In 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush Administration, the American economy collapsed into the Great Recession, the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s!
Now, seven years later, the Great Recession is finally over, and most American economists would say we are at “full employment”, with an unemployment rate of 5 percent!
Does anyone wish to argue that, magically, John McCain and or Mitt Romney would have brought about such a low unemployment rate any sooner than seven years, when the same situation arose under the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt?
Twice, a Republican President brought down the economy, and a Democratic President revived the economy.
Both FDR and Obama were called Socialists, Communists, radicals, and extremists, and both faced great hatred from the elite wealthy.
The difference is that FDR kept a Democratic Congress, while Obama had to deal with an opposition House of Representatives for the last six years of his Presidency, and with an opposition Senate for the last two years of his Presidency.
So in a way, Obama’s accomplishment may be all the greater!
It will take time for Obama to be appreciated for what he did for the economy, but the time will come, eventually.
At the same time, there clearly is a need for more to be done, as there are still too many people in our society, poorly educated and unmotivated, who need to be trained and helped to find stable employment, but a lot has been done, and it is appropriate to salute President Obama!
More good news. President Obama has rejected the Keystone Pipeline. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/06/3720018/obama-rejecting-keystone-xl/
The media and the left , which is to say the same thing, are in a state of shock this week because everything that they think means death for the Republican Party meant victory on Tuesday’s election. They think discussing the social issues is death for the Republican Party. Discussing them got a man elected governor of Kentucky. They thought in Houston, “Slam dunk, this civil rights thing on transgender,” whatever it was. “Slam dunk! The left’s gonna win this going away.” They lost big. They can’t believe it. They’re in shock over this.
And it was not just localized in regions, although the South had a great night last Tuesday, other than one state. North Carolina still is an outlier, but for the most part this was all over the fruited plain. The Democrat Party was rejected over and over and over again. Liberalism was sent packing over and over and over again. Barack Obama — because he’s the leader of liberalism and the Democrat Party — by virtue of his association, he was rejected over and over again Tuesday. Candidates who advocated for gun control were sent packing.
Candidates who wanted Obamacare expanded were waved sayonara. Even Democrat environmentalist wacko policies were down voted. People that stood up for the climate change argument? The voters just swept those people away, as though they were swatting away flies.
Even after these profound conservative Tea Party — and, yes, dare I say Republican — wins last night, where do we find the Republican Party today? The Republican Party, that is to say the Washington establishment Republican leadership, is still more inclined to work with Barack Obama and move his agenda forward, be it amnesty, be it the Export-Import Bank, be it climate change, whatever it happens to be.
Despite this resounding defeat for Obama and the Democrats and liberalism last Tuesday night, there is a corresponding aspect, too, and it is all these Republican victories last night. As the Democrats lose, Republicans win, and won big last night. The left’s agenda has been blown to smithereens once again. Yet the Republicans in Washington, at least the leadership of the House and Senate, seem still more inclined to want to do business with Obama than represent those who rejected Obama and liberalism and the Democrat Party last Tuesday night.
Matt Bevin is the Tea Party, unabashedly conservative and Christian Tea Party candidate. Matt Bevin wasn’t given a chance, even on Tuesday. Even going into the election. And he ends up winning by nine when he was supposed to lose by five. But let’s review the numbers, because the story has been since 2010 just how much the Democrats are losing. It’s a non-reported story, because it’s bad news for the Democrats. It’s the most amazing thing. The Democrats are losing and losing like they’ve never lost before all over the country, and yet the tone, the narrative of news every day is that Democrats are dominant. Obama is loved and adored and the Republicans are a bunch of fools and idiots and have no prayer. Conservatives are even worse. Let me give you the numbers here. Starting with the 2010 midterms, after that election, the Democrats lost 700 seats. This is governorships, state senate, state house races, town council.
As far down the ballot as you want to go, 700 seats. After the 2014 midterms, add another 500. They’re down 1200 seats. Now, as of last Tuesday night Republicans control 68 of 98 state legislative chambers. There are 50 governorships in America, and the Republicans now control 33. Thus, the grassroots remains. I mean, it’s named that for a reason. Roots, grassroots, deep. This is where fundamental change begins. This is where it starts.
It’s been going on since 2008. All of this makes it even more confounding why the Washington Republicans have not joined but rather remain linked with Obama and the Democrats. And don’t forget the Republicans also own the House of Representatives and the United States Senate.
But those are separate things. We own them, but the leadership still, as I say, is more inclined to do business with Obama than represent the people who elected them. And I’m not exaggerating.
There is no push-back. They just signed this two-year budget deal which basically sells out conservative voters on the budget for two years. And amidst all this, we have the Republican presidential race, and what’s happening there comes into even clearer focus now because of the election results yesterday.
When was the last time you heard the Tea Party was dead? When is it? Last week? When is the last time you heard, “Whatever happened the Tea Party? They just kind of faded away. You never hear about the Tea Party anymore.” When is the last time you heard that? Well, you hear it every week. You hear something — and the media are always talking about, “Gee, whatever happened to the Tea Party.” Salon.com just tweeted a couple hours ago, “Kim Davis Is My Governor Now — I Awoke This Morning to an Idiot Tea Party Takeover.” Wait. Wait. Tea Party takeover? I thought the Tea Party was dead, you people.
Voter apathy is why Teapublican’ts won. http://www.forwardprogressives.com/numbers-dont-lie-democrats-win-show-vote/
Precisely Leia! Voting in every election is important.
Of course Presidential race turnout’s a whole different thing because that’s when all of the bought-and-paid-for Democrat vote shows up, from the unions, to you just name it.
When you have a Democrat on the presidential ballot and when it’s a person and a personality, it’s a much different thing than issues being the centerpiece of an election. The off years, these have been issue-oriented elections and in those elections the Democrats are just losing in landslides. In personality elections they’re winning. It’s another reason I think people on Republican side are turning to Trump.
That said I am keeping all this in perspective. We didn’t win the presidency last week, and what happened doesn’t mean that we’re going to, either. The turnout differences in an off year and presidential year are real. But nevertheless, this is a huge, huge upper that happened. And for a lot of people in the media and establishment it came all out of the blue. And it shows that these midterms in 2011 and 2014 were not flukes. And it shows that the massive building opposition to establishment politicians inside the Beltway is not a fluke, either.
According to the Washington Post story and this may have some merit. “Turnout was VERY low across the country. Republicans could over interpret the results at their own peril.” So, you see, whenever the Republicans win, it’s really not legit. These off-year elections, they don’t mean anything! That’s why you never hear about how badly the Democrats do in them because as far as the the media is concerned, “Off-year, midterm elections, what are we talking about? Dogcatcher here? It doesn’t matter.”
“All that matters is that we’re in the White House doing executive orders and screw you! Everything else, we can manage. We got the judges. We got everything else to fix whatever else goes wrong. So screw you!” That’s their attitude. As long as they have got the White House. If they could get the Senate back, they would be in Fat City.
Now , I think the Republicans misunderstand. They better be careful because the enthusiasm is not for them! I’m talking about Republicans as defined by Washington Republicans. The enthusiasm is not for them. The enthusiasm is for Matt Bevin. No, no, no. Don’t misunderstand. But this is also, starting in 2010 and again in 2014, anti-Obama on parade. This is a full-fledged rejection of the Democrat Party, of its ideology and of its president. That’s what’s going on. I don’t care about turnout. They had an election, and people showed up and voted, and among those who voted, the Democrats got skunked.
Now, the Democrats can rewrite that any way they want to make themselves feel better. But the results are real. They have lost seats galore. Republicans hold two-thirds of state legislatures in bicameral legislatures, two-thirds of the governorships or more. Statehouses = Grassroots. This is big. This is why it’s all the more amazing to note that the Washington Republicans continue to do business with Obama. The Washington Republicans are continuing to prop him up, and yet Republican voters all over the country are saying, “Stop it! Stop him! Stop the Democrats and stop what you’re doing.”
The Democrats running in local elections need to fire up our base and inspire disaffected voters through a strongly progressive message focused on restoring economic security and making sure that the game is no longer rigged in favor of a narrow economic elite.
http://www.thenation.com/article/warning-from-kentucky-managerial-democrats-can-lose-to-extreme-republicans/
I think we have to send a message of hope, addressing issues that are important to specific voters. Income inequality is a big concept and I’m not sure it resonates with most people. a focus on specific policies and how they will benefit the voters would be better, I think. Talking about income inequality to a person worried that their son will be killed in a simple traffic stop is pretty silly. We need to run on President Obama’s amazing record of accomplishment and show how we are going to expand his policies.
Excellent essay on what Democrats need to do to win future elections.
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2015/11/5/down-and-dirty-what-democrats-need-to-do-to-win-future-elections
Thanks for that Rustbelt. As that points out, gerrymandering is playing a role.
The last part of that nails it completely! Democrats need to grow a spine! Get down and dirty! Call out Teapublican’t BS!
As Milt Shook points out in his blog, far left progressives scream about Democrats, which convinces average voters to stay home.
http://pleasecutthecrap.com/heading-toward-apocalypse/
The far left is like a mirror image of the far right. Both of them screaming about “purity”.
They’re more than likely the ones who protest voted for Nader, giving us Dumbya.