I simply don't understand how voters can turn their backs on a President who brought us back from

[Savannahmann]

129. Because things aren't improving.

More than 92 million people are not in the workforce. That is a huge number, and a record setting number. While the news trumpets the unemployment number, people see the signs that can't be right. On the drive to town, there is a sign on the side of the road at a mans house. It says Need Work, will accept low wages.

The Stock Market and Politics are both fueled by Faith. The Stock Market is based upon the faith that the value will increase. Think about that for a moment. Every day there are hundreds of millions, perhaps billions of stock trades. Everyone buying thinks that the market is going to go up. Everyone selling thinks that particular stock is going to go down. One of them is going to be right. One of them will have their faith reassured for a day, or so, and then they decide it's time to back out a bit.

Politics is also based upon faith. Either you have faith that your candidate, or your party is going to do the right things, or you don't. For people who's friends, family, neighbors, and towns are suffering because the unemployment situation is no where near what is being put out there, they have lost faith. They feel ignored, they feel betrayed, and they feel like the politicians are taking advantage of them.

So imagine this. You've moved in with your parents because your job/career/life has gone away. Then you hear how awesome things are and you should be grateful that all things are going so well. What would you think? What would the average person think? Could they reasonably believe that the Republicans are at fault unless they spend hours online reading? They would look at the people making the statements, and consider them idiots, fools, or liars.

People are living in Storm Drains and sewers. There is a huge homeless camp in Silicone Valley.

Now a higher minimum wage seems like a decent idea, unless you don't have a job, and can't get one to begin with. Or unless you're convinced you're one of the half million people who will lose their jobs if the higher wages go into effect. Having next to nothing is bad, having nothing is the only thing that is worse. These are the forgotten among us. The least of us for whom the best they can hope for is harassment by police, and possibly severe injuries and even death. But at least the Appeals court has ruled that the Homeless can live in their cars.

So the people who see this happening turn to listen and hear silence from those same elected leaders that are telling them how wonderful it is out there in America today. And even if it isn't, we can't do anything because the Republicans control the House.

So the average person looks at this and wonders what the point is? Even if the Democrats manage to hold onto the Senate, they won't even talk to the Republicans, so the very best that can be gained is two more years of gridlock. Two more years of being ignored, two more years of being lied to. Two more years of how awesome things are in America today with record breaking DOW reports coming in every month.

This is how the average person sees the situation. This is how the Average Voter sees the world. The Democrats are not even pretending that they have the proverbial snowball's chance in hell of taking the House. But if elected and allowed to control the Senate, we promise two more years of resisting the Republicans in the House and doing nothing for the least among us.

So you ask yourself. Were things better for you individually under Bush? If you had a house, and a job, some benefits, and you have none of those things now, the answer is yes. We can point to all the statistics we want, but it doesn't change the reality for more than a quarter of our population.

So we look to build a coalition of groups to get ourselves into the majority. We do so by eschewing the populist side of how many issues? People are sick of the war on drugs. They're sick of the SWAT raids in the wee hours of the morning blowing up babies with stun grenades. They're sick of the death, the violence, and the insanity. The constant escalation like if we have this tank to raid the drug houses, we'll start winning the war on drugs. If we were smart, we would end the drug culture simply. We would legalize it. Then the lawsuits on product safety would flow like water and the drug cartels would go bankrupt in a new york minute just on legal fees. There would be no reason to threaten farmers in Peru to plant Coco. There would be little market for the poppies of Turkey and Afghanistan.

If you want to know why the people aren't supporting us, ask yourself what we're doing to help them. We have a lot of propaganda numbers that a quarter of our population knows is untrue. We have a lot of platitudes that don't change the fact that mothers are serving ramen to their children and calling it dinner. They may not have had a living wage under Bush, but they have less than that now.



Stop ignoring the people, and stop trying to convince them that the water falling on their backs is rain. That is step one. Stop making any acknowledgement of their situation contingent upon some fanciful filibuster proof majority. Senator Ted Kennedy made some of his best speeches when Reagan was President, about the poor, about the Children, and about the needs of America's families. There could have been no less receptive audience in the White House at that time. But he gave some great speeches, and made some great proposals. Speeches and proposals that got America talking about the issue. Now, it's ignored, never to be mentioned by the Press. Never to be discussed in polite society.

This is why the people are going to vote Republican. Because we are taking our supports for granted, and telling them that things are wonderful all over.