Jack Cafferty wants to know if viewers think the U.S. economy will trigger violence in our country.
Ed at Gin and Tacos thinks the odds of collective violence in the U.S. are low, and that acts of individual violence are more likely. I agree; I think we’re already seeing those:
The only thing that makes collective violence seem like a plausible outcome is the sense of a very real, profound, and widespread loss of hope in this country. Does anyone actually look forward to the future? Think that sunny days are on the horizon? Believe that the political system can solve our problems (without 1000 unrealistic “ifs”)? People who feel that way probably exist, but either they’re very quiet or there aren’t many of them. The 2008 and 2010 elections both generated a lot of excitement among different portions of the electorate and to say that the results have been disappointing is a rank understatement. Do Obama voters think four more years will bring “change”? At best they consider him the less-terrible of two options. Do Republicans really believe that going to rallies in stupid hats and voting for clueless ideologues who will Go Native the second they enter their offices is going to balance the budget and solve our problems? I doubt it, a small, vocal minority of true believers aside.
The biggest problem is that young people are more pessimistic about the future – their own and of this country – than ever before. If you’re under 40, do you even have any long term plans, goals, or hopes anymore? The short- and long-term pictures are both bleak. We’re unemployed, marginally employed, or tenuously holding onto one of the few decent jobs to be had in the short term, and in the long term we can look forward to…I don’t know, working until we drop dead. And we’ll do it in a country that will keep getting dumber, more dilapidated, poorer, and more like the average Banana Republic than the Super Great Land of Success we were told we live in.
Go read the comments.
