By Dennis Loo“92 percent of Americans give the national economy a negative rating. No fewer than 70 percent of the respondents report having suffered job-related and financial problems in the past year, an increase from 59 percent the year before. Fifty-four percent report someone in their home has been without a job and looking for work in the past year, up from 39 percent in 2009….
“Only 22 percent of Americans say their government can be trusted, according to the new survey. The report puts this among the lowest measures of trust in the government in half a century.
“The study also shows across-the-board declines in approval ratings for numerous federal agencies, including the Department of Education, the Food and Drug Administration, the Social Security Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Forty-three percent say the government has a negative effect on their daily life, up from 31 percent in 1997.
“While approval ratings for the government are remarkably low, with 65 percent saying the federal government and congress have a negative impact ‘on the way things are going in the country,’ the approval ratings for other major institutions are as low or lower. Sixty-nine percent of those surveyed say banks and other financial institutions have a negative impact on the way things are going in the country, while 64 percent say ‘large corporations’ have a negative impact. Some 57 percent say the national news media has a negative impact, while 49 percent say labor unions have such an impact.
“The report states that ‘more than six-in-ten (62%) say it is a major problem that government policies unfairly benefit some groups while nearly as many (56%) say that government does not do enough to help average Americans.’” – From Hiram Lee, “Collapse of the Standard of Living in the USA: Studies Reveal Declining Living Standards and Increasing Anger,” Global Research, April 25, 2010. Emphasis added.
Item: Goldman Sachs is under fire for their blatant mass thievery. Congress and Obama make promises and propose measures that won’t really do what must be done.
Item: The Tea Parties are flourishing, in large part because of sheer racism and being incited by reactionaries in the GOP and Fox News but also in part because Obama hasn’t cracked down on the Big Bankers and other Bloated Capitalist Hogs (see previous item).
Item: Whistleblowers in the military risk their careers leaking damning videos of US military atrocities and Wikileaks’ principals brave the direct pressure being brought upon their heads by the US government accusing them of being “national security threats” to release the “Collateral Murder” video, with more damaging videos to come.
Item: A full page ad in the New York Review of Books will be appearing in their May 24th issue (on newsstands on May 13 and in subscribers’ mailboxes on May 6) declaring that “Crimes are Crimes: No Matter Who Does Them,” featuring a side-by-side mug style shot of Bush (frontal) and Obama (in profile), and signed by 38 notables, including Cornel West, William Ayers, Cindy Sheehan, Dan Ellsberg, Noam Chomsky and Chris Hedges, calling for others to take a stand against the crimes of our government. Some of the signatories campaigned vigorously for Obama but now find their consciences require them to take a public stand against Obama’s egregious continuation, expansion upon, and making permanent many of the most monstrous of the Bush Regime’s towering crimes.
Item: Students tell me that they and those they know are “fed up.” Their job prospects after graduation look dismal, they’re having trouble even getting classes, public goods such as higher education are being relentlessly privatized in order to enrich the already obscenely rich and closing the doors to those who aren’t rich, the wars go on, Obama’s instituting "preventive detention," even if you’re been exonerated in a trial, ordering the assassination of American citizens, and the torture hasn’t ended. Some students are now talking about revolution.
If you have been one of the people who have been saying that the American people need to get really fed up before any real change will happen, this essay is meant for you: what you’ve been saying needs to happen is happening. It’s not full-blown yet, but it’s what’s goin’ on, folks.
Obama’s greatest achievement so far in a putatively positive vein, besides not being Bush or Cheney, has been to pass a health care bill that is essentially the same as the one that Mitt Romney passed in Massachusetts when he was governor there. If we’re celebrating the fact that a Democrat has passed a Republican plan, then where are things really at in this country?
If in order to get enough votes for a bill that didn’t have a public option and didn’t have single-payer (which if he had done so would have mobilized tremendous grassroots support for the bill and rolled over the damn GOP whiners) and which doesn’t correct, in other words, the root problem which is the private insurance companies whose only interest in health is the health of their bottom line, Obama had to promise to block abortion from being provided by insurers, then will someone please tell me again why they think the Democrats are better than the Republicans?
And while you’re at it, will someone please tell me again why they think that voting and electoral politics is the answer? Tell me why protesting in the streets isn’t the answer? Tell me why creating an entirely political atmosphere through the independent actions of the people protesting (and signing the "Crimes Are Crimes" Statement and financially supporting its wide distribution), and not politely begging public officials to do the right thing, isn’t the answer?