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xchrom

(108,903 posts) Sat Oct 19, 2013, 10:19 AM Oct 2013

Americans Felt Betrayed by the Shutdown

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/americans-felt-betrayed-by-the-shutdown/280692/

Could Americans really get any angrier at Washington? Even before the recent government shutdown, congressional approval hovered around 10 percent, a minority thought the country was on the right track, and a “throw the bums out” mentality was rampant. Railing against the toxic mess in D.C. has been a winning strategy for politicians from Barack Obama on down for years now.

And yet average Americans say the shutdown was something new. It seeded a different, raw sense of betrayal by politicians; it left them feeling freshly disillusioned, perhaps permanently so.

“Before, I took a lot for granted. I assumed it could never come to this,” said Cathy, a 53-year-old nurse with three children. “Now, I can’t say that with any reassurance whatsoever .... It’s scary.”

Mahogany, a 35-year-old consultant with two young kids, agreed. “I didn’t know a lot of this stuff was possible. I didn’t know we could be in this predicament,” she said. “I didn’t know it. Now the trust in the government is just gone.”

3 replies

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Americans Felt Betrayed by the Shutdown (Original Post) xchrom Oct 2013 OP

“Before, I took a lot for granted. I assumed it could never come to this,” etherealtruth Oct 2013 #1

The current Republican Party is a threat to this nation RainDog Oct 2013 #2

important quote... magical thyme Oct 2013 #3

etherealtruth

(22,165 posts)

1. “Before, I took a lot for granted. I assumed it could never come to this,”

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 10:27 AM

Oct 2013

It is very frightening to now know ... a group of 'politicians" [read:nut cases] would be willing to risk destroying the US economy (and possibly the global economy) to push political agendas ... political agendas that are far out of the mainstream.

I fervently believe the only thing that stopped them was the fears of the "huge multinational corporations" ... fearing their bottom lines would be impacted by financial chaos caused by the tea bagging nut jobs

RainDog

(28,784 posts)

2. The current Republican Party is a threat to this nation

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 10:50 AM

Oct 2013

sad to say, but that's the reality until they get the religious fanatics back on the funny farm.

Their god stenographer told them to get out of govt... they won't even listen to god, apparently.

magical thyme

(14,881 posts)

3. important quote...

Reply to xchrom (Original post)

Sat Oct 19, 2013, 10:56 AM

Oct 2013

"Rather than throw up their hands at the mess, the women said they’d pay more attention to politics and try to get more involved to fix the problem. “We’ll be smarter next time. We won’t vote for somebody sitting next to a tractor just because we like tractors,” said Karyn, a 25-year-old who voted for neither major-party presidential candidate in 2012."

It's important to note that for the most part, they just blamed government in general, not necessarily one side or the other. The article doesn't give us any numbers; just makes sure to include quotes blaming each side.

But the quote shows an opportunity...they intend to pay more attention. And they were consistently turned off by "childish" behavior.

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