America’s Fed Up: Obama Approval Rating Hits All-Time Low, Poll Shows
BY MARK MURRAY
Two words sum up the mood of the nation: Fed up.
Six in 10 Americans are dissatisfied with the state of the U.S. economy, more than 70 percent believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, and nearly 80 percent are down on the country’s political system, according to the latest NBC News / Wall Street Journal poll.
The frustration carries over to the nation’s political leaders, with President Barack Obama’s overall approval rating hitting a new low at 40 percent, and a mere 14 percent of the public giving Congress a thumbs up.
“We’re in the summer of our discontent,” said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducted this survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. “Americans are cranky, unhappy… It is with everything going on the world.”
See full poll results (.pdf)
Yet because this discontent differs – among Democrats, Republicans, and independents – Hart cautions that Americans still aren’t likely to be storming the polls on Election Day in November.
“We’re unhappy, but we aren’t coalescing around an issue,” he said.
Indeed, 57 percent of respondents told pollsters that something upsets them enough to carry a protest sign for a day.
“The public seems have moved beyond the plaintive cry of ‘Feel our pain!’ to the more angry pronouncement of ‘You are causing our pain!’”
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/first-read/americas-fed-obama-approval-rating-hits-all-time-low-poll-n173271
Thanks to all the idiots who believed his BS and voted for him.
It wasn’t until he got his second term that the majority of people really realized what a leftist he was. Why anyone should have been surprised is beyond me as he had the most left-leaning track record in his short tenure as a Senator. However, the main stream media deliberately chose not to properly vet him. The MSM is still supporting him, perpetuating the myth that the Republican House is “refusing to do its job”. By refusing to do its job, they mean they will not pass legistlation that the President wants, then I guess it’s true. If they pass legistation that they want, the Democrat Senate and the President will not pass it. This is why we have the impasse. Clinton and Bush were able to achieve compromise with an opposing House because the gap between was manageable. This guy is so far to the left that he makes Clinton look like a member of the Tea Party.
Obama
Community organizer.
Never held a job in the private economy.
Socialist.
No real life experience at all.
Yet the takers and limousine liberals voted him in twice with the media’s blessing.
Unbelievable.
He has done damage to the economy through his use of executive orders.
He has done nothing to promote economic growth in the private economy.
What a waste of 8 years.
I guess that unless you are totally and completely against the president your comments do not get posted on this blog.
try commenting on the posts and posting something issue oriented instead of just denying everything , or bashing everyone
A waste of eight years…I wish that were the case. Then we could just point ourselves in the right direction, put our noses to the grindstone, our shoulders to the wheel, and expect to put this craziness behind us at some point not too far off. But the fundamental reworking and resultant derangement of our system of government, civil society, and overall thought patterns as citizens has more than a whiff of permanence to it at this point. We need a president to come in and fight like George S. Patton to root out the bad seed in government and re-education the public on what it means to be self-governing, and to maintain and assert our dignity appropriately, each of us exercising an irreducible unit of sovereignty as citizens. We the people was and still is (or should be) a phrase heavy with import to those to whom we entrust temporary legislative or executive power. American citizens are not to be mocked or trifle with. Those who try typically get what’s coming to them, but in light of recent events I wonder whether this is now merely a quaint phrase, no longer operative for the select few who can safely count themselves among the ruling class. The Patton I referred to seems nowhere in sight within today’s political scene, so I frankly wonder whether the brutal changes wrought since 9/11/2001, which have only been ratified, wantonly re-purposed, accelerated, magnified and multiplied since Bush left office, will begin to harden and take on the unchallengeable air of permanence during the next President’s term of office, due to insufficient vigor or moral clarity in the mind and body of that critical officeholder. The endless and inundating quality of the public and private condemnation the current occupier of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue so clearly deserves needs to begin soon and start ramping up quickly if it is to reach the fever pitch necessary to cement his reputation in the mind of the public as the worst man-made disaster in the history of this great country.
Liberty, Security, Privacy, Big Brother, and the Concept of the Common Good (Guest Post on floppingaces.net today, 8/6/14)
The outrage is palpable and the increasing realization by the average American that they really, truly are now living in an Orwellian surveillance state has been an eye-opening experience for many across the fruited plain. The once mocked conspiracy theory of the all-knowing Big Brother state has shown itself to be far more of an ugly reality than a silly fantasy. He who called the War on Terror basically over has now been forced to admit that his administration has vastly expanded the concept of the security state in the name of ‘public safety.’ The ‘trust us’ stance of government is no longer a working defense for such actions as this administration, and the federal agencies under its control, have shown that they simply cannot be trusted. Therein lies the true dilemma for the Obama administration as it seeks to calm the rising storm.
We already have proof that powerful agencies of the federal government deliberately, under orders from Washington, harassed and targeted specific people and groups that were ideological opponents of the current administration. The vast powers of the state were used as political weapons against its enemies on a wide scale and possibly affected the outcome of the last presidential election. Such things should not be taken lightly.
The fact that basically every phone call, Facebook post, internet search, website visit, email written, and picture posted online is being sucked up by Big Brother without regards to privacy concerns, constitutional protections, or the concept of personal liberty goes against everything America should stand for. It is state of affairs that should raise a cry of outrage in every throat and force a fundamental change in what we will tolerate from our government.
The fact that leading tech companies including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube and Apple were participating in a secret surveillance program on the citizenry known as PRISM should (but will not necessarily) lead to a complete collapse of public trust in the current administration and our current concept of government in general. What has not been explained away is why the administration has assembled the most powerful and intrusive systems of surveillance ever conceived. The Founding Fathers would not have stood for such things for one second and neither should we.
Such policies can have a chilling effect on political speech and free speech in general. There are those who argue that liberals have successfully seized the State just as they have academia, education, the media, the entertainment industry and increasingly the military. And this may be just another tool and tactic for those seeking to monitor, track, and eventually silence those who oppose their utopian, socialistic, nanny-state agenda.
Mr. Obama stated “I think it’s important to recognize that you can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society.” But if it comes down to a choice between the two I choose privacy. We should always, always choose a free state over a police state even if the latter provides slightly more security from the random Boston bomber or occasional crazy.
As Americans we should not be forced to live with a camera on every pole, a bug in every phone, and an internal security officer on every corner. That illusion of safety in reality then merely becomes the mask for eventual tyranny and oppression in the name of the ‘common good’ and societal safety. For as Ben Franklin put it, “Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.” Liberty should be the goal of government, not the antithesis of it. The Republic exists to secure such liberties for its citizens, not to be the opponent of such. We’ve now traveled far down the wrong path and we may have to pay a high price to restore the Republic and regain true liberty for our children, and our children’s children.
And frankly, you are right Mr. President. The fact that we can’t trust you, your cronies, the agencies under your control, and the “oversight” of stacked secret courts or the Congress who has been complaining, but doing nothing, about such policies means we are going to have some serious problems.
#6 #3 here again.
Those are the sentiments I so clumsily was trying to convey.
Very well said.
#6 For President
Dysfunctional Authority | TRC Magazine
therelevantchristianmagazine.com
American society is currently in a dysfunctional state, and like all things dysfunctional, it will implode if not addressed very soon. We live in a world that contains a vast amount of knowledge, but little understanding. The United States has not experienced extreme tyranny, but it is headed in that direction. The shift of authority from private sector to public sector has created a serious imbalance. As a country, there is great arrogance. We take for granted that we will always be the land of the free. Like all civilizations prior, we’re moving from liberty to totalitarianism and it’s happening in plain sight.
The transformation is not covert, as it does not have to be. We’re unable to recognize the change because we are no longer taught the fundamental principles of liberty and freedom. Unlike prior generations, we no longer understand nor respect the power of authority and its influence on liberty and tyranny. America is dysfunctional and therefore broken because its overall authority is out of order.
The word functional, contrary to dysfunctional, means that all of the underlying components of something work or operate in a proper or particular way. The various components of an analog clock must all work together in the proper way in order to produce the correct time. When one of those parts fails, slightly or completely, the clock no longer functions as intended. It either stops or drifts. American government is no different from that analog clock. It’s made up of various levels of government, constitutions, declarations, taxes, political processes, representation and authority. In order to create the best conditions that could produce the most liberty, freedom, peace, prosperity and overall abundance throughout society, its various components must also function as intended. The Founders of America pieced together a well-oiled system of governance—the best the world had ever seen. The whole system of governance was rooted in the concept of authority.
Authority is often mentioned, but rarely understood. Authority is basically the power to determine. The one with the authority, whether it’s a person, organization or government institution, is the one who gets to determine. Those without authority live their lives by happenstance, always at the whims of another. America’s system of government is founded upon authority—specifically, the authoritative relationship between God, government and We the People.
God, government and We the People (i.e. the governed) share a unique relationship. We are all forms of authority, albeit very different forms. God’s authority is one of free will, government’s authority operates out of force and each individual falls somewhere in-between the two. Since the one with authority has the power to determine, there must be an established hierarchy. The Founders understood this concept and established a hierarchy via the Declaration of Independence that would provide the most amount of liberty.
Prior to the Declaration, it was generally believed that the hierarchy was based on a belief called the “Divine Right of Kings.” It stated that Kings derived their right to rule directly from God. The king got his authority from God and the people, in turn, got their authority from the king. The Divine Right of Kings essentially placed centralized authority within the king. This authority then flowed from the King downward to his subjects. Little to nothing was done without the king’s knowledge and/or consent.KingGeorge III abused his authority and ruled with tyranny.
Wanting their independence, the Founders formally declared independence from Britain and the crown by adopting the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration listed the several abuses of King George III as justification for the concept of self-government. They rearranged the order of authority, abandoning the notion of the Divine Right of Kings, so that government authority would no longer sit between the people’s authority and God, the source of all authority.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these Rights are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.—That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”
Simply put, the creation gets its authority from that which created it, and it uses that authority, in turn, to serve its creator in some sort of capacity. God created mankind and endowed us with authority and unalienable rights. Thus, we (the creation), serve God. This fundamental principle transcends all things. Children (i.e. the creation), receive authority from their parents and serve both their parents (the creators) and God (the Creator). An employee receives authority from and serves the needs of the person(s) who created the company (i.e. the employer). Government (the creation) receives its authority from those in which it serves (We the People) via our consent. In all of these cases, the creator transfers authority top-down to those people and/or things that will be in a position of servitude for some length of duration. Proper authority is always transferred top-down.
In regards to authority, when the creator is served by its creation there is function. The various parts of authority are in a particular and natural order. Conversely, when the creator ends up serving its creation, there is dysfunction.
Example–one of the tell-tale signs of a dysfunctional home is one where we find the parent(s) serving the child. Another example is a dysfunctional workplace where the employer serves the employee(s). Thus, a dysfunctional society is one where the people serve their government. In the examples of a dysfunctional home or workplace, we would easily identify authority being out of order. These examples represent an “improper” order of authority. Yet, we rarely seem to recognize and apply the same litmus test to government. This is why society is dysfunctional.
We tend to believe that dysfunction can be addressed with money and increased government spending. However, nature doesn’t understand nor value money. It operates on fundamental principles of order. Basic principles would dictate that we, the People, cannot both transfer authority and retain the same authority.
The Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) is a prime example of Americans, in general, transferring authority of our collective healthcare over to the government. Those who continue to debate its cost and implementation failures are attacking Obamacare at the surface-level. However, the long-term damage with Obamacare is that it allows the inferior creation (i.e. the government) to force its superior creators (We the People) to purchase something against our will. It perverts natural law.
When we understand the relationship between creator and creation and how authority is transferred from the former to the latter, political debates, such as Obamacare, would likely be less contentious and seen for what it really is—the loss of personal authority and liberty masquerading as security in the form of healthcare.
As Christians, we must be careful not to transfer too much of our God-given authority to government (our creation). Government was established to protect our God-given rights and punish those who infringe upon them. We should neither look to nor depend on government to be our provider or surrogate savior. When we transfer responsibility, we must also transfer the authority required to execute that responsibility. This is the importance of exercising self-responsibility.
We all have an obligation, especially people of faith, to reestablish the natural and proper order of God over man and man over government. Current-day apathy, ignorance and fear of the populace have allowed government to absorb too much authority, lodging itself back in between us and God. History has proven repeatedly that those in government will not stop lusting for power until they have absorbed all of the authority God has endowed us with. Government’s authority must always be scrutinized and questioned with jealousy. So, the way to create a dysfunctional society is by convincing the creators (the people) that they should serve the creation (government). And if they refuse to freely adopt this idea, force them.
Thanks #3, it’s nice to know that one’s words, and the thoughts and emotions behind them, can achieve some level of resonance in one’s community. This is frankly one of the big reasons anonymity in a local forum can end up having so much value. There is no compelling reason to pull punches, so long as you are maintaining at least a minimum level of decency and orderliness, and every reason to polish your word choice and attend to other important features of effective prose, such that what you write will stand on its own, without the need for a particular name to stand behind it as some kind of hallmark of quality or worthiness. Responses to and arguments against what one expresses in this way will need to partake of a similar level of logical and rhetorical quality or suffer by comparison.