AJ DiCintio

Obama, Big Bangs & Selling Make Believe
March 23, 2009
 

Main Street conservatives were as shocked and angered as everyone else when the nation suffered the double punch in the gut delivered by the explosion of the fraudulently inflated housing balloon and the collapse of financial institutions that stupidly speculated on enormous bundles of toxic debt.

But never forgetting that Congress and federal bureaucracies were fully complicit in creating both debacles (having ordered, funded, and cheerled for a free lunch “ownership society”), those conservatives (including your humble writer) also reacted by warning that liberal politicians would not miss an opportunity to take advantage of the people’s pain, fear, anger, and uncertainty.

Unfortunately, however, liberals didn’t just seize the moment; they prevailed by convincing a majority of the public that it has “no other medicine but only hope.”

With that success in hand, they swept to victory in the Election of ’08 and since have enacted the first parts of an economic/social agenda aimed at transforming America into an amalgam of Sweden and France in one “Big Bang” of heretofore unimaginable, multi-trillion dollar governmental expansion — the cost of this liberty and prosperity crushing nanny state to be paid with dangerous, unsustainable borrowing today and suffocating tax increases tomorrow.

Now, since the wisely traditionalist folks mentioned at the outset still know that Obama is “selling make believe” (this outstanding example of Plain English from country singer John Rich), the relevant question today is this:

Are the majority of Americans who bought Obama’s fantasy now willing to confront reality; or will they continue to repress the truth of Ben Franklin’s aphorism, “He that lives upon hope will die fasting”?

It would be a very good thing if the answers to those questions were “yes” and “no,” respectively. However, they are not, though polls reveal much to be encouraged about.

First, the worst news. A recent CNN poll finds that by a 55%-43% margin, Americans think Obama is trying to do too much at once. However, both CNN and the Pew Research Center find solid public support for many (but not all) of the president’s key policy initiatives.

For example, CNN finds 59% agreeing with “how the president is handling the economy.” In turn, Pew reports a 59% job approval rating for Obama, with 56% of the public agreeing that his stimulus bill is a “good idea.”

Given the devils that lurk in the details of Obama’s vision, it is important to debate why the public is reacting so positively to a roll of the dice intended to establish Washington’s politicians as the moral, economic, and social lodestone toward which every citizen’s eye should turn and knee bend.

However, what is indisputable is that currently a solid majority of Americans are not concerned about the harmful consequences of Obama’s “change we can believe in.”

That is disturbing news. However, it should not be taken as irreversible because, as polling also reveals, the public isn’t buying what Obama is selling hook, line, sinker, rod, reel, and boat. Rather, it is forming its attitudes about his policies issue by issue.

Combine that fact with the reality that people haven’t yet seen — and, thus, haven’t yet had the opportunity to evaluate — hugely expensive, powerfully controversial proposals Obama has yet to offer and there is reason for optimism regarding political buyer’s remorse.

Now, on to some good news.

As the current explosion over the midnight written, blindly voted AIG bailout bill reveals, no deal in the current tsunami of federal deals regarding spending, bailing, rescuing, buying, guaranteeing, and borrowing is ever truly done, thereby permitting the president to move on to the next item on his agenda in an atmosphere devoid of angry questions and challenges.

And there’s even better news.

The Pew poll’s 59% approval rating represents a 5% drop from February’s 64%. In addition, Pew finds the president’s disapproval number at 26%, up 9% in one month.

Happily, part of the rising disapproval may be due to the fact that 44% of the public now believe Obama is listening more to liberals of his party than to its moderates. (In January only 34% said Obama was giving both his ears to the Democratic left wing.)

Happily, too, the Pew and CNN findings aren’t isolated. For example, Rasmussen supports them fully, showing Obama at 56% approval, 43% disapproval.

And that’s not all. Basing their conclusions upon the totality of Rasmussen polling, Douglas Schoen (a former Democratic consultant) and Scott Rasmussen conclude that “The American people are coming to express increasingly significant doubts about [Obama’s] initiatives, and most likely support a different agenda and different policies from those that [his] administration has advanced.”

Finally, some truly excellent news is found in Pew’s numbers regarding the “pragmatic approach” with which Americans view government.

Specifically, 48% of Americans currently favor “smaller government/fewer services” (up from 42% in October ’08) while 40% favor “bigger government/more services (down from 43% five months ago).

Moreover, 70% of citizens believe the nation is “better off in free-market economy even [with] severe ups and downs.”

Yes, despite the battles that lie ahead for us conservatives and our moderate/independent friends — including Senator Evan Bayh, whom Politico refers to as “a leader of a 15-member caucus of conservative and centrist Democrats” — we can be comforted by news of a 70% landslide in which the American public rejects socialism (European style or otherwise), class warfare, and every other –ism or expression of nonsense that stifles liberty, individualism, innovation, and prosperity.