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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Jonah Goldberg
It wasn't supposed to be like this.
The Obama administration came into power with the political winds at its back, the media at its feet and Americans open to major change. The
The logic behind the axiom is unassailable. As Robert Higgs documented in his libertarian classic, "Crisis and Leviathan," it's crisis -- not merely war -- that is the health of the state. Crises melt frozen politics. They create opportunities. They give the government room to maneuver and grow.
And for a while, it worked that way. Democrats steamrolled the most ambitiously liberal agenda in at least a generation. Yet liberals are miserable. Their lamentations over what they see as President Obama's lack of audacity punctuate the din, like ululating matrons at an Arab politician's funeral.
This misplaced griping stems not from Obama's failure to "think big" but from a misreading of the political climate: Liberals thought they'd be popular.
The American people supported the New Deal and pro-FDR politicians for years. This time around, Americans aren't turning to government. Rather, they've grown only more disgusted with the public sector. Trust in government is near its historic low. Obama's support among self-identified independents is at an all-time low and doesn't appear to have hit bottom yet, while the "intensity" among Republican voters continues to surge.
Indeed, conservatives outnumber liberals by more than 2 to 1 (42 percent to 20 percent), according to Gallup. If that trend continues just a bit more, an absolute majority of Americans may soon call themselves conservatives.
All those liberal pundits who prophesized an Obama-led "new New Deal" must feel foolish as they don their life preservers and head to higher ground in anticipation of the electoral tsunami heading their way in November.
In a futile effort to build the morale of the sandbag brigades preparing for the tide, the
Obviously, such arguments hinge on the hope that the people will agree. That seems doubtful. Indeed, if that reasoning were persuasive, ObamaCare would be popular -- or at least it would have become popular since its passage, as the
Perhaps voters don't remember the Bush years as a time of "market fundamentalism" so much as a time when "big government" conservatism in the
However much blame they deserve for the economic crisis, Obama and congressional Democrats deserve the political crisis they've created for themselves. And the
For a year or so, Republicans have been the so-called party of no. Contrary to the expectations of its critics, that tactic has been good for the
But that spine is only valuable if you use it for something. Much of the
Now is the time for the
Don't let Obama's crisis go to waste.
Available at Amazon.com:
The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy
The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics
Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
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