If you're not angry, you're not a PATRIOT...

[kentuck]

Not that the election of 2000 wasn't enough to make any true American angry, but there have been many more reasons. We now have more than 400 young troops dead and thousands wounded, many without arms and legs. And they are dead because the pResident sent them to war on premises that have yet to be proven. The capture of Saddam did not justify nor validate the original premises for going to war.

Never mind that we were sitting pretty with a $250 billion surplus and a projected $5 trillion surplus in the future. Can you imagine all the good things we good have done for this country and the world with that money? Well, it's all gone. Thanks Dubya.

Not only is it all gone, but it has been replace with annual deficits of $300-400 billion per year. That amounts to a $trillion dollars of debt every 3-4 years. How long do you think we can survive with that type of spending? And will you be "angry" when they cut off Mom and Dad's Medicare or charge so much they can't afford it, just so we can balance the economic and political future of the Republican Party?

If you're not angry, I will not say that you are a "freeper", but I will have my suspicions. I will say again, if you are not angry with the direction this bunch has taken our country, then you are not a "patriot". Or else, you are living in a hole and do not see the reality that is lapping at your feet.

[JohnKleeb]

1. I am more so sad

than angry. :shrug:

[Beam Me Up]

2. I am ANGRY, I am SAD, I am RESOLUTE n/t

[Mountainman]

3. Remember this?

Howard Beale in the movie "Network," shouting from the windows, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Howard: I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's no one anywhere that seems to know what to do with us. Now into it. We know the air is unfit to breathe, our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had 15 homicides and 63 violent crimes as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad. Worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy so we don't go out anymore. We sit in a house as slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster, and TV, and my steel belted radials and I won't say anything." Well I'm not going to leave you alone. I want you to get mad. I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot. I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crying in the streets. All I know is first you've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm a human being. God Dammit, my life has value." So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" I want you to get up right now. Get up. Go to your windows, open your windows, and stick your head out, and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Things have got to change my friends. You've got to get mad. You've got to say, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open your window, stick your head out and yell, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

[maggrwaggr]

12. Nice. What's disturbing is we have moved so far beyond Network

I never thought I'd live to see the day when Network would be a reality. I thought it was a cautionary tale.

But now we've gone light years beyond it. It's truly frightening.

[Skittles]

4. I ABSOLUTELY AGREE, KENTUCK

Bush Inc is trashing America and now our troops are getting killed daily. It is sickening and I really RESENT idiots who wonder WHY THE LEFT IS SO ANGRY. Look around, you goose-stepping MORONS.

[stopbush]

6. Yes, if this was all happening under a Dem administration

we'd see the exact opposite reaction.

It all comes down to the media protecting bush and repuke policies. End of story.

[mmm]

5. Funny thing...

I remember Nixon. Didn't like him but he rarely made me angry.
I recall Reagan. Didn't like him and he made me angry once a month
or so. Likewise with GW senior.

Dubya makes me angry every single day. The guy is awesome
in his relentless pursuit of evil and inequity.
I have never seen so many scared, angry people as I see today.
Unfortunately, they are, for the most part... scared, angry
and SILENT. It is the silence that must stop.

[Selwynn]

7. I'm not angry --

I'm too tired to sit around being pissed off all the time. I am heartbroken, however. That heart brokenness is not turning into the despair of inaction, but rather a resolute commitment to work for positive change.

But anger isn't the emotion to describe how I feel. Thanks though, for making sweeping all or nothing statements and decreeing that anyone who doesn't feel like you do must be a freeper and not a "patriot." I appreciate that.

I believe that anger is at best only a transitional emotion. Anger has a tendency to become self-serving. It's easier to just feel "good" about being pissed off and bitter all the time than it is to actually commit to real action and involvement. Anger is like an opiate for the disenfranchised. And anger can quickly become a substitute for actually doing anything positive or constructive. There is a strange phenomenon that happens where it becomes more important just to be pissed off all the time and have a traget group of people to be angry at and subject matter to rail about than it does to actually contribute meaningfully to a better society.

People get up, rant and rave all day about how everyone who doesn't think exactly like them sucks and how the country's going to hell in a hand basket, then then go to bed that night thinking, "wow I am a great patriot because I'm so pissed off about things." Never mind the fact that they've never lifted one finger to do anything proactive or positive to try and make things better.

Anger needs to be turned into determination, conviction, and a passionate commitment to social justice and real democracy. We've spent the last four years being angry. We've ranted and raved about the elections, ranted and raved about the administration, every time something negative has happened we've ranted and raved about how horrible these people are and how mad it makes us. We also have nothing to show for it. I'm very weary of idle rhetoric about being pissed off about everything. I am very ready for a commitment to the fight for positive change. Our anger needs to be transformed into positive action, hopeful action, action with a message that says a brighter more just, more free, more peaceful tomorrow is possible, and by god we're committed to it.

I wish that we could stop doing nothing but making angry tirades against every one and every thing we hate, and instead present the public with a strong, cohesive and united message about what we are actually FOR and why it is so much better than the alternative.

Yes, anger can have a place. But it loses its place of value when anger just becomes about feeling good about being angry, and anger for anger's sake. I was angry, and I'm not anymore - I remain heartbroken by the unnecessary suffering cause here and around the world by this administration, but more than anything else the best word to describe how I feel is committed and resolute - committed to change and resolute in my choices to act and not sit on the sidelines.

Sorry if you feel you have the right to "decree" that my feelings are unpatriotic or freeperish... but feel free to imagine exactly where I think you can stick your judgment and rhetoric.

[kentuck]

10. I don't know how effective you will be with your "heartbrokenness"...

But I disagree with you that anger is somehow a negative emotion that is a substitute for doing something else. However, the statement must have made you "angry" or else you would not feel the need to tell people where to "stick" it. :)

[Name removed]

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[Name removed]

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[Selwynn]

31. Much more effective than just being pissed off for its own sake.

Like I've said, I don't think anger in terms of politics is the "ends." It is at best the means to certain ends. What those ends actually are really depends on which direction we choose to transform our anger. It is more important to have an actual plan than it is to just sit around feeling good about how angry you are. A certain kind of Anger which is really better defined as indignance toward injustice and an unwillingness to be complacent in inhumanity that moves us toward the better and more noble parts of human existence - compassion, commitment, determination to pursue justice and equality, strength, etc. -- is certainly a good thing. It's good in that context because it becomes something else.

What I see all too often is another kind of anger. An "anger" that really doesn't have a point, other than that it feels good to be angry. Oh sure the subject of anger can be clearly defined as evil Bush and his horrible actions, but instead of being transformed into positive action, it is deformed into hate. Instead of being about uniting the country for the common good, or standing up for a positive alternative to Bush, this kind of hateful, self-serving anger becomes about dividing the country into do groups -- "us" which means everyone who thinks exactly the same as we do, and "them" which means everyone who holds a different point of view.

Pretty soon, we lose any larger meaning or purpose other than being the people who hate everyone else who disagrees with us. Only in our psychosis we believe that its OK that we hate everyone else, even though we hypocritically mock "freepers" and right wing fundamentalists for doing the same thing. But no, its OK when "we" do it, because we're "right."

Anger is a gift, but it is also a responsibility. We have the responsibility to wield anger well, and not squander the gift by allowing it to rot into degenerative hate, intolerance, close-mindedness, vindictiveness, bitterness, etc. When Anger is less about hate, and more about being unable to stand the injustice you see all around you a second longer, then it has the possibility of being transformed into something hopeful, something good, something that may contribute to a better tomorrow.

So, when I say I'm not angry about politics, what I really mean is that I don't foster an attitude of hate, nor see the battle as righteous us vs. evil them. I recognize that life is a lot more complicated then those kinds of pitiful false divisions. I'm interested in supporting the principles I believe in in the candidates I vote for, contributing to a long and healthy public debate on the issues in this country, an ongoing committed to continue putting the human rights and social justice issues of home and abroad front and center in public like, speaking out against the things I disagree with, and inviting and encouraging other people who disagree with me to have a discussion. I'm not interested in anger that degenerates into bitterness and hate. I am interested in anger that is transformed into openness and a commitment to the cause of unity and hope.

So my outrage over the tragedies of the last year has turned into a determined and resolute commitment to work for good in life.

I have a quote of my own that I like: "Do not return evil with evil, but overcome evil with good."

[Voltaire99]

8. You can make your argument...

...without this "true American" and "patriot" baiting. That's the tactic that the right wing is using, and we are rightly upset when they employ such McCarthyism.

On the facts, I agree with you. And I am angry. But it will not help us to go challenging the loyalty of our fellow Americans; they have every right to think and vote differently.

[opihimoimoi]

9. The ones most to go with this current Admins is the ones on TOP

of the Economic/Social Scale and or, the ones profiting from the war / Pub machine.

[kentuck]

11. Voltaire, it was not necessarily for your consumption but....

those folks that are trying to minimize Dr Dean and the Democrats for being "angry" and somehow not up to their standards of patriotism. Sorry that you felt included in that bunch and I hope you see what they are trying to do with their labels and how they are trying o minimize our candidates. It does not help our case to agree with them...just my opinion.

[dawn]

13. I'm not angry. I'm not pleased, of course, but not angry.

Anger is a self-defeating emotion, and is too prevalent in the discourse of today's society.

I am displeased with Bush's policies, and the mass ignorance pervading over our society, but I will not let the extreme right wing drag me into anger and hatred.

[kentuck]

14. Displeased ?

Is that the strongest emotion you can muster for this incompetent moron in the WH?

[proud patriot]

15. Welp ...That's going on my car this week

If you're not angry you're not a patriot

Wonder if that will raise some hackles :evilgrin:

[Selwynn]

19. Good - let's go around questioning others patriotism....

wait... isn't that the REPUBLICAN's job?

[proud patriot]

25. I already have a different one on my car

"patriots support troops not bush"

I see little difference .

Perhaps after thinking about it I'll change my mind
but it's not likely .

Patriots who love this nation are angry at what's being
done to it and it's people .

[Terwilliger]

16. if you're not angry, you're not paying attention

a cliche but true

[TahitiNut]

18. Behold, the power of ...

... Prozac! :silly:

[laruemtt]

21. i am angry

bordering on raging. and i'm scared - still working on that one, without a whole lot of luck, as it's counterproductive.

[kentuck]

22. As another poster so eloquently stated...

anger must be used constructively or else it is nothing but a negative emotion. :)

[Q]

23. I understand what you're trying to say...

...but in many instances anger has turned to depression and burnout. We've been pissed at BushCo* for three long years now and we're starting to get the point that no 'hero' is going to step forward and save the day. The Dems who HAVE been brave enough to join us in our campaign against Bush* have been ripped of their voices and any chance to have a seat at the table of power.

- In plain words: we're on our own. It's not the Democratic party versus the Republican party. It's the rich versus the poor. The corporations against the worker. The insurance companies against the sick.

- But you're right in the sense that those who dearly love their country won't give up their anger to apathy. Many on the left have already given up and accepted their 'fate' of being a slave to the totalitarian forces now in control of our government.

- We have become the German people under Hitler...knowing something is very wrong but feeling powerless to stop it.

[kentuck]

24. It was the C-SPAN question of the day...

They are doing their damnedest to paint the Democrats as the Party of "anger". Do we not need to respond? I think the topic title is an excellent response. :) But I see where you're coming from abut the burnout, etc. As Selwyn so noted, anger needs to lead to something constructive, otherwise it is a negative. However, I am searching for a response to the Republican charge of Democratic anger. Hell yeah, I'm angry. Who wouldn't be? A Republican?

[Q]

26. It's as if retrograde amnesia has swept the Republican party...

...and they don't remember their OWN ANGER in the 80s and 90s. They didn't accept Clinton as 'their' president and were ANGRY that he was elected instead of Poppy Bush. They were so ANGRY they they went on a witch hunt to destroy an ELECTED president. They were so ANGRY that they invented crimes and made allegations that they were never able to prove.

- You'll never find a 'response' to their anger because it's irrational and based on bigotry and a sense of superiority.

[kentuck]

28. You are right Q...their anger is irrational...

Does that mean there is no rational approach?

[Q]

30. Could be that there's no rational approach...

...when the irrational ones are in power. No one seems to give a shit that Bush* is the most corrupt president* in US history. It seems they've willingly traded their freedom for the illusion of security.

[Killarney]

27. I agree! Anger is a gift... a tool to create change.

Change never came from complacency. Change comes from anger.

Yeah, I'm angry and I'm not ashamed to be angry. The media tries to portray those who are angry as foolish. Not so. Those who are angry are the ones that understand. I don't know how anyone who understands what has gone on in the past three years can not be angry.

Anger fuels people in a way that not many other emotions can. I know my anger is helping me in my cause this year. :)

[horsesense]

29. I'm in a rage

I am a mild mannered fellow. I usually like some of the things my government does, but dislike a fair number of others. Now I find myself outraged at least once a day by bush.

What I cannot understand is the scarsity of rage in our country. I remember the Viet Nam War years. We marched in the streets, the president was afraid to speak outside an army base.

We still have a democracy, lets work to keep it going.