Is America a Nation of Whiners?
Last Thursday, McCain campaign economic advisor Phil Gramm received a lot of flack for saying the following:
“We have sort of become a nation of whiners. You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline,” said the former Texas senator. “You’ve heard of mental depression; this is a mental recession.”
Later, Gramm clarified his comments by saying he was referring to the leaders, not the people. Yet, I think his true meaning was that of the people. Certainly, leaders can be whiners, but what about the people?
Consider what we’ve seen recently. Rising gas and food prices, an unpopular war, loss of jobs, and leaders who don’t seem too intent on doing much about it; just rhetoric. I think, under such conditions, the people are right to complain.
There are things for which government is directly responsible. Starting and planning wars, running any socialized healthcare institutions, gathering intelligence, and keeping the country safe, to name a few. If the citizens feel that the government is doing a bad job at any of these things, they certainly have a right to express their concerns.
Yet, there are situations where government cannot help. For instance, despite all the claims of job creation by every president in recent history, they can not be directly responsible for doing that. They can try and push an agenda that creates an environment where companies feel more comfortable opening up new positions. Also, rising gas and food prices are (mostly) unrelated to government action or inaction, as is most of the economy.
I think Gramm refers to the second set of scenarios, or those things government can’t really control. For example, take gas prices. Day in and day out, I see people say, “Why isn’t the government doing anything about gas prices?!” without realizing it really can’t do anything. The economic system in this country is still more-or-less a private sector thing. Under these conditions, the anger people are displaying is very misplaced. Instead, they should be asking why the gas prices are so high, of which the Iraq war is only a small part of the question.
Is Gramm’s statement politically smart? Of course not; nobody wants to be told they’re a whiner. But is it true? Maybe.
(Cross-posted from Dymersion)
"Instead, they should be asking why the gas prices are so high, of which the Iraq war is only a small part of the question."Its still a problem that could have been attended to much earlier, but republicans don’t want to put reasonable demands on auto-manufacturers, for example.I mean, a lot of the economic instability stem from these mortgage companies or whatever going belly-up, right? Well, it seems as if the republicans (masters of all things economic) have let the country rely on a few unreliable support beams like cheap gas and consumption driven purely by mortgages. Also, the monetary value has dropped a lot, and I just read a Harpers article that suggests the problems could be even worse.
Utsu, a little bit in history lesson - as of 2006, the Democrats have controlled Congress and controlled that laughable mileage bill they did up. Just one more key into driving down their dismal ratings that they earned. If they took lessons from Bush they could nearly double their approval ratings.
"If they took lessons from Bush they could nearly double their approval ratings."
Except the 29%ers obviously are unreachable to them.
"Just one more key into driving down their dismal ratings that they earned."
You still insist that the dem congress started on at least 50 % and drove it down themselves. They inherited a reviled institution, and maybe emulating republicans or being afraid of the media earned them further dismay. They need to tap into left-wing values being more popular and then drive home the message that emulating new policies reflecting this can improve and unite the country.
Anyway, I would be interested in knowing WHY people give low approval to this or that, seeing as its difficult to know which way the wind blows otherwise.
"mileage bill they did up"
Which one? You’re not talking about the CLEAN Energy Act of 2007 I presume.
The nation is full of whiners. When Europeans have been paying for gas at ranges of 7$-14$ per gallon, Americans have been paying about 3$ and have only begun to whine when it reached about 4$. It’s absurd to complain about the gas price, it was bound to go up eventually. You cannot blame economic policies of some administration for the inevitable rise in gas prices.
You cannot blame the economic policies of an administration simply because of an economic recession which was bound to happen eventually. The fact that the US economy is mostly a free market and low amounts of regulations will make sure that the US economy will not be worse off in the future trust me.
We Americans whine about gas, economy, global warming, and other small tiny problems that will never really become a big problem for the US. The Gas was bound to go up, the economy is bound to have ups and downs, and panicking about global warming and presenting government regulations to fix it may have consequences as well. All these can be fixed by working together with Democrats and Republicans to make laws to relieve the problem, but they shouldn’t expect to solve it completely.
Global warming will kill of millions in third-world countries. I don’t give a coitus about people like you or me - we deserve most of it anyway.
"I don’t give a coitus about people like you or me - we deserve most of it anyway."
Now there’s a campaign slogan I can get behind…. and I’m sure the rest of the American public.
I think Gramm is also saying that the economy is being talked down, and we wouldn’t be in bad shape as we are if the problems weren’t exaggerated by politicians who have a stake in exaggerating them.
Actually they started at 100%, and proved unable to do much of anything. Certainly nothing of importance.
HAHA, yeah do that, and watch approval ratings dip into single digits for the first time ever. You probably also believe that 2006 elections were because voters liked the Democrat so-called values?
You actually have difficulty understanding why 10, 11, 15, 17% is a low number? You must also therefore, enthusiastically support the inept Democrat leadership.