Timid Democrats Botch Economy Driven Election

Once again the American Democratic Party has shown why its symbol is a donkey, or more precisely, a jackass. In an election driven by economic concerns, they failed to communicate their economic successes, failed to appropriately blame Republican policies for the mess, and failed to admit to being the party in power. As a result, the American voters do what they always do at times like this, they voted against the party in power. While the Republicans will likely misread this election as a vote for them (Americans rarely vote for anyone, but rather vote against the biggest bastard on the ballot), the Democrats are certain to misread what their defeat means as well.

First off, there is the forgivable misreading of the economy that the Democrats had in 2008-2009. Thinking that unemployment would peak at 8%, it was clear the incoming administration had no idea how bad things were and were going to get. America suffered the worst economic setback since the Great Depression. And like the Great Depression, no one could foresee just how long and awful the Great Recession would be. One would prefer leaders whose foresight is 20/20, but realistically, one can forgive the Democrats for being wrong at the start in their assessment of the problems.

Second, they failed to beat into the voters' heads the fact that the unpopular TARP bailout legislation was a Republican plan. John Q. Public does not know the difference between the bail out and the stimulus, and for that, the Democrats should be ashamed. Moreover, Mr. Public and his charming spouse don't know that half of the stimulus was tax cuts or that 98% of American families have seen their taxes fall under the Obama administration. More shame. One is reminded of "Cool Hand Luke" where Strother Martin says, "What we have here is a failure to communicate."

Third, the Democrats ran away from healthcare reform. Imagine any other party in any developed democracy on the planet running away from a major campaign pledge they fulfilled. But these are American Democrats, an invertebrate species. When the only people prepared to stand up for the agenda that was passed are the hippies at Firedoglake.com, the wannabee journalists at Huffington Post, and the pretend political pros at Dailykos.com, there's something wrong with the party.

Fourth, some of the blame belongs to all those fans of Mr. Obama who voted in such huge numbers two years ago and who can't believe that the world hasn't transform into a second Eden yet. They undid their own work of two years ago. Thomas Paine referred to them as sunshine patriots. They deserve a Republican House.

The only good news here is that the economy is going to recover in the next two years. Growth will be slow for a while, but with US corporations sitting on $1 trillion in cash, executives will start hiring before too much longer. That money on the sidelines is making the big-shots no real profits, and so no real fat bonuses. Like Mr. Reagan, Mr. Obama was lucky to have his bad economic times early on, early enough to recover from. However, if the Democrats run their campaign in 2012 the way they ran it in 2010, Mr. Obama's re-election will be needlessly close, and he could well face Republican majorities in both houses of congress.

© Copyright 2010 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.

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