Comments for Hello America: Meet "Jack the Plumber" and "Don the VP" at http://www.socialsphere.com , comment 1 to 3 out of 3 comments http://www.socialsphere.com Sat, 31 Jul 2010 21:49:04 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.3 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogs/36-johns-blog/395-jack-the-plumber-meet-don-the-vp.html#comment-119 The anger is real, as is the vulnerability. It's tough to be Don right now. Where is a 45 year-old Senior VP in construction going to go if he gets laid off? At best he going going to be seeing, for the first time ever, a decline in his life style. My daughter just came back from a friends house in the western burbs, distraught because her friend is moving. Both parents have lost their jobs. What can government do for them? - Richard Berkowitz Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:20:24 +0100 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogs/36-johns-blog/395-jack-the-plumber-meet-don-the-vp.html#comment-118 Today, I will spend an entire afternoon with "Dons" while pulling double hockey duty for my sons in Concord. My conversations with these gentlemen (and they are gentlemen who care about their families and towns) have always been civil. There is, however, a seething anger just below the surface that they need to make an effort to contain. Get them in an unguarded moment and it pours out. Many of them feel cheated out of a life that was designed to protect them from having to really compete. They grew up in nice towns, had two nice parents, went to nice schools, got their first jobs from their parent's nice friends, and were developing nice careers. As the economy has thinned the herds of financial middle managers and under performing software salesmen, some of the Sudbury "Dons" have turned their anger toward President Obama and Governor Patrick. Why? They want to "raise Ronald Reagan from the dead" because he was a great President that "didn't tell us what to do like the democrats." Ronald Reagan, in their view didn't "take my (their) money" and he wanted them to "do well". The economy is beginning to hum again. The top flight employee and top level management in their former companies never lost their jobs and are doing quite well. The economic meltdown revealed their mediocrity and they are harkening back to a mythical Presidency that was based on telling the American middle manager "vote with us and maybe one day you will be like us." - Sean Curran Sat, 06 Feb 2010 04:58:28 +0100 http://www.socialsphere.com/blogs/36-johns-blog/395-jack-the-plumber-meet-don-the-vp.html#comment-117 "I am not optimistic about youth participation " I am nowhere near the data, but from way out here in STL, it sure seemed to me like the vaunted Obama youth vote was not going to show up for the MA special election. It would be interesting to understand why the youth vote, which came out in force (finally) in November 2008, has so quickly lost interest in the process and gone back to its more typical under-participation. - Kent Bettale Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:26:51 +0100