Wednesday, May 12, 2010

A Complacent Capital

Matthew Yglesias » A Complacent Capital:
If you had asked me in 2006 about the political reaction to 10 percent unemployment I would have said “total freak out!” Heck, as late as 2009 I would have said “total freak out.” After all, the Obama administration was projecting 10 percent unemployment as a nightmare scenario in which there was no policy response to rising unemployment. The specter of 10 was supposed to prompt a freak-out. Well now here we are at 10 percent unemployment and there’s an eerie calm.


Pollster.com: The Rapidly-Changing Issue Environment and What It Means
We are in one of the longest sustained periods of voter dissatisfaction in modern history. Except for a few weeks in the spring of 2009, perceptions of the direction of the country have been strongly "wrong track" since the invasion of Iraq in 2003. That is seven years. The only comparable period is 1973-1983. This helps explain why we are in the middle of a third successive "change" election. Moreover, trust in government to do what is right is at an all-time low. In a Pew Research Center poll last month, less than one fourth (22%) of respondents said they could trust government most of the time. This is one of the lowest percentages in more than 50 years.


Pollster.com goes on to note a number of indications that Republicans -- and extremely, irrationally conservative Republicans, at that -- will sweep into office.

Democrats have had two change elections, to change something, anything that dissatisfied the country, and they've done nothing, but confirm the policies of the worst, most unpopular President since Herbert Hoover.

1 comment:

  1. The problem is that Democrats continue to think you can end the campaign after you win on election day. The fact is Obama should have continued his Field efforts running at full steam.

    They claimed they were... but Organizing for America dropped off the face of the earth as it was unfunded.

    You can't win in a fox news 24hr news cycle unless you are engaging voters door by door... killing each and every falsehood one at a time.

    The only problem is that they knew the health care bill would end up being RomneyCare and not the kind of change that activits who would do the door knocking would put up with.

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