Posted on 05/19/2015 1:20:54 PM PDT by Kaslin
RUSH: I got two examples here of something I have been talking about since I first encountered it. I don't remember exactly when I first encountered it. It was in the past couple of years, maybe three, as rapidly as time goes by. It was the first poll that I saw of Millennials in which they were fully aware that the economy is in the tank and they're fully aware of the obstacles in their way to having what they consider to be a life, an economic life that is an improvement over their parents, which is one of these things that's always been understood about America. That the American dream includes the likelihood, the possibility, that every generation will do better than the previous. That's something, it's been a bragging point, in fact, about the US, and this poll showed the Millennials think they're gonna be the first generation where that isn't true.
To cut to the chase of it, it turns out that they had not lost faith in current leadership in Washington. They did not associate current Washington policy with the funk they were in about the economy. They instead had just concluded that America had finally peaked before they were born and they were on the downside of a new normal in the United States. The idea that the economy, the funk that they were in, the cloudy future, the idea that had anything to do with current leadership, the president, his policies, totally escaped 'em.
The way the poll was written, the way it manifested itself, the Millennials had simply lost faith in the country. They'd not lost faith in Obama. They viewed Obama as trying hard for 'em, but it was even bigger than Obama could fix. It was so big, it was so massive, and it was all due to stuff that happened before Obama, that they don't tie any of this to Obama. And now I've got two stories where this is made abundantly clear again. The first, TheHill.com, has a new Gallup poll that they publish.
Get this. "Americans' satisfaction with the direction of the country continues to slip, falling 6 percentage points from early this year, according to a new Gallup poll. Twenty-six percent of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country." Twenty-six percent. That alone is bad enough. But, by the same token, should that not be a golden opportunity for the Republicans?
I mean, when you get right down to it, when people, the Millennials, or anybody else, in the midst of a dour economy, dour prospects, when they blame the country and they don't blame the current leadership, could that not be said to be partially the fault of the Republicans because they have not, for whatever reasons -- fear, you name it -- they have not tied all of this to Obama and his policies. They have been afraid to criticize Obama, for all the reasons that we've mentioned.
So in the normal ebb and flow of politics, while the Republicans are running around thinking they're hated and despised, it shuts them up, and they have not served as a marker, if you will, for push-back. They have not contrasted what they believe with what Obama has done. And the media isn't gonna do it. The media's gonna continue to blame Bush, Republicans, and whatever else they can get away with for this. They're gonna shield Obama as long as they can.
It's been up to the Republicans to call Obama out, and they simply haven't done it. You know it as well as I do. We all know the reasons. But this is what happens when you sit idly by and your opponents do great damage to the economy and other American institutions and you don't say anything. Why should the Millennials blame Obama? Nobody else is. Except us. But people they would vote for, Republicans, potential alternatives to Democrats, they're not hearing it from them.
So you have a situation where 26% of Americans are satisfied with the direction of the country. This is the same as it was in 2014. It went up a little bit between 2014 and the last poll, but this poll we've lost whatever little ground we made in the last poll. We're now back to where we were last year. Twenty-six percent are satisfied. You could look at that the other way, and you could say that basically 70% are unsatisfied. Seventy percent are dissatisfied.
But you won't find any association of Barack Obama to this in the poll. His approval numbers, 45% approval, 49.8% disapprove. Direction of the country, right direction, 29%. Wrong track, 62%. This is not just Millennials, now. This is the American people at large. And this is not new. Every time a poll like this comes out which shows right track, wrong track, wrong direction, right direction, the number of people who think this country is in bad shape is always over 60%.
The number of people who blame Obama for it, you can't find 'em in a thimble. They're just blaming the country. The country itself is the problem. Something's gone wrong with the country. But they do not associate. It's amazing. It's the first time in my lifetime where a sitting president for six and a half years has been exempt from attachment to anything economic in the country. But it's not just there.
This AP story I hold here in my formerly nicotine-stained fingers. Get this headline. The headline's all you need to hear here: "Fall of Ramadi Raises Doubts About US Strategy." US strategy? How about Obama strategy? How about Obama's the guy that gave us ISIS? No, they're trying to say that George W. Bush did. So we can't say Obama did. Well, we can, but the media is out claiming that Bush did it. Little 19-year-old girls are showing up and accusing Jeb Bush his brother did it. The media siding with the 19-year-old girl, college student, Nevada.
"Fall of Ramadi Raises Doubts About US Strategy." This has gotta be a gold mine for Obama. Here he is with this ever expanding chip on his shoulder destined and determined to transform this country into something it has never been, and while he's doing it, he's not getting any blame or, depending on how you would look at it, credit. People in the country just for whatever reason think the country just isn't working anymore.
But how in the world people do not attach all of that to the policies of Barack Obama is beyond me. You have Obamacare, the stimulus, the tax increases. Is it our woeful economics education? Is it the media? It's always gonna be the media. Is it the lack of pushback from the Republicans in not only defining Obama, but defining themselves? Yeah, I think that's a factor, too.
Americans are upset. Americans are sad. Americans are frustrated by the direction of the country, but they can't figure out who to blame.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: All of this stuff that is happening is the direct result of Barack Obama policy, and virtually all of it never attaches to him. I understand the media and their role in it, but still at some point you have to rely on the common sense of the American people. I mean, the American people cannot simply be reduced to a bunch of sheep and only be expected to know what the media tells them. That's, to me, unacceptable.
I understand the desire to have the media straightened out. I understand the desire to call the media out and expose them. But at the same time, if we're gonna have a functioning country, we cannot have a country of sheep that only learn things by virtue of what the media say. There has to be some critical thought. There has to be some independent intelligence. There is in certain pockets. The way the American education system is trending, critical thought's not being taught.
How many stories have I seen recently -- oh, oh, gosh did I save this? Is it in the Stack? I'll have to go back and find it except I can't go back and find it 'cause I've lost all my e-mail from this year. No, I didn't lose it, but it's gone. Lack of maintenance on the server. Don't get me started on that. Now I don't know where I'm gonna go get this. It was somebody describing the current state of students in higher education. And it was really right on the money. It was not sheep -- oh, I can't remember what it was. I'll find it. If I have to keyword search this myself and find the original story in the archives of the Internet, I will.
But it really made the point that universities used to be the place you go to open your mind, used to be the place to have your mind open, used to be the place that you were subjected to all kinds of different ideas, and that's what its purpose was, and now that it's not. Every idea except doctrinaire liberalism's been shut out and students are just sponges and they're being exposed to what's being force-fed them, and no critical thought, critical thinking is being taught whatsoever.
So it's dire consequences that we find ourselves in, 'cause really, folks, if we're gonna say that the -- I understand this, I wish the media were different than it is. But, for example, I don't believe everything they say. I have to guardedly daily avoid being swept up in the daily soap opera, the narrative of the day. It is seductive. But the American people themselves are gonna have to be able to see through all of this stuff at some point rather than just -- the solution to this cannot be the media telling the truth, because that isn't gonna happen. There have to be other ways of informing the American people, having them see what's going on.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Yeah, I know, my friend Allan Bloom -- remember him, Snerdley? -- he wrote The Closing of the American Mind about 30 years ago. He's a chain smoker, a good buddy of mine. I remember he was on Firing Line with William Buckley, just puffing away, I mean, lighting one cigarette after another, speaking in intellectualese about The Closing of the American Mind on the American campus in academe. He was right on the money, and he got secured, of course, but he was dead right on the money. Twenty-eight years ago, actually, it was 1987.
Just like his likely successor, whatshername...
Not with ME he doesn’t!...........................
Must make ya feel real good when ya vote huh?
Especially if yur a spineless clueless lock step liberal low info voter.
“Obama Escapes Blame For Every Disaster He’s Caused, Foreign and Domestic”
The disasters are mostly all DELIBERATE.
ping for later read
Without their complicity there is no way any politician could get away with what Clinton and Obama have.
Without their complicity there is no way any politician could get away with what Clinton and Obama have.
Agreed. They are more dangerous than any foreign enemy. They and our Educational system. Creates a bunch of brain-numbed followers of Big Government who believe - contrary to history or any understanding of human nature - that Marxism is wonderful...
The entire left is free of consequence.
Hillary = Felon
Lois Lerner = Felon
Prosecutions? HA!
I watched the PBS Newshour last night, at least the beginning. They had extensive coverage on the Ramadi fall, with generals and miltary advisers, etc. Not once was Obama mentioned.
It’s what an enemy islamist in his position would do.
The news media create the false reality we live in where evil is good and good is evil
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.