Reply #41: We've become expert

[skepticscott]

at electing politicians who will tell us what we want to hear, either that things are just fine, or that if they're not, they soon will be again. We roundly reject candidates for public office who will speak obvious, but uncomfortable truths, who will warn us of genuine hard times, or call for shared sacrifice in order to try to avoid them. We want to be told that the way of life we have become comfortable with can continue as long as we believe that we're the greatest nation that has ever existed on the face of the earth, and that as long as we're loyal Americans, things can never get that bad for us.

Of course, some in this country are more "we" than others, and your message, unfortunately, goes to people who are better informed and more in touch with hard reality than most. As others on this thread have pointed out, a sad number of Americans are woefully underinformed and unconcerned about politics, history, economics, science, or anything else beyond the latest reality TV gossip and their Facebook account. This country is headed towards a cliff on a high-speed train, and we will probably not even apply the brakes until we're already over the edge...