In a new CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll, 47% of respondents said that the Republicans are more to blame for the current economic mess. That makes sense, leaving us to wonder only about the logic of the remaining 53%.
Discounting the 8% who claimed that neither party is more responsible, we are left with a combined 44% of Americans who believe that the Democrats are more to blame (24%) or the parties share equal responsibility (20%). This might be the best evidence yet for one of Thomas Frank's favorite points (in both What's the Matter with Kansas? and The Wrecking Crew) – that the right has commandeered the language of victimhood, powerlessness, and anti-governmentism to the extent that these people do not even realize how long they have been in complete control of Washington. Somehow, no matter how many presidents they elect or how many decade-long Congressional majorities they have, the minority Democrats (whom the governing GOP treat worse than personae non grata) are somehow to blame.
Granted, 24% blaming the Democrats is unsurprising – this is the same 24% that voted for Alan Keyes in 2004. It is the same 24% level below which President Bush's approval rating will not fall. It is the 24% who would blame the Democrats if George Bush decided to invade Belgium tomorrow. These people, as Bill O'Reilly would say, are ideological zombies. Their opinions on politics are roughly as objective and valuable as Bill Swerski's opinions about Da Bears.
Since 1980, this country has lurched as far to the right on economic issues as any democratic nation has since the Industrial Revolution.
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Regulation and government have successfully been rebranded as the antichrist, the public has been conditioned to receive (so long as they maintain a steady flow of bitching) a new tax cut every five fucking minutes, and spending under "small government" conservatives has exploded to levels previously unimaginable – but that's probably all on "welfare" for the lazy colored folk, right?
This 44% will insist, even as things continue to get worse over the next 36 to 48 months, that the Democrats and nonspecific "liberals" are somehow to blame. Stuck in the 70s and unable to apply critical thinking skills to the arguments crammed down their throats by talk radio, they will blame this all on the big spending ways of left-wing Washington. Twelve years of a GOP Congress which reduced Clinton's role to a rubber stamp for milquetoasty "centrist" "new Democrat" free-market wanking and then did everything George W.
Bush asked be damned. Eight years of Reagan and twelve of the Bushes be damned as well. The Democrats have been in control of the House (and at Lieberman's mercy in the one-seat majority Senate) for eighteen months! Doesn't that make them equally responsible?
I am seriously considering devoting a portion of my time to writing a handbook for liberal and progressive Americans entitled Stop Being Such a Goddamn Pussy. As we continue our march toward complete economic meltdown (The Dollar: Spend It, Or Burn It As Solid Fuel!tm) it is essential that this baseless, ridiculous argument that right-wing economic theory is somehow not responsible for our predicament be prevented from taking root. If you hear somebody make that claim, get about 18 inches from his face and tell him that he is brimming with shit. I, for one, have no intention of allowing anyone within my earshot of entertaining this delusion.
I hate to say "We told you so", but…wait, no I don't. In fact I will get significant pleasure out of rubbing the right's nose in a simple set of facts: you did this. Your ideas. Your greed. Your leaders. Your ideology. Your childish insistence on believing what feels true rather than what can be supported by facts. Your insistence that the economic turmoil caused by repeated tax cuts during periods of runaway spending can be cured by more tax cuts.
This isn't a "difference of opinion" – it's the difference between correct and incorrect interpretations of basic facts.
And if you wonder why I'm so aggressive about it, it's because I and everyone else who understands how full of shit these people are have to suffer the consequences of the toxic mess that three decades of supply-side leg-humping have created.
Nick says:
I would buy that book.
J. Dryden says:
Stuart Hirschberg's analysis of advertising bears mentioning here–he argues that success in advertising depends on transferring irrelevant values onto a product in order to make that product appealing to those values, rather than having to stand on its own merits–"You're horny, so buy this fermented-hops-based-product and you will get laid." Thus was deregulation sold to the masses.
I'm willing to bet that 95% of conservatives couldn't correctly define "supply-side economics" if the reward was a winning lottery ticket and a hummer from Sarah Palin. What they *can* explain is that Government is Bad because it wants to Take "Their" Money and spend it on things that their social values don't approve of, like free abortions for unwed illegal immigrants.
The joke's on them, of course: government *is* bad, if you're a billionaire and want to live outside its jurisdiction, but it's pretty good if you're shit-poor and need a safety net. "Goddamned Washington fat cats, they'd better not try to take away my guns or tell me them faggots can get married–I don't want no government settin' foot on my property. Now where's that check from Agriculture to make up for the bad crop I had last year?"
The evil geniuses of the Reagan Revolution figured out that you can get people to vote against their own economic interests if you tell them that they're voting *for* their own social/religious values. And thus was born the "fuck the government" movement that continues to dominate the national consciousness. (Not but that there hadn't been a "fuck the government" movement in Southern States from the very beginning, what with the But Slavery Is Wrong And Hypocritical message that they'd been catching from the Northern States ever since the Constitutional Convention.)
In short, modern American conservatism has always been the moral equivalent of a Ponzi scheme, but every time the chickens come home to roost, instead of breaking out the tumbrels and the guillotine, we inevitably just say "Well, we don't want to lose our investment in this fine enterprise–let's just pour more money into the trough and hope it all sorts itself out. Yay, Adam Smith!" After all, it worked so well for the S and Ls…
J. Dryden says:
Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant.
Mike says:
Awesome. I think you should continue this – this argument is important, and specific talking points should be developed. The notion that the CRA is responsible, for instance, is clearly false on it's face.
beau says:
i too would buy that book.
Rob says:
Brilliant!
jim says:
everywhere i go, i see 24%
From a CNN poll earlier today:
John McCain's request to delay campaigning and this week's debate is:
An effort to help the economy 24% 51409
A political gimmick 71% 152239
Something else 5% 11540