If you're not bitter, you're not paying attention

[Hugabear]

I cannot fucking believe that some Democrats would pounce on another Democrat for saying that many Americans in small towns feel bitter. We've all been watching the economy go to hell over the past several years. We've watched as our jobs have gone overseas. We've watched the price of gas rocket skyward. We've seen the price of food going up. We've seen the housing market fall apart, and people losing their houses because of unscrupulous lending practices. We've watched as over 4000 American soldiers have died in an illegal war.

We've all seen the bumper stickers that say "If you're not pissed off, you're not paying attention". If I want to hear about how the United States is full of shiny happy people, if I want to hear about how everything is just peachy keen, then I'll tune into Hannity, Beck, Limbaugh, or any other repug talk show.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. Agreed.

[islandmkl]

2. the penalty for telling the TRUTH...

is banishment from the village.


Apparently...

[Nitrogenica]

3. So Hillary has to pretend I don't exist or don't matter now?

Sounds the same as the last 7 years.

[Marie26]

4. I don't have a problem with "bitter"

Because it's true, people are bitter. But when he goes off into saying that that's why working-class voters "cling to religion" or guns or xenophobia, it sounds like stereotyping. And what's more, in my experience it isn't true. In the Rust Belt towns, people are bitter, but are they all fundamentalist racist gun nuts? No. So that's one problem. But my other problem is the way he includes "anti-trade sentiment" as just another irrational bitter reaction, & I profoundly disagree. The opposition to free trade is rational - outsourcing is one of the major reasons why so many people have lost their jobs in these towns, & it bothers me a little that he seems to just pooh-pooh that as another irrational reaction.

[BigDDem]

5. "Bitter" is the new "HOPE!"

Go for it!!

[PoliticalAmazon]

6. The more people think about "bitter" the more they will agree that it is true...

...There is no faith in the economy now, people have lost their homes, and their jobs. They can't afford health-care insurance for their kids and, because of anti-Union hacks like the Clintons, their jobs (if they have them) no longer provide important benefits.

People ARE bitter about their status, and Hillary Clinton has supported the BushJr measures that have ensured they have a right to be bitter.

This will turn around and show Hillary Clinton for the elitist she is, totally out of touch with the majority of the country.

[Barack_America]

7. How could any Democrat NOT be bitter?

:shrug:

That's what I don't understand.

Please name me one significant accomplishment on the Democratic agenda in recent memory.

[joeybee12]

8. So when the Dems pounced on Dean in 2004 about the pick-up trucks

and rebel flags comment you came running to his defense?

[Zachstar]

9. Well the faux outrage over bittergate looks like it is already starting to fail.

After the debate I think this gate will be over. If not won by Obama

[Raffi Ella]

10. That's not the issue though is it?

The issue is that Barack has claimed that BECAUSE people are bitter they "cling to religion and guns" not because they enjoy those things and always have, but because they are bitter.

You guys can keep embracing the bitter sentiment and ignore the elephant in his condescending and arrogant statement but you sound just as above it all as your man O does when you do.

Democrats can not belittle small town America, like Barack has done, and expect to get their vote.

[Taxmyth]

11. Reality

The US Government has very, VERY little to do with the price of gasoline and the subsequent effect it has on everything that goes on a truck. If you were alive in the 80's and paying attention, you learned this. The Housing market was much like the Dot Com boom of the 90's, people paid too much for something that wasn't worth what they decided to pay. If you thought double digit jumps in real estate every year was guaranteed then you were delusional. That has nothing to do with the Government, other than the low interest rates that allowed the money to be BORROWED to make the purchase. It was still the consumer driving the market. And if you thought your real estate value had really climbed 50% in a couple of years and borrowed against that PERCEIVED value, you made a big mistake.

Being bitter about mistakes you yourself have made or about things you have no control over is not an appropriate response. Learn from your mistakes but don't blame them on someone or something else.