WASHINGTON — To look at the presidential ballot is to marvel at how far the country seems to have come in recent decades: an incumbent African-American is seeking reelection against a Mormon. It seems the definition of a nation casting aside historic divisions.
Then there is the flip side. Divisions still define us, and the 2012 campaign seems, if anything, to have deepened them.
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Globe asks "Once the ballots are counted and the name of the next president is no longer a mystery, the deeper questions are bound to remain: Why is the country so polarized after decades of social progress" ..That's rather easy to answer. It's Barack Obama and his radical liberal supporters (like Elizabeth Warren)who polarized the nation. And if he is reelected, he intends to KEEP it that way. ..Also the news media is entirely responsible,like the Boston Globe which continually plays the Race Card.''In fact it is the shameful Boston Globe which is the very cause of the country becoming so polarized. With articles like this, the Globe has no business calling itself a newspaper
Miker6, Obama is not without blame in this mess. But, the Republicans have really fanned some flames during this election that are going to be difficult to extinguish. The whole "Socialism" deal is owned by guys like Karl Rove, who will retire back to his life of luxury after the election. meanwhile, you and I deal with the hate and anger under either presidential victor?
So, how can Mitt Romney heal a nation when I don't even know what his stand is on abortion or Social Security? Seriously, give me an option. The Great Washington Blockade is not working. Thanks for listening to my rant!
Wow, what a great job of reporting! I will never ever forget Senator Mitch McConnell and his absolute obsession with stalling President Obama's agenda at every turn at the podium. My world essentially tanked while Uncle Mitch and the boys spread their hate throughout Kentucky and a once United States! Hey Mitch, you broke it! Now, maybe you can fix it? Got anything, Mitch?
This situation is far bigger than any one person or any one administration. And the evolution of the situation after the next president is sworn in in January will reflect as much. The demographic balance will become more pressing by the month, as the baby boomers retire and need more medical care, twenty-somethings struggle to find a job that can pay a living wage, new parents try to find affordable housing and honest mortgages, and America contends with moving too much manufacturing to third world, slave-based economies. The media, thanks to improved technology, makes it easy for self-aggrandizing extremists to make too much money fanning the flames of simple-minded and destructive solutions. These often feed on the myths of one extreme or the other. Either there is the myth of the strong, pioneering individual, or the myth of the idyllic society. Neither extreme exists. Both extremes successfully draw in or alienate certain small segments of society. And one last element worth mentioning, in the wake of Sandy, is that reality will have a profound impact on the road taken. Can America continue to afford aircraft carriers to patrol the globe, in the face of regular and catastrophic destruction at home? Does there need to be a fundamental restructuring of the allocation of resources? Intelligent, thoughtful, and measured voices are needed for that discussion. Extremists with simplistic solutions need not apply.
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Yes, between the knows and the know nothings. If the election were fair the president would win in a landslide. All the polls have him ahead and the electoral vote HUGE UNLESS the fix is in.
Obama is leading in every poll on the planet. Nate Silver has him WAY ahead. The worry for me has always been the fix in Ohio because of the mendaciousTag Romney owning the machines and there will not be a way to find out even though the Dems have armies of lawyers there and computer experts. The fix is what I have always been afraid of .. if the election were above board then O would win in a landslide. Even Intrade has him at 66%. Who on God's earth let's a candidate's son control the voting machines in a crucial state? If Obama did it can you imagine the Republican outcry.
I'm worried about nothing but the fix!
According to factcheck.org, Romney has no stake in those voting machines, the problem has been going on since 2006, happened in 2008 and 2010, google it. People in Ohio are complaining that when they vote for Romney their vote goes to Obama.
Who said that Pres. Obama is way ahead....and if there are any corruption in voting it is the Chicago corrupt democrat machine at work....How did Al Franken win that senate seat...all of a sudden someone found some absentee votes in the trunk of their car....yeah right and then you had Pres. Obama's former employer Acorn...registing false names etc......If anything the republicans better watch out...will the black panthers be at the voting polls again with their batons threatening the voters for Mitt Romney??? People will be voting on experience this time and not someone still learning on the job....in fact we need jobs...that was something that was not the first priority for Pres. Obama in his first two years, while unemployment keep increasing along with his adding $6 trillion to the debt even Pres. Bush added less in 8 years...
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I usually don't comment on these types of articles but the Globe and many other papers pulled this "eke out a win garbage when W was elected and said he could not really do much! All he did is what the right wing always does...start wars, add to defense, let the infrastructure rot, and pay off their big donors. Stop believeing anything about their whoever wins will be powerless garbage! We must at least stop Brown if the President should lose!
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Why must the Glob make this about race and religion. Nevertheless, get used to it.
President Romney!!!
Obama really messed-up with his 4 years . . . unable to learn the job.
Don't know what polls "nrosen' is referring to that has Obama way ahead - there has been NO SUCH POLL making such a claim: Incompetent Obama is trying to keep his job - with his wife out pedaling as hard as she can because she too has found 'something' about America that she likes. That is living in the WHite House.
Is this where we comment on the odd poll results on the front page? Four questions, and three tell us nothing. Percent who agree that the government should take care of people who can't take care of themselves? I'd say at least 90%, now define "can't take care of themselves". Percent who agree we should restrict and control people coming into our country more than we do now. Maybe 10%, until you add the word "illegal". Percent who agree government regulation of business usually does more harm than good? Depends on whether we're talking about legitimate regulation, failed regulation (like the banking system), or no regulation, which would be maybe 5%. Fourth question is legitimate: should be 100%, without military strength we'd be living in Nazi America. Dumb poll. Let's run the next election without polls...
I'm a very loyal subscriber to Nate Silver's 538poll. His record is pretty much impeccable. According to his site this is pretty much a done deal. Obama with somewhere around 300 electoral votes with Mitt's chances really hinging on the preponderance of the polls being skewered, which according to Silver he has factored into the algorithm.
So I'd suggest getting used to Pres. Obama. However, if he loses you'll not catch me using the words about Romney that others have used. The behavior of some has been really pathetic.
The obstructionism and scorched-earth politics of the extreme right are the biggest threat our nation faces because they prevent us from dealing with the economic challenges we face.
Like Clinton before him, Obama is a centrist -- his main policies would have been embraced by Republicans two decades ago. They manufacture opposition purely for partisan political ends.
The political schism is being produced not by Democrats, but by extremist right-wing culture, beginning in the mid-1990's with Gingrich, and taken up in 2008 by the Tea Party. Yes, we have always had our right wing cultist wackos, like the Birchers, but until recently they have not had control of the Republican Party. Exactly how that happened (perhaps with infusions of money from the brothers Koch and others in 2008-2009?) is not clear, but it is highly destructive to our society and our body politic.
The divisions are real. Conservative political culture is nurtured by Fox Cable News and other propaganda networks that create their own alternate reality ("b-s mountain" as Jon Stewart aptly named it) in the heartland. Fundamentalist religion feeds an intellectual culture of belief in what feels good, one that is contemptuous of facts and reason (science, evolution, climate change, economics, arithmetic -- it is significant that nobody asked Romney if he believes in evolution -- he probably would have evaded the question). It is difficult to reason (or bargain) with religious or economic fundamentalists, or for that matter, with narcissistic plutocrats who have enormous senses of entitlement.
One might hope that people will come to their senses and the country will eventually grow out of it, but probably the best thing we can hope for in the foreseeable future is development of a more tolerant, live-and-let-live attitude in which each sector can have its own reality without forcibly imposing it on the rest of the society.
But next time the confederacy wants to secede, unless they want to reinstate slavery, we should accept their offer and let them go their own way.
glad to see the black panthers out again