Friday, October 24, 2014

October, 2014, Part 2, By the Numbers: the Numbers Say, "Hell In A Hand Basket"

Every month or so we do a regular feature in this blog called “by the numbers.” Rather than believe the drivel and spin that the American political class generates to make themselves look better than their actual performance in office, we go beneath the headlines to look at what is really going on by looking at the underlying numbers of our reality.

I once worked for a boss whose favorite saying was: “there is nothing more devastating to an opinion than the proper number.” that is what we do in this numbers series and what we will try to do today.

Today is the second update in the “by the numbers” theme. The first update ran yesterday.

1) I make a point never to quote news, data, or reports from Fox News, not because they are liars or wrong but because my liberal friends and family automatically assume what they are saying or reporting has to be wrong solely because it is Fox reporting it. However, I will make an exception to our first discussion point today since it is a Fox poll whose findings generally conform to what Americans are telling Gallup, Pew, and other reputable polling organizations.

A recent Fox poll asked a simple question with simple answer options: given the realities going on around the world, poll participants were asked if “everything will be fine,” or if it’s going “to hell in a hand basket.” A whopping 58% chose the “hell in a hand basket” option while only 32% said “everything will be fine.”

Why would Americans be so pessimistic about the future? Consider what is going on around the world and how the current Presidential administration has failed to react to these crises or show any ability to formulate responses to these crises:
  • China recently became the largest economy in the world, is quickly building up their military, and threatening the sovereign and economic interests of countries throughout Southeast Asia.
  • Russia has annexed parts of the Ukraine with no one or no country having any kind of viable response that would discourage further Russia land grabs in the future.
  • The Israelis and Palestinians just recently stopped fighting each other, not because they reached a peace agreement but because they got too tired to carry on.
  • ISIS, the worst terror organization in the history of the world, is marching across broad stretches of land in the Mideast and threatening to export their terror agenda around the world.
  • Libya is a failed state with different mobs and terror organizations carving up the country while being bombed by planes from Egypt and the United Emirates.
  • Besides the obvious problems with the plague of Ebola in western Africa, different Islamic terror groups are weakening governments throughout the entire African continent.
  • In Central and South America, political corruption and drug cartels are overwhelming governments, resulting in mass migrations up to the southern border of the united States and those many resultant problems. 
  • Many European countries are all facing mountains of debt, high unemployment, and furious citizens who are finding out that government promises cannot be financially met. 
  • In addition to an economic crisis, swiftly growing Muslim populations throughout Europe add to domestic stress and conflicts.
  • Domestically, the Obama administration has turned into a beehive of scandals. Fast and Furious resulted in the death of a U.S. border agent and at least dozens of innocent Mexican citizens. Obama has turned the IRS into his own personal political harassment machine, stifling the First Amendment rights of millions of Americans. His administration abandoned over two dozen Americans in Benghazi, his administration has been the least transparent of any recent Presidency, he illegally exchanged five high value target prisoners for an Army deserter, etc., etc., etc.
  • His economic policies have increased the number of Americans requiring food assistance by almost fifty percent, have allowed record high unemployment rates for record lengths of time, have added over five TRILLION dollars to the national debt, and wasted over $800 billion on an economic stimulus program that failed miserably.
  • He has violated the Constitution and existing law so many times that he should have been impeached and removed from office any number of times over.
  • Rather healing and narrowing the racial divide in this country, he has remained silently and thus, implicitly encouraging administration officials, Congressional allies, and others to play the race card against any American who dares to have a different opinion than this President, resulting in a widening and increasing bitterness of the country’s racial divide.
  • Rather than fixing government so that basic government functions are provided in an efficient and effective manner, government waste, corruption and outright government fraud has grown and expanded, at a terrible cost to taxpayer wealth, under Obama.
  • Obama helped develop and deploy the worst piece of legislation ever put forth from Washington, Obama Care. This legislation that will add over a TRILLION dollars to our national debt, has already caused 5-6 million Americans to lose access to their preferred doctors, hospitals, and medicines, narrowed consumer choice for their medical needs, created and raised taxes that affect every American, exposed millions of Americans to easier identity theft via a botched data systems approach and deployment, and caused a myriad of other problems while never having a chance to reduce medical costs in this country.
  • Obama put forth lofty promises that ended up being empty actions or outright lies, lies that are too numerous to review here.
I wonder not why 58% of the country think the country is going to hell in a hand basket, I worry why far more Americans do not see the reality of the hand basket.

But the Fox poll is not the only poll and numbers crying out about the bad direction and karma of the country. Consider some recent results from a Politico poll:
  • In a recent Politico poll that was done the hardest-fought states and Congressional districts of the year, two-thirds of likely voters polled felt that the United States has lost control of its major challenges. 
  • Only 36% of those polled felt that the country is “in a good position to meet its economic and national security” hurdles.
  • A whopping 84% of voters say that ISIS is a “serious” threat to the U.S. homeland with 43% saying it poses a “very serious” threat. Just 12% said ISIS is not a serious concern.
  • Most voters believe their health care costs will rise under Obama Care.
  • 57% feel they their personal health care costs will increase, while only 7% said they will decrease. 41% of Americans want the whole legislation repealed.
  • 38% of those polled said George W. Bush was better at operating the Federal government while 35% said Obama did a better job. A quarter of respondents said the two men were equally competent, or incompetent, depending if you are an optimist or pessimist..
  • Only 22% of poll respondents said they had a lot of confidence that the government is doing everything it can to contain the contagious disease. 39% they had some confidence, while a third said they had little or no confidence. 
Two different polls from news organizations, two different sets of numbers that usually reside on different ends of the political spectrum but the same basic set of numerical results and conclusions: we are not confident about the future and we are certainly not confident that the current members of the political class are able to contend with and resolve those issues. 

The numbers do not lie and either do the conclusions they point us to. “Hell in a hand basket” might be a crude description of the nation’s mood but it is an accurate one, the numbers do not lie even if Obama and most of the Washington political class do. When Fox and Politico agree, you know that their numbers and findings are probalby accurate.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w




No comments: