Is It Rage, Or Principle?

President Obama and his fellow Democrats tell us that they are about to suffer a historic electoral defeat because Americans are enraged, confused, or fearful. The problem isn’t with them, it is with us. As Paul noted last night, insulting the electorate doesn’t seem like a very effective strategy. But the Democrats are up against a more fundamental problem than irrationally enraged voters.
Today’s Rasmussen Reports illuminates some basic American attitudes that are antithetical to the Democrats: only 16 percent of Americans think the government spends our money wisely and fairly; 70 percent think it does not. (And these are all Americans, not likely voters.) Only 14 percent say the government has too little power and money, while 61 percent think the government already has too much power and money.
In 2008, millions of voters gambled on the hope that the Democrats might have something to offer other than their historic recipe of higher taxes and spending and more government power. Over the last two years, those voters have found out they were wrong. The Democrats have no new ideas; unlike Joe Biden’s description of the Republicans, this is your father’s Democratic Party (if your father is of the generation of Jimmy Carter and Ted Kennedy). Thus is is entirely logical, and not the result of some irrational spasm, that independent voters should turn away from the Democrats, and that Republicans should be energized and Democrats–those who had hoped for more, at least–dispirited. It is true that some Americans are fearful; after seeing the Democrats’ performance over the last two years, they should be.

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