Detroit

[Zelot]

From my point of view (which is located half a aworld away from Detroit), poor administration IS the one to blame, with political system as an extension. From what I read, those problems acumulated for quite some time, and Detroit officials were trying to cover problems up, without any long-term solution. But so did the rest of the structure, it sounds quite scary that Motor-city (one of the symbols of the America) could come to such end, while EVERY person looked other way. When Obama claimed to have "saved" Detroit, did ANYONE, democrat or republican bothered to invistigate the problem? City was in not much better condition back then, but nobody cared.
That's how American situation looks to the outside world. If it was democrats who lead Detrit to its downfall, then why was it so quite? Why weren't there Republican politicans on national TV screaming about Detroit disaster? I always thought American democracy worked the following way: when one screws up, second begins screaming about it, so first can't ignore it. But now, to the outside observer, it looks that both democrat and repubican parties are VERY alike, while the president is there just for the show. No matter who is the ruling one, REAL decisions will be very much the same. To the outside, both parties are bread and circuses, just with different words.

Unfortunately, Oorn, over the last several years we've also had a political shift in this country by our national media as well. It's not that they haven't, at least since the 60's, had a liberal bias in general - they have. It's just that within the last 15 or so it's become blatant, and since 2008 the relationship between our national media and the national administration is downright incestuous.

You've got the president of CBS news is the brother of the Obama National Security Advisor, the sister of the president of ABC news is Obama's Special Assistant on National Security Affairs, and CNN's Special Bureau Chief is the wife of Hillary Clinton deputy.

If the media has already decided that they're not going to actually air anything that the politicians say if it could hurt the administration, the politicians can't get it out there in the first place even if they wanted to. That's why things coming off the internet now - and honestly, seeing British and other overseas media reporting - is so vital now. You guys over there aren't blinded and can still report what's happening here.

Detroit being in trouble isn't something that happened within the span of a couple of years (like what happened in Harrisburg, as Zelot pointed out). It happened over the course of 50 years of one party rule. We're seeing something similar happen in Chicago now, and thus the entire state of Illinois. It's in the stages of failing, and within another 20 years could be in the same situation as Detroit.

Yea, it was so hard for the right to use the media when they were in the White House. Right? How many of Obama's advisers have been convicted of a felony for colluding with the media to blow the cover of a CIA operative? Oh yea, that kind of media bias doesn't count. Only those that support your ideas. Evil lefty media bias...even though the most popular 24 hour cable news channel is most decidedly not left, and not center. But then again I suppose you think FOX News is "Fair and Balanced"? Yet again, this suppression that these types of things only happen on the left. The true sign of an ideologue.

And just to make clear, for you and anyone else that thinks that I am some flaming lefty. I think the Obama administration has been one of the worst in modern history, outpaced only by the one directly before it. But I try to look at any issue from all sides. I read both "Left" and "Right" sources in both the United States (where I am from) and Israel (where I live) to get the fullest view of the information. I believe in a Hagelian (and not Chuck Hagel) system of understanding, realizing that if I take the views from both sides of the spectrum, that the truth will fall somewhere in the middle. I argue with those on the Right when I think they are wrong (or not even wrong, but simplifying too much, which is the case here) as well as those on the Left for the same thing. The problem I have found, is those on the Right and the Left never seem to be able to see past their ideology.

---