Listening to America - the chatter of my fellow citizens

Over the last two days as we were going across the country, I listened to what my fellow citizens are thinking and talking about. It was a revealing exercise. In Denver we spent a couple of hours with a woman from Boulder named Lisa. She is a hair dresser and is very pessimistic about the country. She hates the war and the economy. I began to engage her about the economy - it is really not that bad - compared to the economy of the last year of Jimmy Carter (the worst president of the 20th Century) inflation was out of control, so was unemployment and so were interest rates - but that does not matter. What looks like a minor recession has become Hoover II (no matter whether the analogy to the 1930s is inaccurate). The war, despite the evidence from the front, is considered a failure.

Today as we were leaving Yankee stadium I heard a more conservative dad talking to his son. He seemed to have a lot of information about the current situation in Iraq and also in the economy - or at least seemed to be a bit more optimistic. But his manner turned me off - he kept asking "Do you know what I mean?" - If he was not clear why is the question useful and if he is same question.

I was brought back to Fareed Zakararia's book discussed a few days ago. He worries about the anxiety of the American people and so do I. We've got some significant problems in the country, including a not very good picture of where we are on some major issues - but across the spectrum we are worried. Anxiety does not help us make better decisions, it makes us think only about change (without a comment about who I favor in the presidential sweepstakes) not about solutions. That is a danger for the American spirit.