By persistent obstructionism and using endless false information, the GOP pulled off some big wins in the 2009 elections. Worse still, they have been able to convince people that Obama has handled the economy badly. The YouGov poll shows that 47% disapprove of Obama’s handling of the economy, while 43% approve. The biggest problem is that the independents who supported Obama are deserting in big numbers. One reason for this is that unemployment is getting worse, and is now at 10.5%, somewhere around 17% when we take into account all the gimmicks that are employed to keep the figure artificially low. We think that it will be 9.5% next November, around 15% in real terms. That does not bode well for the Democrats in next year’s elections.
Obama’s policies saved us from another depression. Yet he is being blamed for not working miracles. He inherited the worst sort of recession---one with very high unemployment , which is followed by very slow recovery of jobs. The financial system he inherited is a basket case,, and it will take years to fix it.
One is tempted to believe that the Republicans knew in 2008 how deep the financial and economic crisis was and that there was no way to set things right in the short term. If they knew that, the strategy of obstruction, misinformation, and blaming Obama was their best choice. If they did not know how bad things were, their choice turned out to be brilliant.
Only in the United States, among advanced countries, would a president and his party be punished for heading off a depression and not producing a impossible economic miracle. That is because the level of our political discourse is so low, our voters so uninformed, and our MSM so unprofessional.
No wonder the GOP chants "Where are the jobs?" and complains that Democrats are playing dirty pool by blaming Bush and the Republicans for the terrible problems they created.
Democrats must take a cue from the "Obama owns it" argument to start educating the public in basic economics. Their theme should be that our problems came from an economic and financial system the GOP created to benefit powerful interests and shift wealth to people in the top 5%. They must hammer away at the fact that the ordinary guy has not had an improvement in real wages in twenty years because of Republican policy. Yes, some Democrats helped them along, but those folks are now becoming contrite. We need proposals for reforming our economy and economic system to make them serve ordinary people. Banks should be prohibited from gambling with our savings. Insurance companies gambled away reserves built on the premiums we paid. Then they got state insurance commissions to grant huge increases in premiums that should be fixed. We need a plan to gradually carve up the banks that are too big to fail.
It’s a tall order, but if Democrats do not begin to educate voters now, they could lose control of the House of Representatives next year. It will be hard to get people to think seriously about the economy and stop thinking about it in child-like terms. But more people are hurting now, and they may be ready for a little meat rather than economic pablum. The object should be to staunch the erosion of public support and regain some among people willing to think a bit.
Democrats will need to learn a few things about message control and to draw upon the expertise of people in cognitive science like George Lakoff. If Democrats cannot seize the initiative in the national discourse, we could well see a president Sarah Palin and a cabinet stuffed with tea baggers like Dick Armey in 2013.