant groups in Europe now, and according to this article, for the last ten years...Just google Right wing Europe and you'll see a plethora of articles. As to your last question, the internet makes good and bad ideas "go viral".

Americans are no more "stupid" than other people and to say so is as bigoted as as throwing that label on any other group. Many are in the grips of Corporations who "play" them and, imo, they may be the most INTENTIONALLY misinformed nation in the western world because of corporate control and a right-wing supreme court.

You have to look at in the context of thirty years of Reaganomics, twenty plus years of propagand radio and diminishing investment in state education...among other things.

During the 1960's, we had the largest middle class in the world and the highest number of college graduates in the world. Since the defeat of Barry Goldwater in '64, the Right Wing has been working steadily to overturn the structures and policies which made that possible.

[bemildred]

3. Rage makes you stupid, and that seems to be the point. nt

[Lucy Goosey]

4. Great read - k&r

[savalez]

5. Thanks for the story!