So there is precedent for this self-defeating behavior by members of America's whiner demographic. It's a puzzling phenomena, sort of like watching Col. Sanders convince chickens to vote for him rather than the candidate supported by PETA.
Here's how it seems to work: Ordinary Americans feel economic pain. But it's unfocused, a kind of free-floating anxiety. Then campaign season rolls around and some guy in a suit jumps out of their TV sets assuring them that he not only feels their pain, but knows who to blame for it -- those damn liberals and their flawed social and economic policies.
The most amazing thing about this trick is that it works even when liberals have been out of power for years. The trick works even after years of conservative control of all three branches of government. These guys drive the American ship of state right onto a reef, call a press conference and declare the mess not their fault. They angrily claim that the people to blame, as usual, are those bleeding heart liberals who insisted on laws protecting coral reefs -- which have now become a danger to the smooth flow of commerce.
And, they get away with it. Yes, they do. They get away with it every time -- so far. It's all pulled off with an extraordinary chutzpah once confined to cautionary works of fiction, such as Orwell's Animal Farm and 1984.
That brings us to the current campaign. The economic and social pain is wide and deep, and it getting wider and deeper by the day. We are all on Maggies Farm again... all of us that is, except for the McCain's, Gramm's and the other one-percenters who've never had it so good. Some Americans, it turns out, really are more equal than others. And if you don't like it, you're a whiner.
So, if you like the way the farm has been run by the current occupants, go ahead, send John and Cindy McCain to the White House. Pantsuits will become all the rage and resentment of the super-rich will be roundly condemned as unseemly "class warfare" by the same people who brought the original class war. They don't want to hear any more about it.
Because the war is over. They won.
How Bush Widened The Wealth Gap
Not since the '20s has income inequality been this great
Businessweek: During the last half-century the distribution of income and wealth in America has become more and more unequal. Even during the 1990s, a period of sustained expansion, most of the growth in income and wealth was concentrated among the top 10% of households. By 2000 this group accounted for 44% of total household income, compared with 33% in 1980
John McCain and his side kick, Phil (Enron loophole) Gramm, are the latest Republicans forced to explain away the fiscal mess created by their own party. Here's a campaign speech given by Herbert Hoover during the 1932 campaign:
October 22, 1932, Herbert Hoover campaign speech entitled,“The Success of Recovery,”
My fellow citizens, the most important issue before the American people right now is to overcome this crisis. What our people need is the restoration of their normal jobs, the recovery of agricultural prices and of business. They need help in the meantime to tide them over until these things can be accomplished and that they may not go hungry nor lose their farms and their homes.
Now I wish to present to you the evidence that the measures and the policies of the Republican administration are winning this major battle for recovery, and we are taking care of distress in the meantime. It can be demonstrated that the tide has turned and that the gigantic forces of depression are today in retreat. Our measures and policies have demonstrated their effectiveness. They have preserved the American people from certain chaos. They have preserved a final fortress of stability in the world.
Recovery would have been faster but for four months of paralysis during the spring months while we were defeating proposals of the Democratic House of Representatives. (Emphasis mine)
Much has been accomplished despite the opposition of selfish groups and sections of our country and the unwillingness of a Democratic House of Representatives to cooperate, and much more must be done. The Democratic candidate says we have been extravagant, and in his various statements implies that we should make a defense of our actions. There will be no defense because none is needed.
Phil Gramm couldn't have said it better.
P.S. Bet you didn't know until now that the Great Depression was also the Democrat's fault.
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