Hi Guys..

[Peacetrain]

Hello DU.. missed you guys and all the in sights, out sights and everything in between.
I left this op in GDP also.. just wanted to say HI!!..Did not find any new cookie recipes.. but I keep looking.. ;)
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Thought I would bring a little update from the outside participants, who are not particularly internet activists.

There were some interesting conversations out there. But the biggest point I kept hearing, and may the most unsettling one is the "wanting" the President to act more unilaterally.

I was sort of stumped by that, because part of me wants that also. Just slap it down Mr. President and do it.

I was hearing quite a bit of discontent with the President's outreach to all parties, and listening to all parties.

But I have to be honest, that type of push and want of the President to be more "dictatorial" as it were,(no one suggested he be a dictator, but when you pulled apart the conversations, that is exactly what they were wanting) I found disconcerting.

Sometimes I think people should be careful of what they wish for. Because we might get it.. Not with this administration, but maybe the next.

It was interesting to say the least!

[POAS]

1. Welcome "home" Peacetrain!

See how much you miss when your away? It might take days to catch up just on one particular thread!

[Peacetrain]

2. I am working on one right now..

good to be home

[NJmaverick]

3. There is a natural human reaction to want to overthrow one dictator only

to replace them with one's own dictator. That's what makes what our Founding fathers did so incredible. They seized power and instead of using/abusing it for themselves, they gave it to the people. It takes a lot of self discipline and personal awareness to be willing to give up an advantage out of moral principles. The temptation to justify using bad means to achieve one's end is great indeed.

[Peacetrain]

4. That is what I was thinking also .. I mean I seriously would love

some times.. just the get it over with and get it done my way scenario.. It would be sooo much easier. But as you say, we are very lucky to have the system we have, to keep us from doing just such a thing.

What would be easiest, is not always what would be best!

[quiet.american]

5. Hey Peacetrain good to see you - Obama's damned if he does, and damned if doesn't.

The "public" decided that the MOST IMPORTANT thing needed to stop the BP oil leak was for Obama to show some anger/irritation/rage. So then when he said he needed to know "whose ass to kick" -- the lament was that he "dumbed-down" the Office too much.

A lot of political reporting I see contains the phrase -- "but most Americans don't know (fill in the blank), or "know (fill in the blank)'s name" -- and I have to ask myself -- why the hell not? People who should know better can't seem to be bothered to know the facts of practically anything to do with politics, but they do make pronouncements that Obama should DO this or that without understanding how Congress works -- while leaving the real culprits - the stonewalling, "this-will-be-Obama's-Waterloo" GOP perfectly free and unencumbered to keep on dragging down the country. And even going so far as to *reward* (R-Idiots) with re-election with a "well, maybe they'll *do* something" when it's them that have been blocking everything all along!

Oy.

(Not including you in this diatribe, Peacetrain. I completely agree with you that even though Obama would make a benevolent dictator, that is NOT what democracy is. I'm just so frustrated that so many don't seem to get that.)

[POAS]

6. Could this aspect of American political life

(perhaps of any of the modern democracies) be due to our culture of "instant gratification"?

Are we as a society reverting back to that juvenile stage of growth where we say "I want it and I want it now"? What would it take for us to mature out of that stage if we are indeed in it.

[quiet.american]

7. Absolutely! - "Instant gratification" + a "reality-tv" mindset + "gain w/no pain, please."

Sometimes I wonder if going forward, we will "reset" as a whole from the "download it now" mindset that is pervading all aspects of society.

The "reality-tv mindset" demands that Obama should have personally had the oil leak plugged within the "season run." (Not talking about the folks who are being directly affected, or those genuinely interested in the mechanics of this thing, but mostly referring to the plethora of MSM stories that did not delve any further into "why isn't Obama doing this or that" than to ask the question "why isn't Obama doing this or that" and then to answer it themselves based purely on their own opinions and speculation, and not on fact.

"Gain w/no pain, please" -- Obama should DO it no matter what, but if he asks me to do anything I don't think I should have to do in order to help him DO it, fuggeddaboutit. The HCR mandate comes to mind. Shortly after Obama won the presidency, it seemed the first question out of every reporter's mouth was, "What sacrifices will you ask the American people to make." I used to shake my head on that one, because it seems to me we've become so divided/spoiled/narcissistic, we're simply not prepared as a nation to come together and collectively make sacrifices. The way I always viewed the upcoming requirement to be covered by insurance is -- if I buy insurance and it helps a fellow citizen (and forget about even that - if it helps people in my own family) not be denied coverage, not be dropped from coverage and reduces insurance rates, then yes, I'll make the huge sacrifice of being covered by insurance and letting the government help me pay for it, too, if need be.

Now, that's a very cynical view of this country that I just wrote, and I know that if push came to shove, we probably would come together... I think. Sometimes, I feel that the right-wing poison that's been pouring into this country's veins for the last twenty years a la Limbaugh et al., is starting to have an irreversible effect, and I wonder if, in spite of Obama's best efforts, there will even BE a United States twenty years from now....

[POAS]

8. Exactly, but now back to our original intent here....HI PEACETRAIN!

didn't mean to hijack your welcome home!!!!

:toast:

[treestar]

9. Welcome back, Peacetrain

Yeah, people are so detached from the system.

[Peacetrain]

11. Hey treestar.. interesting times are a foot that is for sure

[yowzayowzayowza]

10. One in five are authoritarian by nature, so ...

seein' alot of that iznt too surprising.

:hi:

[Peacetrain]

12. Good point.. hey that is about the number of registered republicans isn't it?

;)

[Raine1967]

13. Welcome back Peacey!

I've missed you!

[Peacetrain]

14. Thanks Raine.. good to be home!!...