Americans feel we are going in the wrong direction, why?

One possible answer is that stalemate has existed in Washington for years. This is largely due to the efforts of the GOP after Obama was elected in 2008. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in 2009, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.” It certainly can be argued that McConnell and the Republicans were ultimately successful.

Republicans took control of the House in 2010. Since bills become law with the consent of both houses of Congress, this meant that nothing meaningful was accomplished for the past six years. Democrats controlled the Senate for six of Obama’s eight years, so at least his judicial appointments were approved along with all others requiring Senate approval. That ended in 2014. After that election, Republicans controlled both Houses of Congress. Justice Scalia died in February. So, for the past eight months the Supreme Court is tied up with four conservative judges and four liberal judges. The Republican will not even consider the choice of a replacement offered by the Democratic President.

Gridlock in Washington was complete. We most definitely are headed in the wrong direction. We are headed for the abyss. This situation is not sustainable.

How could this happen? How did we get into this mess? Dear friends, we, the voters, created this mess. We voted for the President of one party, and, with very little thought to unintended consequences, voted for lawmakers of the other party. It is almost as if we wished stagnation in Washington while forgetting the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for.”

Well, we got our wish. Americans who feel we are going in the wrong direction need only look at themselves in the mirror to see who is to blame. Fortunately, what we, the voter, screwed up, we can fix quite easily. All it takes is a little bit of common sense. When voting this November 8th, do not split your ticket. Do not, as they euphemistically say, vote for the man. Voting for the man got us into this mess in the first place. Vote for unity in Washington. We need to make our three branches of government viable again. Today, all three are perfectly useless. Congress cancels out the President, and vice versa; while the Supreme Court cancels itself out.

There is another old adage we should pay attention to in November. “United we stand, divided we fall.”

 

Why???

Obama has doubled the national debt.
Growth is at 1%
NASA has been gutted-------------we cant even put a man in orbit.
Race relations has been set back to pre 1950
Millions are out of work
The Obama regime has let the country be over run with aliens
Spending is out of control
The government is totally crooked
The respect for the Constitution is at an all time low
We have a do nothing Congress
Obama is a would be dictator
Due to Obama, our enemies laugh at us
Our Allies dont trust us
Obama has gutted our military

 

Granny says, "Dat's right - if we goin' inna wrong direction...

... is `cause we followin' leaders goin' inna wrong direction...

... `cause o' the political parties pickin' the wrong candidates.

 

I always find it interesting how some seem blind to facts. Much like Hillary supporters. Whether she wins or not she has many people supporting her......why?

 

With your sympathies I recommend voting a straight Republican ticket.

 

Uhh that's how it's supposed to work, you know the old "checks and balances" thingy? Total Democrat one party rule is an unmitigated disaster. One only has to look at all the urban sh!tholes that have been ruled by nothing BUT Democrats for DECADES!! Detroit (or Detoilet) and my hometown of Buffalo both come to mind.

 

Well, here are some facts you might want to consider.

It was only a matter of time that the real Trump would bust out. For a few weeks his arrogant, narcissistic persona was under a tight leash by his campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway. The egotistical Trump is not one to be subdued for long. His downfall came when that lewd video was released Friday that contained vulgar language as Trump bragged about what he could do to women because he was a star.

Without his collar, otherwise known as a teleprompter, with the video as a backdrop Trump lashed out at Hillary in the second debate on Sunday. His performance provided red meat for his nativistic fans, but did little to attract women, fence sitters, and independents. Following the debate, Republican Senators, representatives, and governors left him in droves.

That was all his narcissistic personality could handle. He entered a new combustible phase of his campaign Tuesday as he declared himself unchained from Republican Party leaders and lashed out in all directions, even as his poll numbers continued to nosedive. Bloomberg reported, “Donald Trump goes full Trump and wages war against the Republican establishment, putting vulnerable GOP House and Senate candidates in a tricky spot.” Now that Trump has declared war on “disloyal” Republicans -- most notably House Speaker Paul Ryan -- GOP leaders and rank-and-file members are worried Trump could kill their party’s chances of keeping the House, despite a sizable majority in the lower chamber. The Senate appeared to be a casualty weeks ago.

“My sense last week was that Republicans were on track to hold their losses in the House to under 10 seats,” Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman said in a phone interview, adding that the situation is deteriorating rapidly.

Clearly, barring some tumultuous event, Trump is likely to lose the election. The only question is, will the carnage include the Senate and the House?

 

The checks and balances The the FF put in had to do with checjs and balances between the three branches of government which makes sense whether we had political parties or not. But don,t let logic and truth stop you from your childish partisan rant.

 

The House, Senate, and the President are meant to be there as separate entities to make sure all Citizens of the United States get to have a voice. If all three are under one groups control then some peoples voice will not be heard. There is something to the balance thing also though. When either party has the majority it usually ends badly for the people (ACA ring a bell). The problem is the people we elect.

When Obama first ran he ran as the President that would bring the 2 parties together in compromise.......then they push the ACA through on party lines. We need to vote in people that really WILL bring the people together and not divide them further. Do I think either of the 2 candidates will this year......hell no.

Of course there is another option. If the 2 establishment parties will not work together.....vote in a 3rd. The "Independent" party has been making small inroads in the political system, and I think the Libertarians are making a huge rut on that road right now. To help deepen that rut and hopefully fracture the 2 party system even further I will be voting for Gary Johnson this election and hope for the best.

 

If Obama brags all the time how wonderful he is, how much he got accomplished, where is this stoppage by republicans?

Obama has outspent by trillions more than all other presidents. Seems if he got stopped, it was rather invisible.

When he came in, his budget was then 2 trillion dollars. Today he gets to spend 3.6 trillion dollars. If that is deprived, I want to know what well endowed is?

 

We're going the wrong direction because we keep increasing the size of government.

And because we have no control over our border, and we have terrible economic growth, etc.

Thanks, Obama!

 

The "stalemate" resulted from the 2010 midterms. Why did the Democrats lose the House? Could it be because many Americans did not like what President Obama was up to? If everything was hunky dorey, wouldn't the Dems still be in control of congress? You want to blame things on gridlock, but I think gridlock is exactly what many Americans decided they want, especially if they've been following along with the fiasco that is Obamacare. Statements like "nothing meaningful was accomplished for the past six years" beg the question: what is "meaningful"? You may think it's what you and Mr. Obama say is meaningful, but many of your fellow citizens would respectfully disagree.

You say "Today, all three are perfectly useless. Congress cancels out the President, and vice versa; while the Supreme Court cancels itself out." That is exactly as the founding fathers intended. It is well and good that neither party controls both the executive and legislative branches.

Question asked, question answered. (How is "Hope and Change" working out for everyone?)

 

You are overstating your case. The Great Depression began under a Republican administration, and recovery took place during a Democratic administration. The Great Recession began under a Republican administration and recovery took place during a Democratic administration. The demise of Detroit and Buffalo had little to do with the local administrations, and more to do with jobs moving overseas, a trend that took place during the Bush administration and began long before Obama took office.

Charts depicting household incomes will show modest improvement or decline during Republican administrations, and soaring increases during Democratic administrations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_income_in_the_United_States

That said, the message here is vote a straight ticket, Republican or Democratic. Why are so many assuming Republicans are going to lose?

 

One mistake should not disallow the principle of a unified government. Your idea that if one party controls both Congress and the White House, some Americans won't have a voice has merit. Fine, if things go badly, they will have their say in the next election. The controlling party will know that.

Are you in favor of the current situation, gridlock in Washington? Are you in favor of our continuing down the slippery slop so everyone will have a voice and the will of the majority can go to hell? Are you opposed to unity in government?

Answer the questions.

 

My dear friend, Robert, thank you for the post. You may recall that the Great Recession began in 2008. Bush signed the TARP bill in Oct. 2008, but most of the money was spent during the Obama administration. Indeed, Obama inherited two wars and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. It stands to reason he was going to run up a few bills.

Most people have forgotten all that when they speak of Obama adding to the National Debt.

BTW, Bush, Jr., inherited a surplus from the Clinton administration. The National Debt went from 58% of the GDP to 86% of the GDP during the Bush administration. That is huge.

 

Please explain how that contradicted anything he said.

 

The Founding Fathers intended no such thing. The F.F. knew nothing about political parties. The F.F. envisioned checks and balances between the three branches of government. The whole idea of the Constitution which featured a federal style government was a unified government, unlike the Articles of Confederation in which the individual states wielded the power, in other words, a decentralization of power at central government level. Our young country ridded itself of the Articles in favor of a strong central government, just as the F.F. intended.

I assume you favor staying the course. You favor perpetuating gridlock in Washington and our nation continues the slide down the slippery slow simply because nothing gets done. You are in favor of weakening our national security, because indecision in Washington will do just that. You must be a Trump fan. That is screwy thinking.

"The "stalemate" resulted from the 2010 midterms. Why did the Democrats lose the House? Could it be because many Americans did not like what President Obama was up to?" Hey, genius, that means the system worked. With a unified government the voters will always have the last say.

 

I did in my post if you read it. "Of course there is another option. If the 2 establishment parties will not work together.....vote in a 3rd. The "Independent" party has been making small inroads in the political system, and I think the Libertarians are making a huge rut on that road right now. To help deepen that rut and hopefully fracture the 2 party system even further I will be voting for Gary Johnson this election and hope for the best."

I repeated it again. Having only 2 parties is part of the problem. To take this down to a small level for an example......no communities have had town councils with an even number so that there can't be gridlock. Hell even the Supreme court has 9 (odd number) judges so there can't be gridlock. Get a 3rd party in there and the gridlock will end.

 

Let's review TARP to see if that added to the national debt.

http://www.politifact.com/new-hamps...-obama-says-banks-paid-back-all-federal-bail/

Obama did not inherit two wars. Two insurgencies certainly. But our fighting forces remained in Afghanistan only at the orders of Obama.

What I mean by added to the national debt is he started at 10 trillion and ends up about 20 trillion.

Factually, the final 2008-09 Budget that normally would be signed by Bush was in fact signed into law by Obama.

While Bush did have a surplus, the strange thing is Clinton never planned for it nor knew it would happen. He got lucky.

And Bush inherited a recession too. I think you counted the Obama part of the increase to reach 86 percent.

Most do not realize how early it was that Obama took over the Budget and he wanted not to see Bush agree to it but that Obama wanted to agree. Bush allowed this to happen.



Still, there is no doubt Obama came in with about 2 trillion to spend and how has been spending 3.4 trillion dollars. Bush never asked him to spend such a huge increase over the highest Bush budget.

 

In truth, due to Presidents part of the deal, their budgets, they really do not inherit economies. We the public have those. Presidents incomes are enormous and they do not suffer in a bad economy.

 

No, you did not answer the question. Your Plan B" is theoretical. We are discussing reality here. Until there is a viable third party that actually makes a difference (which is a while off), what do you favor in the meantime? A unified government or disunity creating gridlock in Washington?

Are you concerned about our national security? An indecisive Washington would be welcomed by our enemies.

 

We have two houses that agree.
We have one president who blocks the show.

Gridlock will be broken when Trump is sworn in.

 

Well, I'm kind of the burn it down and start fresh type, so to be honest......the strife and discord that is currently occurring will only hasten the arrival of a third party as people get sick and tired of the BS. Why tiptoe into the cool water when it's much faster just to jump.

As far as national security........who's version? The Democrats or the Republicans, see someone is getting left out again. If the American People want to vote in all of one party that's fine, but will you like that parties positions on national security.....50/50 says no. Short of a nuclear strike I don't think the next 4 years will kill this country, maybe just cause bad case of indigestion.

Based upon the buzz that Gary Johnson is getting this election cycle I don't think a 3rd party is as far off as you believe if we keep going this way.

 

I don't know what you are talking about. I live in the most liberal city in the most liberal state in the country. Things are booming here.

 

If you look at the past 10 presidential terms 5 were Democratic and 5 were Republican. Total jobs created was millions more under Democratic leadership than Republican. Nearly as many jobs were created in 4 years under Carter as 8 years of Reagan. lil' Bush's second term saw a net loss of jobs.