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AMERICA'S PESSIMISM THROUGH BRITISH EYES
GARY YOUNGE, GUARDIAN, UK - America. . . is in a deep funk. Far from
feeling hopeful, it appears fearful of the outside world and despondent
about its own future. Not only do most believe tomorrow will be worse
than today, they also feel that there is little that can be done about
it.
There are three main reasons. Closest to home is the economy. Wages are
stagnant, house prices in most areas have stalled or are falling, the
dollar is plunging, and the deficit is rising. A Pew survey last week
showed that 72% believe the economy is either "only fair" or poor and
76% believe it will be the same or worse a year from now. . . The sense
that things will improve for the next generation has all but evaporated.
Another Pew poll from last year found that only 34% of Americans
expected today's children to be better off than people are now - down
from 55% shortly before President Bush came to power.
Second is the Iraq war and the steep decline in America's international
standing it has prompted. A global-attitudes Pew poll from last year
showed that 65% of Americans believe the country is less respected by
the rest of the world than it was - double the figure of 20 years ago. .
.
Which brings us, finally, to the political class. Once again the
American public have lost faith. The rot starts at the top. Almost as
soon as they elected Bush in 2004 they seemed to regret it. . . Bush's
only comfort is that public approval of the Democratically controlled
Congress is even worse, hovering just below where it was shortly before
the 2006 elections. In other words, however Americans believe their
country will return to the right track, they no longer trust politicians
to get them there. . .
Herein lies the challenge for the presidential candidates in the coming
year - how to respond to this pessimistic mood without reflecting or
discussing its root causes: to lay out a plausible explanation of how
Americans can get their groove back, without examining how they got in
this rut in the first place.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2191182,00.html
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REPORT FINDS BLACK AND LATINO POLL PARTICIPATION CONTINUES TO LAG
A NEW PROJECT VOTE REPORT finds that those who are registered and vote
are not representative of the overall U.S. population eligible to vote.
The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that
does vote is highly skewed towards whites, the educated and the wealthy.
Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority
males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately
represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate.
Among the findings:
- 52 percent did not participate in the 2006 general election, either
because they were not registered (32 percent) or because they were
registered but did not vote (20 percent). Of those registered, however,
the majority (71 percent) did vote.
- Americans between 18 and 29 were approximately 20 percent of the
eligible voter population but only 10 percent of the voting population
in 2006.
- In registration, non-Hispanic blacks lagged behind non-Hispanic whites
by 10 percentage points: 61 percent to 71 percent. Only 54 percent of
eligible latinos and 49 percent of eligible Asian-Americans report being
registered.
- In voting, non-Hispanic blacks also lagged behind non-Hispanic whites
by 10 percentage points: 51 percent to 42 percent. Approximately 32
percent of eligible latino and Asian-American citizens voted.
- If all eligible minorities had voted at the rate of non-Hispanic
whites, more than 7.5 million additional Americans would have
participated in the 2006 elections.
http://projectvote.org/fileadmin/ProjectVote/Publications/
Representational_Bias_report/Table_1a.pdf
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AMERICA'S PESSIMISM THROUGH BRITISH EYES
GARY YOUNGE, GUARDIAN, UK - America. . . is in a deep funk. Far from
feeling hopeful, it appears fearful of the outside world and despondent
about its own future. Not only do most believe tomorrow will be worse
than today, they also feel that there is little that can be done about
it.
There are three main reasons. Closest to home is the economy. Wages are
stagnant, house prices in most areas have stalled or are falling, the
dollar is plunging, and the deficit is rising. A Pew survey last week
showed that 72% believe the economy is either "only fair" or poor and
76% believe it will be the same or worse a year from now. . . The sense
that things will improve for the next generation has all but evaporated.
Another Pew poll from last year found that only 34% of Americans
expected today's children to be better off than people are now - down
from 55% shortly before President Bush came to power.
Second is the Iraq war and the steep decline in America's international
standing it has prompted. A global-attitudes Pew poll from last year
showed that 65% of Americans believe the country is less respected by
the rest of the world than it was - double the figure of 20 years ago. .
.
Which brings us, finally, to the political class. Once again the
American public have lost faith. The rot starts at the top. Almost as
soon as they elected Bush in 2004 they seemed to regret it. . . Bush's
only comfort is that public approval of the Democratically controlled
Congress is even worse, hovering just below where it was shortly before
the 2006 elections. In other words, however Americans believe their
country will return to the right track, they no longer trust politicians
to get them there. . .
Herein lies the challenge for the presidential candidates in the coming
year - how to respond to this pessimistic mood without reflecting or
discussing its root causes: to lay out a plausible explanation of how
Americans can get their groove back, without examining how they got in
this rut in the first place.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,2191182,00.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
REPORT FINDS BLACK AND LATINO POLL PARTICIPATION CONTINUES TO LAG
A NEW PROJECT VOTE REPORT finds that those who are registered and vote
are not representative of the overall U.S. population eligible to vote.
The proportion of the U.S. population that registers to vote and that
does vote is highly skewed towards whites, the educated and the wealthy.
Furthermore, young eligible Americans, particularly young minority
males, and those who have recently moved, are disproportionately
represented among those who do not participate in the U.S. electorate.
Among the findings:
- 52 percent did not participate in the 2006 general election, either
because they were not registered (32 percent) or because they were
registered but did not vote (20 percent). Of those registered, however,
the majority (71 percent) did vote.
- Americans between 18 and 29 were approximately 20 percent of the
eligible voter population but only 10 percent of the voting population
in 2006.
- In registration, non-Hispanic blacks lagged behind non-Hispanic whites
by 10 percentage points: 61 percent to 71 percent. Only 54 percent of
eligible latinos and 49 percent of eligible Asian-Americans report being
registered.
- In voting, non-Hispanic blacks also lagged behind non-Hispanic whites
by 10 percentage points: 51 percent to 42 percent. Approximately 32
percent of eligible latino and Asian-American citizens voted.
- If all eligible minorities had voted at the rate of non-Hispanic
whites, more than 7.5 million additional Americans would have
participated in the 2006 elections.
http://projectvote.org/fileadmin/ProjectVote/Publications/
Representational_Bias_report/Table_1a.pdf
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