I hope someday if, God forbid, tragedy strikes again at a military base, whoever is president doesn’t still head to a fundraiser.
– That sentence was said by – at least, according to Salena Zito – an anonymous mother of two filling up her tank at a gas station; and it should absolutely terrify the Democratic party. Salena’s theme in the linked story above is on Democratic hubris – Barack Obama’s, specifically, and the word ‘oozed’ was used – and how it’s coming across to the rest of the country. Which is to say, badly. President Obama’s problem in office has been… well, he has had a lot of problems, starting with a remarkable inability to learn from his mistakes. But the one that I was thinking of was that the President has been slow to understand that he is not as popular a President as he was a candidate. This gets him in trouble – and more to the point, gets his party in trouble – when Obama acts like he’s at 60% approval when he’s really at 45%.
Saleno goes on to note, regarding the specific issue of Obamacare:
Americans are not complete fools[*]. Democrats are not in trouble this fall because folks have found Republicans to be more competent. Democrats are in trouble because people know that the biggest negative impact of this law is its uncertainty, which impacts the economy and their lives.
And leading the Democrats is a president who just spiked the football in front of the entire country, more than half of which opposes his signature law.
The uncertainty is really the killer. And, bizarrely, it’s about the only thing that’s reliable about Obamacare. There’s no way to plan around this monstrosity of a health care rationing system. Nobody is really certain that they’re not going to end up being smacked around by the new rules. And it would be better in a lot of ways if the law was even worse, as long as it was consistently worse. An inconsistent, unpredictable law is more or less guaranteed to become an object of fear.
:pause:
Either you will instinctively get why that is a bad idea, or you will not.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*This is a true fact. Yes, I know that it is fashionable online to sneer at the American people, but they happen to be my people, and I would not trade them for all the riches of the world.
I’ve been in debate with some liberals over in a christian forum for the past few hours over this and other issues.
–
It’s interesting to note that some of them are still in denial.
I irritated more than a few Dems early in Obama’s first term by pointing out that Keynes’ central insight was that uncertainty freezes liquidity. And then listing off a series of things Obama was doing, than Keynes had actively argued against.
(Not that I like Keynes. I don’t. But he bears little blame for the economic policies that have recently been advanced in his name.)
.
Did I even dent their certainty?
I’m pretty sure that I did not. But they had trouble dismissing my argument out of hand.
“But they had trouble dismissing my argument out of hand.”
Doesn’t matter. They have memories like goldfish for things that don’t fit their narrative.
“An inconsistently, unpredictable law is more or less guaranteed to become an object of fear.”
.
It’s All Part Of The Plan
I’ve always felt that uncertainty has been killing the economy for the last 5+ years. Things did get a little better when the temporary tax cuts lost that status(I agree that it would have been better if ALL the tax rates stayed at the lower level, but at least they were permanent)and people could plan outside of the next month. The executive orders create that uncertainty again. If you can’t rely on the law as it’s passed, because of the whims of the sun-god king, you can’t make plans for your family, business and life.