It's not Republicans vs Democrats and Paulites vs everybody. This country is in Deep Serious because the government is broken, and there is no use casting blame.
All forms of media buy into casting the other side as 'the enemy,' and they use each of us as ammo against "the opposition."
Taking all of the above as fact - how can we change the status quo.
BDBoop--- you're looking for convienient political excuses for why the economy is shrinking and why the government is not responding. Long and short of it is -- A prez has very little control over the economy. He can encourage tax policy, he can suggest programs, he can twist the arm of the Fed Reserve and he can encourage trade policies.
What he/she can contribute MOST is vision and leadership. And nowhere in the national debate right now is WHAT the business of AMERICA SHOULD be. We are contracting economically because we never directly addressed Globalism. The earth got a lot smaller while we were fighting over Bill Clinton's impeachment and investing heavily in failed "internet superhiway startups". There is no fencing high enough to fix that.
We desparately need to build a world class technical capability where capital can flow to NEW aggressive companies that will REQUIRE American high skilled labor. All levels of jobs flow from that.
We desparately need a 21st century education system where we ENCOURAGE high performing students by EXPANDING virtual education and advanced course material while ending the racist garbage of low expectations.
We desparately need to encourage 21st Century manufacturing technology and sell it to the rest of the world. Need to recapture the lead in artifical intelligience, robotics, material science, bioscience, and logistics.
NONE of this is a political problem except for the barriers that are in the way of folks IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR who can fix all these things. That giant "sucking sound" that Perot talked about has been going on for years now. And while we continue to argue about REPs and DEMs, our kids are looking at a special kind of socialist redistribution where OUR quality of life is redistributed to the rest of the world.
Where in this election cycle are you hearing any politician lay it out that way? Where are the media stories about the drought in New tech IPOs of any quality? Where is the outrage over kids whose lives are being compromised by a dysfunctional public school system?
We're distracted, flabby, and politics has turned this nation into a nursery full of beggars and whiners. Especially corporations who would rather PRETEND they're green and be hand fed -- then do REAL work and go hunt their own food.