How many Americans do you think hold something close to this view? Is this a good view to hold?

I think some people hold this view, yes. This is the the ‘can’t see the forest for the trees’ kind of paradigm where, somehow, each person thinks their situation isn’t part of a larger situation, which isn’t logical. I further disagree that Obama wants to fix America, especially since it can be argued he’s fixing little. I do see him take steps to band-aid this and that situation as much as he’s able to do given his constraints, of which there are many. He also needs to consider what he can implement right now which will be least likely to get destroyed by a Republican President when one comes into office.

I think people who hold this view tend to have no real or workable ideas on how to do a better job than Obama has and are simply playing armchair political strategist.

“Maybe that’s what America needs right now”? Well, doing nothing, like the Republicans want to do, will do exactly jack shit to help unemployment or the economy, whereas Obama’s stimulus worked as advertised. (The key is “as advertised”—the gap it was meant to fill turned out to be almost twice as big).

I also really, really, really hate it when people claim to speak for “Americans.”

These “Americans” are a deeply divided group of over 300 million individuals, many of whom would strongly disagree with every point in this post, many of whom strongly agree with this post but for different ideological reasons, and many of whom are simply ignorant and/or pay no attention whatsoever to politics or the economy and so do not actually know what they want.

Anyone who generalizes about what “Americans” want as if they are a monolithic group is full of shit.

Its sad but probably true. If it IS true, our way of life, our dominance in the world, and possibly our survival have maybe 50 years before a complete meltdown, and that could be optimistic.

How many Americans do you think hold something close to this view?
In my experience, too many, even if they don’t all necessarily think they do.

Is this a good view to hold?
Not in my opinion, but then I guess it’s really a matter of what your goals are. I’d argue for fixing things rather than just slapping a coat of paint on and calling it new.

It’s a pretty naive and ill-informed point of view. Just to point out one little misconception. The author says that people don’t want to pay for everyone’s health care. They just want their own to cost less. People don’t understand that if everyone is covered, their own health care will cost less.

It’s a point of view that is probably shared by far more people than I am comfortable with. People can only see their narrow personal interest and have no idea how their fate is tied together with the fates of millions of others. What else is new?

Wow. I haven’t voted yet, because I dont feel informed enough to have a say, and I dont care to get informed until it affects me directly. (Alternatively – I am also one of the few that actually realize I have no validation to bitch about the way things are too!)

Frankly, I couldnt give a rats ass about what the higher-ups did…as long as my life was running smoothly. I think the above describes me. So plus one american opinion for the “true” column above.

Good grief. That is worrisome, @Blackberry.

Yikes! That’s a pretty ignorant viewpoint. I would hope that Americans aren’t as apathetic and naive as the author would imagine. It just seems so selfish. People want things to improve for them, and they don’t give a damn about the long term, nor about others? Can this person not see how their well-being and the well-being of others is so closely tied?

@JTSTs2003, you don’t care about other people’s lives, just your own?

Out of curiosity, do you typically vote for one party over the other?

I think the conservative republicans feel like this, but I do not think that conservative republicans speak for all Americans. A great many of us do want things fixed. We know how interconnected we all are & we know that if things are not fixed now – it is our children & our grandchildren who will have to pay the price. Unfortunately, President Obama is up against very rich republicans (like the big corporations) who have the money to contribute to the re-election campaigns of members of the legislature that will go along with them. The rich republicans want him out & are willing to sell-out their fellow Americans in order to accomplish this. I voted for Obama & I will probably vote for him again in 2012. This does not mean that I like everything that he has done, but I do think that he does care & that he is trying to get the US back on track. If he does get defeated by whomever the republicans nominate, you can rest assured that things will get MUCH WORSE for those of us who make up the 99% of Americans.

@Qingu I don’t vote, remember!! I almost voted for McCain last time…but couldnt decide at the last minute because there were two issues that were important to me & it was split because while most of what I wanted was McCain, Obama was on the side of one of the issues that I thought was important. Of course I can’t remember what they were now…I know one was abortion but the other one slips my mind. Anyway…last minute on the last day, I decided I still wasnt informed enough to vote since I couldnt decide, so I didn’t.

& Yes, I am selfish in this way for everyone else. To each their own. I’d rather have my life go good NOW, than my great-great-great grandchildren’s who I will never meet and will probably never even know my name. Let them figure it out for themselves. shrugs