Seems Like We’re in the 8th Round of a 10-Round Fight

(Maybe we’re too angry and exhausted to answer the bell)

Disconnects between the majority of Americans and U.S. policies across many issues are becoming increasingly worrisome for the country

Are they now? I would never have guessed. And here I thought it was a four decade problem that began with ‘the great communicator,’ Ronald Reagan. Communicating was his specialty, a hired actor playing President in a movie that lasted two terms.

A Hollywood Democrat, Franklin D. Roosevelt was once "a true hero" for him and he was once president of the Screen Actor’s Guild (a union) as well as twice California governor. But it seems we all have our price and taxes turned him Republican in1962.

I was a Republican back in 1962, but the Reagan presidency made me feel the party had left me

All that talk about ‘conservatism’ while Republicans metaphorically burnt the furniture to heat the house and have done since.

Anyway, according to The Hill, polls show us in a rage against our government. “A 2020 Pew Research poll says approximately two-thirds of Americans say the federal government is doing too little to reduce climate change’s effects. A separate poll shows more than 60 percent of Americans disagreed with the recent Supreme Court decision on the Environmental Protection Agency regulating carbon pollution.”

(Round 2 and our opponent slips a few below the belt when the refs not looking)

Yeah well, have you noticed how the media has shifted from maybe we’re in trouble to it’s all over now and maybe we can survive what we caused (but only maybe)? No matter Donald Trump’s claims, the media is far better at covering George and Amal Clooney and what Jennifer Lawrence is wearing on a hot day in Manhattan than they are at taking the pulse of the American public. Or giving a damn where the country is headed (no money in that, but George and Jen bring eyeballs).

The Pew Research poll uncovered some other interesting stuff

Nearly 80 percent said the priority for the country’s energy supply should be the development of alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar. By the way, subsidies for wind and solar are expiring by congressional agreement, while the government is subsidizing Wells Fargo (America’s foremost criminal bank) to the tune of $581 million.

While we’re on the subject, even though the oil companies tripled their profits this year and hold a gun at your head at the pumps, Uncle Sam gave fossil fuel developers $5.9 trillion to keep their little pot on the boil. For the numbers-compulsive (such as myself) that’s almost six-thousand billion dollars and a single billion is a thousand-million. Don’t fret, only the top 1% earners have any concept of what that means. But that’s our cash laid out at the pump and our taxes at the conga-line of subsidies.

I thought we were trying as a nation to get away from fossil fuels. Makes me feel a little squeamish, when Congress is subsidizing the home invaders and driving the getaway car as well.

Exxon paid CEO Darren Woods $23.6 million last year, up from $15.6 million in 2020. I know for sure that Darren Woods understands the concept.

(Jesus, round 6 and there’s not much left in the tank)

Regarding voting, a poll by Data for Progress shows that 70% of Americans support voting rights with equal access for all eligible voters

To pass voting rights legislation, slightly more than half of voters, 53 percent, support altering the Senate’s 60-vote threshold to a simple majority. The majority of the public wishes to ensure that every American who wants to vote can do so easily, with nearly 80 percent adding that voters should be required to show government-issued photo identification whenever they vote, according to an NPR/PBS News Hour/Marist survey. Also, the Data for Progress poll shows majorities of Americans favor national standards for ballot access, banning partisan congressional gerrymandering and preventing efforts to subvert election results. All that went out the window when the Supreme Court gutted the Civil Rights Act.

(Here I sit, waiting for the bell, beaten black and blue in the 7th round and the Supreme Court has it’s back turned. Whose side are they on?)

However, some government officials have said that expanding voting will hurt their party’s election prospects. Are they serious? They’re actually going to keep citizens from voting because they might lose? And be quoted on that? Have they told the disenfranchised?

The Civil Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson on July 2, 1964

It prohibited discrimination in public places, provided for the integration of schools and other public facilities, and made employment discrimination illegal. It was the most sweeping civil rights legislation since Reconstruction. Johnson, a Southern Democrat (back when there were Southern Democrats) and one of the most powerful men in Washington, said as he signed the bill, “there goes the South for Democrats forever.”

In 2021, 52 restrictive voter laws were passed in various states across the country, limiting options to vote and undermining local elections officials’ ability to mind elections. All those restrictions occurred in Republican dominated districts and that was perfectly all right with a Republican dominated Supreme Court.

Is this a great country, or what?

(Another round and loss of the right to vote nearly knocked me out of the ring)

Concerning the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol

A Quinnipiac University poll shows nearly two-thirds of Americans, 64 percent, believe the attack was planned rather than spontaneous. Also, 59 percent say former president Trump bears a measure of responsibility for the calamity that ensued.

In an ABC/Ipsos poll, a similar majority, 60 percent, view the investigation by the Jan. 6 House Select Committee as being both fair and impartial.

(A cut is bleeding over my left eye, but the alcohol rub-down picks me up a bit)

And the beat goes on, let’s look at taxes

A 2017 Pew Research poll showed that 56 percent consider the federal tax system to be complex, incomprehensible, and unfair. Also, 60 percent believe that corporations and wealthy people don’t pay their fair share of taxes. Most Americans say they are bothered a lot by the inherent unfairness in the tax system that favors the wealthy and large corporations.

(9th round, battered, still bleeding from one eye and legs are like lead, but gun control’s coming out of its corner looking fresh)

An April 2021 Gallup poll shows the majority of Americans, nearly 60 percent, are in favor of gun control. A Pew Research Center Poll from last year shows the majority also supports several gun control proposals, including background checks for all gun purchases, bans on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, registration of privately owned guns with the police, mental health restrictions on gun purchases and a 30-day waiting period for all gun sales.

Women’s issues (50.5% of Americans are women), so why are they sitting on the side? Hubby won’t let them be heard?

Large majorities of American voters, 78 percent of Republican voters and 93 percent of Democratic voters, say they want subsidized child care programs for working families. Moreover, majorities support tax credits to help working families pay for childcare.

On abortion, a consistent majority of Americans, about 62 percent, support a woman’s right to an abortion, per Pew Research. An even larger majority of Americans, 70 percent, did not want the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v Wade.

Noteworthy disconnects also exist between what people in many states want and the antiabortion laws that their legislatures have adopted. Majorities in many of those states with antiabortion laws support a woman’s right to an abortion. In addition, 78 percent of Americans oppose making it illegal for a woman to cross state lines to obtain an abortion.

Check out this week’s vote in Kansas where abortion rights were upheld, once the public got to vote.

So, there we are folks, nearly a thousand words from various polls that substantiate how very far apart we have come in just four decades time

And the politicians would have us believe we’re at each other’s throats—but we’re not—the Congress is, but not us. Sit down with any voter to discuss issues and you’ll find wide areas of agreement. But blame it on their party and you’ve lost the argument, because it was both Democrats and Republicans who conspired to feed the country into the paper-shredder for a few bucks in their pockets.

Is it a surprise to you that the only survivors of the 2008 depression (or any depression, so far as that goes) were the banks, the Wall Street investors and the top 10%? Is it a further surprise that, when we’re in financial deep shit again, the CEO of Exxon got a $26 million paycheck?  Do you lift an eyebrow when Phil Mickelson—a past-his-prime professional golfer with a gambling habit—sells himself and his sport off to the Saudis for $150 million? And then tries to make it into a free speech issue? Phil was making $40 million a year on the PGA, but he pissed it away on gambling.

(The 10th round coming up. Please, god, don’t let that bell ring until I get some feeling back in my legs)

What the polls tell us

First of all, 40% of eligible voters don’t even bother to vote. They’re in the corner of their own private ring ring, getting hosed down and stitched up. Second, these polls show that large majorities of voters care about stuff that matters. Phil Mickelson doesn’t really matter, nor does the Exxon dude. But the voters who do, still stand in line give a damn about these issues by substantial percentages.

A candidate who ran on these issues alone would have a great chance of winning. Voters in Kentucky can only hold their noses and vote for Mitch McConnel for so long. That goes double for quasi-Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia.

(A boxing match is not lost until the 10th round is over and we’re either still on our feet or stopped giving a shit)