My best friend (and business partner), a Mexican named Lino Nunez Huerta (who "self-deported" 4 years ago) once commented: "The trouble with you gringos is that you don't know how to suffer."
At age 9, Lino told himself he would run away from home next time his father beat him, and for the next five years he lived as a gamin -- a street urchin -- who refused shelter from a parish priest in the nearby big city. but did use the rectory shower.
I'm sure there are many reasons why Americans think they voted for Republicans this November
Whatever they are, I venture Lino's explanation is more central.
In light of the Buddha's First Noble Truth -- that "Life is suffering" -- how we react to suffering is correspondingly central.
Americans have grown so habituated to instant gratification that they think people-in-power have a responsibility to gratify them "already," and since they have not: "Throw the bums out!"
Overlooked in "all this" is the world's ongoing economic re-calibration, with dark-skinned foreigners - long excluded from "the table" - now claiming their place.
Significantly, foreigners are less demanding - in large part because "they know how to suffer," but also because they still value incremental improvement whereas gringos want it "All," and want it "Now!" (In Spanish, the verb "esperar" means both "hope" and "wait" -- and therein speak volumes. "In your patience - from the Latin patire meaning to suffer - you shall possess your souls." https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke+21%3A19&version=DRA)
The Central Truth of "pocketbook issues" is that "the global pie" is growing... but the slices are being cut differently.
Gringos are getting less.
And newly-enfranchised foreigners are getting more.
This transitional process is both painful and just.
And newly-enfranchised foreigners are getting more.
This transitional process is both painful and just.
In light of global re-calibration, it is a near miracle that Obama "turned the corner" on the Bush's economic plunge -- mostly caused by Wall Street bankers -- a flame-out crisis that nearly evoked global paralysis, a circumstance that would have been as threatening (and refractory) as physical paralysis.
But Obma's dazzling turnaround is now "old news" and it matters not that every economic indicator is "on the ascendant" with the exception of "earning power" which - due to 1% piggishness - is stagnant.
"The Rich Aren't Just Grabbing A Bigger Slice Of The Pie. They're Taking It All"
"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
"The Rich Aren't Just Grabbing A Bigger Slice Of The Pie. They're Taking It All"
"Politics And Economics: The 101 Courses You Wish You Had"
"Plutocracy Triumphant"
Cartoon Compendium
"Taibbi: The $9 Billion Whistle Blower At JPMorgan-Chase. Financial Thuggery At The Top"
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/taibbi-9-billion-whistle-blower-at.html
Opposition to Obamacare is similarly dimwitted, especially when we understand that everything wrong with Obamacare is due to Republicans' free market bullshit, set forth at the start as the GOP's non-negotiable cornerstone.
"Obama's Preference For Single Payer"
Today, I wrote a critique of George Will's most recent essay.
"George Will And The Nepenthe Of Wishful Thinking"
Your fellow Illinoian floored me with his anti-Thomistic lack of perspective and quintessentially "conservative" urge to espouse Impossibly Pure Principles which - with each passing day - have less relevance to a prosperous techno-scientific society, simultaneously invoking heroic norms belonging to The 19th Century, a particularly brutal time in American history, replete with systematic extermination of American natives.
General George Washington Orders The "Complete Destruction" Of Iroquois Settlements
On election night, when The Republican Wave became apparent, Ted Cruz "took the stage" to proclaim "Give me a horse, a gun and an open plain, and we can conquer the world."
He actually said that. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/11/05/cruz-perry-dispense-texas-swagger-and-promises-following-gop-rout.html
And after invoking "horse, gun and home-on-the-plain" ("where the skies are not cloudy all day") he added: "The era of Obama lawlessness is over. And with new leadership in Washington we will stand together and pledge to listen to the American people."
Listen to the American people?
Just six weeks ago, 72% of Americans disapproved Republican members of Congress whereas 61% say they disapproved Democratic members. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/14/republicans-approval-rating-congress-gop_n_5820130.html
This means that six weeks ago, Democrats held a 20% advantage over Republicans. In American politics that's HUGE.
***
Prediction...
As a black man, I think Obama "knows how to suffer" and this will prove a winning advantage over angry white guys, blinded by impatience and implacable wrath.
Not only does Obama hold "the winning hand" on immigration reform, he knows that "playing it" will drive irate Republicans to self-destructive over-reach.
In turn, overreach will enable 2016 voters to look back on America's new Congress as a time when there wasn't a single adult in either Republican chamber (except, perhaps, McCain).
It is also true that Obama -- and this may be due to his blackness as well -- knows how to celebrate.
No American president since FDR has so loved a laugh.
Obama's post-election press conference - well worth hearing! - reveals a man who knows how to celebrate even when his party has taken a roundhouse right to the jaw. http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/obama-renews-promise-to-act-on.html
So...
Ironically, presumptuous self-satisfaction is the cause of conservative "success" in "off year elections" -- but also the cause of colossal failure in years when the presidency is in play.
Pax tecum
Alan
PS The only risk Democrats run in 2016 is if a significant terror attack takes place on American soil." I wonder if American conservatives are sufficiently enraged that they will secretly "pull" for such an attack just as they've conspired these last 6 years to bring about Obama's failure -- lathering themselves in the treacherous (if not traitorous) cause of toppling 44.
http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/11/sen-mitch-mcconnell-failed-in-his-1.html
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