YOU PEOPLE ARE TOO STUPID!

Americans are hopelessly stupid. This is true of all human beings, of course, but I live in America and I’m stuck with the consequences of American stupidity more than just about any other. So it’s American stupidity rather than, say, Portugese or Australian stupidity that chaps my ass. And this is some stupid shit:

• More than 7 out of 10 in the U.S. say the economy is mired in recession, and the country is conflicted over how to balance concerns over joblessness and the federal budget deficit, according to a Bloomberg National Poll.
• The public’s perception that the U.S. is still in recession contradicts data showing the economy has been growing for a year, with the Commerce Department reporting GDP rising at 2.7 percent annual rate in the first quarter.
• The public’s perception is gloomier than some recent economic data: The U.S. economy has been growing for a year, first-quarter corporate profits were up more than 33 percent from a year earlier….
• The public gives the Obama administration little credit for its tax cuts, which according to the Washington-based Tax Policy Center lowered federal income taxes for 93 percent of filers. Asked to compare their federal income taxes to what they paid during George W. Bush’s presidency, only 7 percent say they are lower; 20 percent say their taxes are higher and 65 percent say they are about the same.

And maybe stupidest of all, blaming Obama for a deficit that was created out of record surpluses by Geo W Bush and his criminal cohort. It was Bush who cut taxes for the rich, started two wars, and let the stock market and economy go to hell in a handbasket. During most of that time, Barack Obama wasn’t even in Congress, and yet somehow this is all his fault?

You people are too stupid to live.

Argh. Sadly, facts are meaningless things. Between the hard times people are living through, the fear of being ground-up by the economy, and the relentless drone of inaccurate “news” reports that echo right-wing talking points, I am not the least bit surprised that people think it was Obama who let the banks fail, invaded Afghanistan and personally ordered BP to flood the Gulf of Mexico with oil. I wish Americans would get their facts right, but that’s not going to happen. We are going to continue to have elections being decided by the stupid and the scared-shitless.

Of course, if the smart and courageous would step forward and lead us, we might get different results. But the smart and courageous are too tiny, and probably too marginalized, to be effective. There are some in Congress, but very few in the Senate. At a time when a second stimulus would boost both the economy and the Dems’ election chances, timidity and foolishness block that possibility. So the economy will stutter along, stupid people will elect Republicans who will work even harder to make sure our government becomes even less effective, and stupidity will prove its own point:

We get the government we deserve.