The last Newsweek poll taken before the presidential election shows that 86 percent of adult Americans are “dissatisfied with the way things are going” in this country. That is a shocking number, but what‘s even more incredible is that 10 percent of American citizens continue to be “satisfied.” Consider the implication: more than 22 million men and women think the country is on the right track.
Who are these people? One in 10 Americans can‘t be Bush relatives. Do these 10 percenters live in caves without TV, magazines, newspapers and the Internet–yet somehow still have a phone so that pollsters can reach them? And if you lived in a cave without HBO, would you really be “satisfied”?
Misunderstanding The obvious guess is that the responders misunderstood the question. So maybe a few old ladies thought the nice Newsweek pollster said before the election, “Are you sad it‘s tied?” And they said, “Yes,” because they thought their guy had a big lead. If that‘s true, Gallup had the same problem: their poll found 9 percent were satisfied. Meanwhile people are selling their gold teeth and losing their homes. But is it good for America?
Maybe the people who are satisfied just can‘t admit to what‘s happening. Seriously, who could have predicted that giving out loans like Halloween candy to people with mini-salaries to buy minimansions—who then used their home equity to buy gas-guzzling Hummers—would ever backfire? “Satisfied” is not a puny word. It‘s what you‘d say after a great steak dinner or when your team wins theWorld Series. So perhaps these people are just eternal optimists. We‘ve had worse It‘s easy to keep bloviating about these mysterious 10 percenters from afar. But in these heady times, when mainstream journalism strides like a colossus across the American landscape, Newsweek spared no expense or effort to get the real story–so a block away from the White House it talked to some tourists.
One of the first people was “satisfied,” but she‘d also been drinking that afternoon and wouldn‘t let Newsweek use her name. A really sweet couple was satisfied with the way things are going in America, because they live in Canada. Warren DeSmidt, 65, of Cedarburg, Wis., quite convincingly said he thinks the economic mess is just “a bump in the road ... and order will be restored.” Lynda Race, of Arlington, Va., who is “almost 50,” boiled it down: “I love America. Where else would you be more satisfied?” By the end of the interviews, Newsweek agreed with their criticisms of the media. The Newsweek poll‘s 10 percenters are optimists who see this financial-core meltdown as “just a flesh wound,” like the Black Knight in Monty Python‘s “Holy Grail” who keeps fighting after King Arthur lops off his arms and legs. “I‘ve had worse,” the knight says. So has the United States, and maybe that‘s what the “satisfieds” understand that the rest of us don‘t.
Newsweek
O autorovi| Stránku připravila Marta Pelechová
