Mr. Olbermann, you asked, 'How do we raise the temperature of anger to stop this war?' (I am paraphrasing)
You want the average person to stand up or poke his/her head out the window and say, "I AM NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!"
Well, first of all, lets look at this country through the eyes of the folks who run it. NO! Not the CEOs. Not the rich bitches. They are too few in number and percentage wise, they mean nothing. Individually, they have billions but, the ones that work collectively, we are talking worth hundreds of trillions of dollars, are the folks who go to work every day. The folks who have dirty finger nails. These folks look at a person's nails and decide whether they can be trusted by the shape and strength of their hands. Hillary, Bush, Cheney, McCain and all of those types, have the cleanest nails. Just like a new born baby. The hands are soft supple and smooth. You can't trust folks like that. They haven't seen work - perhaps, ever! They can't even get a cup of coffee out of a coffee machine, or know what a product scanner is, or what it's like to work with a bank to buy a house....
You ask, "...with the economy dumping, food prices and fuel going up, and the fact that the middle class salaries have been flat for 20 years, why aren't the American people angry enough to say, 'STOP!' or 'GET OUT OF THE WHITE HOUSE!' or even, 'OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!'" Well, it has a lot to do with the bare essentials of survival.
All of the politics, all the stuff on Tv is still too nebulous for the vast majority of folks... you must get to the... guy who bought a GM truck in 2004 because it peeked his basic instinct to show how virile he was. Now, the thing is costing him dearly to go to work which, is 20 miles away. He sells it and steps down to a Toyota truck - just like the one he had and sold and bought "up" to Chevy SUV circa 1995 or 2000. And after that, he thought he was doing the DEAL when he up graded to that GM, four door monster that burned $100s on gas.... This guy just can't make it. What he thinks is heaven is hell.
He has been working at a job that has been cutting his health benefits, his retirement, and if he is Union, his union seems to be sleeping with the company CEO. His salary hasn't gone up - and adjusted for inflation - in 20 years. He needs dental work and can't afford that. He's divorced and his wife/wives are not doing any better because they are women in the workforce. They are secretaries or dental hygienists with kids who think they need the clothes to make them the "shit!"
He bought himself a tiny house in 2004 and the ARM is going to turn around and smack him good - he can't afford to buy dinner and he is eating the wiggly stuff in the back of the fridge.
AND you want him angry at BUSH!!!????
Yeah, he is, but, he has been beaten into the ground so long he knows he does not have a voice, alone. Trying to make it through a year and save something so retirement can mean a place by the river to fish seems like an ever receding dream. He could loose his house. He could loose his job. His family is all broken into bits. And he gets up at 3 am and comes home to his second job at 3 p.m. just to pay the credit cards that he used to make his house livable and to take that trip with is daughter with her private school - and then,...she could have cared less.
So, he owes $40,000.00 for the war. What the hell does that mean? He is about to loose his house which at 2004 was $370,000.00, now its worth $250,000.00 and the banks want their money NOW. His credit card company wants their money, NOW! His wife/wives want their child support NOW. The Internal Revenue wants its share of his pay check NOW!..... He's got back taxes.... What in the world do YOU want????
It's very much like having cancer. You go through the radiation therapy knowing full well radiation therapy will give you another type of cancer, but it may get rid of the cancer that is killing you, NOW. You are dammed at both ends.
You want anger? When these poor folks who carry the solvency of this nation on their backs, decide that all of their misery - and I mean MISERY - is from that asshole in the white house, the senate and the congress, and the crappy media, and when they have no other outlet... then there will be rioting in the streets because, they won't care if they get shot. And that's how they are thinking. They won't care if they are shot.....