Bitter In LA

Andrew Malcolm of the LATimes' Top of the Ticket blog asked his LA-centric crowd if they're bitter, keying off the infamous Obama belittling of small town America.

Here's how his readers, who live in the eternal bliss of California sunshine, enjoying high employment at well-paid jobs, responded:

65.7 %

Yes. I'll show you bitter when I vote.

5.6 %

Yes, but it isn't any politician's fault.

28.7 %

No. Actually, I feel pretty good.

It's easy to joke whiny attitude of the LA Times reader, and some of the commenters to the post sound just like that:

well i for one am very bitter. been that way since about 2003. anyone who knows what our government and Big business is up to that is not reported by the corporate owned news networks would be very bitter too. most Americans don't know the crap that is pulled in their name and under their Flag.

What would he have instead? Little government, mom and pop shops and media without agendas? Find another universe, bub.

Others remind us that for many, it's all just Bush hatred and a rant against a war they refuse to try to understand:

I'm bitter about how the country as I know and love it has been taken away by the Bush administration. It's been replaced by a pre-emptive war we should never have been in with a non-questioning congress. It's immoral to do this to other people, and I'm disgusted and saddened by it! Shame on our country for allowing this to happen. All the deaths, wounded, suffering caused by our country! The economic cost has.been terrible too. You bet I'm bitter!

I'm not exactly sure why it's immoral to free people from a repressive dictator, but that aside, this bitterness is way off topic; it's not what Obama was talking about and justifying his slam of America by ranting on the war is just whitewash (can we still say that word in PC America?) for his gaffe.

A lot of the "bitterness" is anti-globalization, as seen in this sarcastic comment:

Who could be bitter that the Clinton presidency, as well as the second Bush presidency, has sold our jobs to foreign slave labor markets? Bitter? Who? Me? Nahhh. I couldn't even be bitter about all the illegal immigrants from south of the border, let alone China's huge slave labor pool.

Or this:

I would rate my bitterness 15 on a scale of 1 to 10. The US Government has sold out it's citizens to the highest bidder.

It's interesting in its choice of "sold" as the active verb. Who exactly buys and who exactly sells to cause globalization? Did the writer forgo all purchases of Chinese products, opting for more expensive US products instead, in order to not sell the content of his wallet to China?

What president can stop globalization? What president would force a massive inflationary, pain-causing price increase on all Americans by placing tariffs or barriers on imported goods? What president would force his constituents to buy a Chevy when they know they can get a better car from Toyota?

Most of the comments, as expected, come from Obama supporters, like this one:

Yes, Barrack said it right, just not very eloquently. I am VERY bitter over the status quo government and want a change. I am sick and tired of the Clinton era, their lies, the Bush era, their lies, and I'm MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT TAKING IT ANYMORE! AND MY VOTE WILL SHOW IT!

Having drunk deeply of the Kool Aid, these folks don't think for one minute that the man from Rezko, the nearly 100% liberal who never helped bridge a gap in his life but now is the great bridger, the man who ear-marked his wife's employer and got her a 100% raise for his efforts, the man who will move us beyond racism despite sitting in Rev. Wright's church for 20 years isn't going to turn out to be just another liar.

Reading the comments, I've come to understand this about American politics: There are lies, there are damned lies, and there are lies that make you feel comfortable and therefore win your vote.

The thread of trusting Obama is just as prevalent in the comments as that of hating Bush and/or Clinton. Having stood up to all Obama has asked us to endure, this trust of theirs is seeming less like trust and more like this comment, which doesn't appear in the Top of the Ticket blog but was made up by me on the spot:

Blind? You bet I'm blind! My eyes are tired of looking at an America that is trying to bring better lives to oppressed people. They're sick of seeing lower prices on the products I buy, and I'm having an utter black-out over the fact that politicians are handling my Messiah Obama as if he were just a politician. Don't open my eyes. Just put my finger on the right button on the voting machine.