Charlie’s trying to explain to the Democrats – gently – why the usual line of giving out free stuff isn’t working out for them like it usually does:
My theory is that in September of 2008, when the financial crisis was beginning, the world was seeing some scary stuff. Lehman Brothers fell on September 15, 2008, the world’s credit markets seized up, the economy went into cardiac arrest, and the stock market dropped 500 points on one day and 800 points on another.
This had just as much of an impact on the public’s views of economic security as 9/11 had on the public’s views of national security. Consumers have been spending less, saving more, paying down debt, and investing more cautiously. In every respect, they have behaved more conservatively in their personal finances than anytime in recent memory.
More or less, yes. Add to it the widening realization among the American people that the Democratic party has no real strategic vision independent of the Republican party’s and you start to see why it is that the latter was given some of the keys back a bit early. I don’t think anybody is really suggesting that the country particularly wanted to, but desperate times, desperate measures…