[quote=pri_dk][quote=Allan from Fallbrook]Partypup: Bingo. That was my point, exactly. Some people here read, but don’t seem to comprehend. Same difference between listening and hearing.[/quote]
There is nothing to comprehend in partypup’s long-winded rant. It’s full of rhetoric and gripes about “the system”, but there are no specific ideas.
So should there be a 3rd party?
Or will we see new, credible leadership in the existing parties?
Is someone going to propose a specific platform?
If we are unhappy with spending, how about someone propose a complete budget plan (with actual numbers!)
Or are we just going to revel in the defeat of the other guy and call it progress? (And in this situation, the other guy seems to be just about everyone.)
I hear cheering because this election will likely defeat the health care bill. Ok, so the health care bill sucked. Is anyone proposing an alternative solution? Where is it? Is there an actual, written plan for health care (or any other issue for that matter?)
Without a specific leader, and/or a specific plan, all we have is hope.
Is that what we are cheering about: hope?[/quote]
Pri: I didn’t find it a rant at all. To the contrary, she articulated the inchoate rage and frustration that many Americans are feeling, especially when considering how our elected leaders have sold our collective asses down the river.
After watching the Republicans flounder as much as the Democrats, I’d love to see a third party emerge. It isn’t beyond reason, but it would need to clearly perform better than John Anderson or Ross Perot. However, what is more likely to me, is the emergence, from both parties, of more capable individual leadership. For the first time in a long time, I can actually see this happening. That is what energized me about Brown’s election. It had nothing to do with him being a Republican, or Coakley being a Dem. It had to do with watching an engaged, energized and enraged electorate cohere and then take action. That is cool shit.
It also reinforces my feeling that, while the country is broken, it isn’t beyond repair. And, ultimately, the people, not the government, will fix it.
For all the facile mendacity you read (Progressives have always advanced, while conservatives have always declined!), the fact remains that America is a fundamentally conservative country, possessed of stubborn common sense and we occasionally go off on a stupid bender (Carter, Dubya), but we find our way back home from the bar.
