3 ms·

I was going to give you an upvote based on your first sentence. But your second sentence's blind partisanship, combined with the obvious (yet overlooked) conclu

I was going to give you an upvote based on your first sentence. But your second sentence's blind partisanship, combined with the obvious (yet overlooked) conclusion from the numbers you cited, make me back off. So there's a 10% approval rate, and assume that congress is roughly 50/50 by party. Even if we assume that the GOP's approval rate is 0%, then that leaves the Democrats with only a 20% approval. Clearly the problem is across the board. While you're throwing stones at the other guy, I think you ought to get your own house in order. We're trying here not to make this a partisan issue, but to look at systemic solutions.

IgorPartola 13y ago
I am not fond of most members of the House or the Senate. The tea partiers are nuts, the republicans are divided and out of touch, and the democrats are weak. Contrary to what you might have gleamed from that one sentence, I am not a democrat. Not that it matters here, but I believe the job of the government is to provide safety for its people: safety from hunger, poverty, sickness and foreign threats. I would love to see the US get its social programs right, expanding some of them to provide a broader and more sane social safety net for those in need. At the same time, I'd love to cut the spending on the military to fund the social programs. Then, I would want to get rid of things like the IRS in favor of a much simpler system. Basically, dramatically reduce the cost of running the government, but boost things that are actually important. The problem is that there now really are three parties: Dems, GOP, and the tea party. While historically there have been many nutcases that got elected, our current problem is that the tea party consists of people with extreme far right, even anarchist views. Moreover, they have enough people in the House to cause trouble. The thing is, they win in either case: if they manage to shut the government down, or hinder some of its functions, they are doing what they promised. If they do not, they can still cause enough trouble and blame the system they are a part of. In the long run, I actually hope that the republicans divorce themselves from the tea party, and become slightly more centrist. This will be a short term loss, but in the long run they will then appear to be the most reasonable ones.

IgorPartola 13y ago

I am not fond of most members of the House or the Senate. The tea partiers are nuts, the republicans are divided and out of touch, and the democrats are weak. Contrary to what you might have gleamed from that one sentence, I am not a democrat. Not that it matters here, but I believe the job of the government is to provide safety for its people: safety from hunger, poverty, sickness and foreign threats. I would love to see the US get its social programs right, expanding some of them to provide a broader and more sane social safety net for those in need. At the same time, I'd love to cut the spending on the military to fund the social programs. Then, I would want to get rid of things like the IRS in favor of a much simpler system. Basically, dramatically reduce the cost of running the government, but boost things that are actually important. The problem is that there now really are three parties: Dems, GOP, and the tea party. While historically there have been many nutcases that got elected, our current problem is that the tea party consists of people with extreme far right, even anarchist views. Moreover, they have enough people in the House to cause trouble. The thing is, they win in either case: if they manage to shut the government down, or hinder some of its functions, they are doing what they promised. If they do not, they can still cause enough trouble and blame the system they are a part of. In the long run, I actually hope that the republicans divorce themselves from the tea party, and become slightly more centrist. This will be a short term loss, but in the long run they will then appear to be the most reasonable ones.