talent and vocal quality reigned, not autotune and gimmicks. gaga reminds us that artists used to be unabashed performers and theatrical entertainers. all that retromania takes us back to a time where america was great and strong and simpler, when china wasn t about to become our boss. nostalgia, of course, is always 20/20, and these lookbacks rarely include the full complexity and true confusion of their time, except for mad men, which is a peerless show, because the workplace gender inequalities of the era are a consistent subtheme. as simmon reynolds writes, is nostalgia stopping our culture s ability to surge forward, or are we nostalgic because our culture as already stopped moving forward? i think i can answer some of your questions. i have that degree of confidence right now. bring it. so i believe that the economic incentives of the production houses to monetize
america doesn t like you. 15% approve. nobody can explain who that 15% is. paired against the president in his own approval rating, a little better, 39%. hardly a reason to write to grandma, or mom, or your wife, or anybody else. the numbers stink. and despite the frustration, however, and this, i think, is the most curious aspect, understanding polls are screwy and you know how the question was asked and all that, despite all this, only 34% of those polled, whoever they are and whatever the poll was, but you get my point, want a third party. want an alternative to these two parties who continue to show us lousy solutions too often to significant problems, both of whom are dependent on campaign financing that prevents them ever from giving us the true debate we deserve, from everything from energy to health care to banking, and yet voters are even less likely to vote for an independent candidate than they are a democrat or a republican. so why are americans so dedicated to a
whatever the poll was, but you get my point, want a third party. want an alternative to these two parties who continue to show us lousy solutions too often to significant problems, both of whom are dependent on campaign financing that prevents them ever from giving us the true debate we deserve, from everything from energy to health care to banking, and yet voters are even less likely to vote for an independent candidate than they are a democrat or a republican. so why are americans so dedicated to a two-party system they revile and reject alternatives? with us today, two men who ran both of the political parties at one time or another. former democratic party leader, ed rendell, also an msnbc news political analyst and former governor. and former republican party leader, michael steele, also an msnbc analyst and both, quite candidly, are gentleman whose company i enjoy and i m happy to have both of you guys here. i ll begin with you, michael. is it a is this a human psycho