"Had Enough "Hope and Change"?
Source Powerlineblog.com
July 5, 2010 Posted by John at 7:30 PM
"One of my daughters drove up north with some friends to stay overnight at a lake cabin earlier this weekend. Somewhere northeast of Minneapolis they passed a billboard that said, "Had enough 'HOPE AND CHANGE'?" The billboard depicted a pair of hands feeding the Constitution into a shredder.
The rebellion against Washington Democrats is spreading and building in intensity. The point of the spear, so to speak, is the Tea Party movement. The Gallup Poll has some interesting data on Tea Partiers:
Self-described Tea Party supporters differ from those neutral or opposed to the movement on the issues they perceive as threats to the future of the United States, most notably federal government debt and the size and power of the federal government. They are essentially indistinguishable from those who do not support the Tea Party in their perceptions of unemployment and racial discrimination as future threats to the country.
No surprise there; and no support, of course, for the demagogues who try to associate the Tea Party with race. Here are some of the basic numbers; click to enlarge: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/07/026689.php
Basically, Tea Partiers are people who have a more sophisticated understanding of current events than those who describe themselves as anti-Tea Party. Anyone who doesn't realize that the exploding federal debt represents a serious threat to our future either is a fool, or doesn't have children. (That, actually, would make for an interesting survey.)
The responses on terrorism are interesting, too: there is evidently a common thread between obliviousness to the dangers of debts we can't pay and to the dangers of Islamic terrorism, but it is hard to see what that common thread might be, other than blind, stupid loyalty to the Democratic Party.
As the economic news continues to worsen, voters are appropriately growing more surly. That is reflected, I think, in this Rasmussen survey finding that 60% of likely voters--a figure that matches the all-time high--want Obamacare repealed. Maybe that is due to recent news reports about the effects of the government takeover bill, perhaps in part due to a general lack of confidence in the administration's economic competence.
Disillusion with the Obama administration, which can hardly be disentangled from disgust with the Reid/Pelosi regime in Congress, is reaching dangerous levels--dangerous, anyway, if you're a Democratic office-holder. In the Washington Post, Chris Cillizza points out that President Obama's approval rating among whites is almost exactly the same as President Bush's was two years ago. (I had forgotten, actually, that in 2008 Obama lost the white vote by 12 points. This was, however, a significant improvement on John Kerry's performance.) It took President Bush seven and a half years to fall to that level; Obama, just 18 months.
For the Democrats, the ticking time bomb is the Gulf oil spill. We are now on, what, day 73? Something like that. The federal government has yet to figure out an effective response to the spill, and as time goes by, more and more information leaks out about the incompetence of the administration's performance. We have written about that topic repeatedly and will continue to do so, but the fact is that the damage to Democrats will result much more from the brute fact of the spill's persistence and ongoing environmental damage than from revelations about the administration's bungling.
It may not be fair, but the President is viewed largely as a good-luck symbol, and he is held responsible, justly or not, when things go badly. Obama can hardly complain; he is President today mostly because, by sheer chance, the international debt crisis struck in late 2008, the last months of the Bush administration, rather than in early 2009.
Today tar balls began washing up on Texas beaches. They are expected in the Everglades and, up the east coast, in Miami before long. The oil spill will generate headlines and bleed enthusiasm for Democratic rule until November and beyond.
One more thing: the biggest tax increase in American history is scheduled for January 1, 2011, less than two months after the election. The Democrats apparently have decided to defer any discussion of next year's tax rates in Congress until after the election, on the theory that if voters focus on the huge tax increases the Democrats have in store for them, their members will be tarred and feathered rather than just defeated in the midterm elections. I find it hard to believe, however, that the Dems will be able to keep the topic of tax increases off the table until the first Wednesday after the first Monday in November. If you need a reminder as to how, exactly, the Democrats intend to assault your bank account, go here. Read it and weep.
Put it all together, and there is reason to believe that the Democrats will face a tsunami of voter anger in November. Let's hope so; as an email correspondent likes to say, it is November or never."
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2010/07/026689.php
March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 January 2013 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 March 2011 January 2011 December 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 November 2006 October 2006 September 2006 August 2006 July 2006 June 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 November 2005 October 2005 September 2005 August 2005 July 2005 June 2005 March 2005 November 2004 October 2004