Angry Voters

The news media have made much about American voters being “angry.”

I’m a voter. But I’m not angry. I’m not happy with the state of the country, nor am I unhappy. Is everything working the way I’d like it to work? No, but I don’t expect to get my way in every matter. No one should expect that.

Conservatives are unhappy with Obama. Liberals are unhappy with Obama. If both ends of the political spectrum are disappointed, Obama must be doing something right. Compromise is essential in politics, and compromise means not having everything your way.

Let’s look at a few things that we can be upbeat about:

• We’ve had 79 straight months of economic expansion.
• The budget deficit has been reduced by 3/4.
• We saved the automobile industry.
• We saved the banking industry.
• We averted a depression.
• We have a health care law that is working to lower costs.
• We have two women on the Supreme Court.
• Osama bin Laden is dead.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a barometer of the stock market, has climbed from 6,547 on March 9, 2009, to over 18,000 before falling back to 16,640 at closing on February 26.
• The unemployment rate has fallen from 10.2 to 4.9 percent.
• Gas and heating oil prices have fallen.

Do I credit Obama for every one of these things? No. Nor do I fault him because things are not better than they are.

Do I feel like my country or my way of life is under attack? No. Is my country changing in ways I don’t always like? Maybe. But change is inevitable. Change will always happen. Why be upset when you discover that your hands can’t hold back the tide?