The Closing of the American Mind
Congress is a mirror of this narrow-casting. It seems improbable that Congress could make the sort of compromises necessary to pass meaningful legislation to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources, say, or to significantly lower greenhouse-gas emissions.
There is a faint clamor for leaders who will transcend "business as usual" and unite, rather than divide, the country. With about three out of four Americans saying the nation is headed in the wrong direction, and both Congress and the president drawing historically low approval ratings, this might be a good time to find common ground to look for far-reaching solutions. The presidential candidates by and large at least give lip service to "coming together," though at the same time their cynical operatives are usually maneuvering to drive voters further apart with "wedge issues" and negative advertising. Americans could, of course, reject this hypocrisy and demand the sort of leadership that reaches across the political aisle to accomplish hard tasks. But first they will have to switch off the Xbox or click away from the Home Shopping Network or "Girls Gone Wild" and go out and vote.
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Member Comments
Posted By: Yehudl @ 01/18/2008 11:46:21 AM
Comment: Compulsory attendance at a polling station, with an option to indicate "none of the candidates, " would do a great deal to improve the U.S. participation in the national election. Failure to participate should be punished by a fine. I know that our libertarian brothers and sisters will scream, but we should ask them for a better, more efficient way to improve voter participation in our country.
Posted By: Shemp99 @ 01/02/2008 8:14:46 PM
Comment: Yeah, I would like to respond to the lazy journalism that accompanied Mr, Thomas' article as well as those who are trying to tear down Lou Dobbs because they don't want anyone to have heroes. Contrary to Mr. Thomas' statement, people like me are nowhere near the divided individuals that he makes us out to be, but we do have disagreements here and there. It's just that mere disagreements don't really boost ratings or sell publications. There is a lot of lazy and smarmy journalism in this type of magazine (I don't usually read it, except that my aunt and uncle had a copy of it and I do feel the need to respond). Right now, we have what Lee Iacocca describes in his recent book as a "conqueror's mentality", where Americans tend to lose all sorts of humility because they won something here and there, and become lazy and/or mean-spirited in their criticism and give tired lectures to others. The majority of people like me are moderates and independents, not those who tune in to these various talk shows and tend to have fringier viewpoints. I resent this notion that all people like me do is watch "Girls Gone Wild" or play XBOX all day. That's a blatant misrepresentation of us and limits our options. We may not be protesting in the streets or flaggelate at the top of our lungs, but we are active politically (especially Gen-X'ers like myself who are dismissed as mere slackers. We're not. We just happen to be low-key).
Posted By: Gary in Atlanta @ 01/01/2008 6:16:45 PM
Comment: Good article; however, there are a couple missing pieces to this article. One is the apparent lack of knowledge of how our American government works by a good portion of our electorate - young and old alike. The second is the Lou Dobbs effect. They go hand in hand. Lou Dobbs of CNN calls the the whole Congress but especially the Democrats ineffective after the American public chased the conservatives/near-reactionaries from control of both houses of Congress. Now every time some consensus is achieve in Congress now dominated by Democrates who are not all liberal, our darkly conservative President vetoes decent legislation. So certainly Mr. Thomas's evaluation is descriptive of how things are, but things are not as bleak as they seem. I think we will have a good turnout for this upcoming election.