Posted on 09/11/2011 8:14:31 AM PDT by Kaslin
ASPEN, Colo. – At a bustling farmers’ market, Trevor Washko worked on a square of leather in his booth of finely stitched journals.
To his right was a stand packed with fresh-picked fruits and vegetables; to his left, a cooking demonstration.
“We are not at all anything like the way we are portrayed by the media,” Washko said of the extraordinary mix of super-rich and resort workers who live in Aspen.
Washko spent life in Springfield, Ill., until he graduated from college and moved to Colorado. He has worked as a naturalist, as a field guide, in several service jobs at local resorts, and even served as unofficial mayor of the nearby Ashcroft Ghost Town.
The national media would not know how to begin to understand what makes this community tick, he said.
“Here is what they do not get – most of our country is right in the middle, perhaps slightly to the right,” he said. “We are not a member of this group or that group, even though they place all of us in boxes.”
Ten years ago today, Americans united in a way few had ever seen. Since then, a wedge has been driven between us.
Politicians, cable-television commentators and the national media have created a Blue (Democrat) America and a Red (Republican) America.
A funny thing happened as I traveled the country in recent weeks: Things were not as they have been portrayed; Republicans, Democrats and independents do not think of themselves as ruby-red or bright-blue partisans.
Instead, they think of themselves as Americans who don't fit neatly into boxes and who still believe America can meet any challenge, solve any problem, if politicians will just get out of the way.
Tom Link lives in Lower Burrell, in the farthest corner of western Pennsylvania’s portion of the Appalachian mountain range. A commercial-truck salesman, Link says he feels absolutely disconnected by the politicians’ and the media’s understandings of America.
“They don’t care what we think. They care about what they want us to think,” he said.
Over 20 days, this column visited 10 states and one district – Colorado, Maryland, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and Washington, D.C. – mostly on back roads, often in town squares, listening to how people feel about themselves and their country.
Liberals, conservatives, Green Party members and political agnostics all voiced the same belief: Washington doesn't work, and the reporters who cover Washington don’t understand America.
That belief has led an unprecedented number of Americans to conclude that if they can simply throw out all the bums (including their own members of congress and the president) and replace them with someone new, things will improve.
Steve McMahon, a Democrat who runs the Purple Strategies consulting firm with Republican Alex Castellanos, has a warning for incumbents of both parties:
"Americans are completely fed up with the gridlock. They can't believe no one is willing to compromise, or that both sides would take America to the edge of default – while the whole world watched in disbelief – just to score political points.
“Now they are perfectly willing to toss everyone out, including politicians they have voted for over and over again. This isn't a partisan problem. It's an incumbent's nightmare."
Mark Rozell, a public-policy professor at George Mason University, believes “the public is not as polarized as commonly assumed.” Instead, it is “more in the middle than anything.”
Yes, some citizens beyond Washington get caught up in the sort of discourse coming from the national media and many political figures. Yet most care more about how a policy affects their daily lives, not about whether it helps Democrats or Republicans.
“There is a big disconnect, in that sense, between the insider discourse and what most citizens actually care about,” Rozell said.
Sitting in an airport recently, waiting for a much-delayed flight, I watched a military unit pass through one of the concourses. Spontaneous applause erupted, offering those soldiers an honest expression of gratitude from average citizens.
That is the America that Tom Link says he knows, not the America that he says he sees in the national news.
Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Unless there is a compelling reason to do otherwise, vote the incumbents out.
What BS. Americans aren’t upset about Gridlock. Americans aren’t mad about what is not getting done, they are upset about what is getting done...to them.
So the possibility of a third party repeat of the Perdue Hen is now raising its ugly head?
Will it assure the re-election of The Won? Yes it will, unless Sarah Palin runs 3rd party.
"Americans are completely fed up with the gridlock. They can't believe no one is willing to compromise,
--
Utter BS! Compromise IS the Problem. All traitors to We the People and the U.S. Constitution MUST GO! Bye bye don't let the door hit you on the way out.
If a person can still vote for Obama, at this late date, then that person deserves to be pigeon-holed as a hopeless liberal that’s nowhere near “center,” whatever that means. It’s not a difficult test.
Gridlock? Obama and the Dems had overwhelming control over Congress for two years. They rammed down our throat Obamacare, Dodd-Frank, the Porkulus bill, increased discretionary spending by 24%, and increased our national debt by almost $5 trillion. Thank God for gridlock!!
Gridlock is shorthand for conservatives standing tall.
Amen and amen. BS indeed.
Yes, the media is in overdrive trying to convince us that voters are mad at everyone. They don’t seem to compute that anger at big government = anger at Democrats, the party of big government.
Never vote for a politician who promises that more government can/will make your life better.
The media jumps into the fray and declares that the people believe that both sides are to blame and that all incumbents should be replaced.
It is intended to blunt the republican landslide. Both sides did not take the country to the brink of bankruptcy just to score political points. That is their big lie and how you know which side they are on.
In politics if your a compromiser your a loser.
“Americans are completely fed up with the gridlock. They can’t believe no one is willing to compromise,....Note that quote came from a Democrat.How can anyone compromise with poison? “I have a glass of battery acid that I’d like you to drink (DEM)” PUB: “I have a glass of spring water I’d YOU’D to drink.” DEM “Let us mix the battery acid with water, throw away half of it and drink it together” BOTH: “ OK, we compromised.” So the country can die.
“Yes it will, unless Sarah Palin runs 3rd party.”
Nope, her too.
NO THIRD PARTIES ON THE RIGHT SIDE IN THE PRES RACE!
Funny how it works. When A Republican is in the White House and things are not going well we hear how the Republicans are I’m big trouble. But when it is a dem, oh no, is is BOTH parties in trouble and Republicans had better compromise (read give the democrats what they want).
I also wonder if the author realizes that the discontent he waxes poetical about is the Tea Party movement? When not calling the Tea Party racist they subtly try to re-cast it as being a force that demands compromise with Obama in the name of “getting things done.”. They cast it as a force that wants to throw out the very people it sent to DC to stand up and say “enough!!”
Well, at least after having read this I have had my daily allotment of BS.
I tend to agree, but as you can see, this article means the 3rd party war drums are beating already.
“Utter BS! Compromise IS the Problem. “
Amen to that, Bro. Republican “compromise” to socialism over the past 80 years has brought us to a financial cataclysm that may destroy the nation. If we had had no-compromise fiscal conservatives in Congress (in both parties), we would still be a world leader in most categories and would not be in the colossal mess we are in today. The overspending is sheer insanity as if tomorrow never comes.
The author is simply an uneducated, narrow-minded idiot with no historical perspective and not even the most basic understanding of macroeconomics.
Author Zito seems to have never informed herself of the real facts or has conveniently forgotten them.
After the muslim terrorists murdered almost 3,000 innocent people it was only a matter of hours before democrats were attacking Bush for every statement and action or inaction; for overreacting, for not reacting instantaneously; for responding too slowly or responding too fast; for "hiding" in Airforce 1; for being a coward and for not flying directly back to Washington.
And it was only a matter of days before they morphed into "Truthers" and started screaming their conspiracy theories to the world;
- The Bush administration actually set the attack up so they could justify starting a war with innocent muslims
- Bush was in cahoots with the Saudi Arabians
- The Jews did it
- Haliburton did it to get government contracts
- VP Cheney did it to steal mideast oil and/or to get government contracts for Haliburton
It would be more truthful to say that patriots, conservatives and rational people united in a way few had ever seen while the left used the attack to fuel its non-stop hate machine.
It's not all that quiet, actually...
What a bunch of horseshit. Gridlock equals the feds not taking my freedoms away.
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