Its A Conspiracy....

....or just a bunch of drama queen bloggers who got themselves worked up over nothing!

From the National Journal:

Among Democrats, Obama's job approval is about 5 percentage points away from where he needs to be. Three-fourths of self-identified liberals approve of Obama's performance to date. He needs these numbers to be higher. Liberal white Democrats and African-Americans are solid Obama supporters. But Obama's approval rating has dropped significantly among Latino voters (73 percent when he was elected; 54 percent now, according to Gallup), and slightly among younger voters (ages 18 to 29) who were hardest hit by the economic sluggishness. While 55 percent among this group is stronger than it was half a year ago, according to a huge Institute of Politics poll released last week, it needs to be higher. Still, in the absence of a Republican foil, these are generally sufficient numbers for the president. At this point in 1995, more than 4 in 10 Democrats wanted a primary challenger for Bill Clinton; fewer than 2 in 10 do for Obama. 

Among Democrats Obama has nothing to fear in regards to a primary challenger and without an obivous Republican challenger Obama's 'base' is holding steady (except among Latino voters and that is a problem considering that they turned out strong in 2008 and 2010).

So, "The Left," "The Progressives," and "Young Whiny Democrats," are nothing more than the result of an over active imigination on the part of Obama Loyalists!  Doesn't surprise me because outside of normal trends I didn't see much to show that a whole bunch of Leftists stayed home in 2010!

Now, thanks to the Ryan, "Path To Prosperity" the Democrats can rally the base and reach out to the moderates; too bad they always have to wait for the Republicans to come up with something to which they can then define themsleves by!

Helplessly Hoping...

Ah, Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young....Helplessly Hoping...

Today Barack Obama will present the democratic proposal to counter the republican "Path To Prosperity."  So, liberalism 2.0 boils down to adding tax increases to  conservative budget cuts.

Of course the mellodrama on the left, because they now realize that Obama is going to cut their benefits or because "THE LEFT" has sold the democrats upriver, or just due to the fact that the republicans have successfully divided and conquered the masses, will raise in pitch and frequency but the reality is our country is in a transformational deficit and we are at a loss of ideas and leadership. 

Of course voter turnout dropped from a surprising high of 57% in 2008 to a disappointing 38% in 2010.  Regardless of ones political beliefs it obvious, after factoring in all the Tea Party anger, all the blogging about the Founding Fathers, Ayn Rand, and 'taking our country back' that the American voter is NOT reactionary nor conservative.  With all the energy expended by the right to capitalize on what they perceived as an opportunity to benefit from the creation of a "..non American born, muslim, socialist president" they were only able to get voter turnout, with lukewarm support of the democrats to 38%!

So much for the concept of America as a "right of center" nation. With all the effort expended by the right in 2010 they only increased voter turnout by 1% over 2002 and less than 1% over 2006.  Its obvious that the issue is not that the republicans are successful at dividing and conquering but rather that neither party truly appeals to the vast majority of Americans.

While voter turnout was high in 2008 historically it was not all that impressive when compared to voter turnout in 1960, 1964, or 1968.  If we reflect, just superficially, we will note that the democratic party in those prior years was much more 'liberal' than it is today and there was an obvious distinction between the two parties then, both of which are lacking today.

As the right wing malcontents pull the republicans off the cliff of reactionary irrelevance the democrats are finding themselves being pulled to the right also.  For all the talk of bipartisanship and compromise on the part of President Obama the reality is, that most of his efforts in this regard were with members of his own party!  

If we take the average voter turnout for the three most recent presidential elections and compare them with 2008 we will note that 2008 represents a 5.1% increase in voter turnout, or right at 10% of the historical average.

That represents the desire of American voters for a more left of center government!  That is an indictment of our two party system and its neo-liberal bias to represent the true wishes of the voters.

Whatever President Obama proposes this evening is really irrelevant in the long term.  The reality is that a huge gap has opened up, on the left, for a third party and if the democrats refuse to offer policies that are nothing more than neo-liberalism as liberalism then this opening will be filled by a third party.

The "Narrative" Continues

I cannot help but notice that the Democrats lack the ability to control "the narrative" of current politics.  Barack Obama made a gallant attempt in 2008 to change the narrative and the Democrats thus found themselves with a mandate and overwhelming (in regards to current political history) majorities in the House and the Senate.  With the financial meltdown the Democrats also found themselves in an environment very conducive to a change in the narrative.

But the narrative did not change.  The narrative today, is neoliberalism, as it has been since 1980:

"Neoliberalism describes a market-driven approach to economic and social policy based on neoclassical theories of economics that stresses the efficiency of private enterprise, liberalized trade and relatively open markets, and therefore seeks to maximize the role of the private sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state.


The term "neoliberalism" has also come into wide use in cultural studies to describe an internationally prevailing ideological paradigm that leads to social, cultural, and political practices and policies that use the language of markets, efficiency, consumer choice, transactional thinking and individual autonomy to shift risk from governments and corporations onto individuals and to extend this kind of market logic into the realm of social and affective relationships."

The reality is that Republicans and Democrats have bought into the idea of "...maximizing the role of the private sector in determining the political and economic priorities of the state."  The conservative bloc of the Republicans still attempt to call this "statism" but the reality is it is not; it is corporatism.

The only real difference between the two parties is in regards to "...shift(ing) risk from grovernment and corporations onto individuals and to extend this kind of market logic into the realm of social and affective relationships."  

The narrative is ideal for the Republicans and it allows them to capture the anti-government anger, the belief that government benefits everyone but me, and all the other strains of malcontent that exists in a society.  The Democrats on the other hand find their support among the 'rose colored glasses' 1960's radicals, the unions, and the various other minority groups that believe that government can make a difference.

As Bill Clinton so famously stated in 1996, "...the era of big government is over." 

The Path To Prosperity, which is the title to Paul Ryan's long term budget proposal, is just an obvious continuation of neo-liberalism, and should be viewed as the exclamation point to the sentence, "...the era of big government is over!"  

The reality is that this proposal is our new narrative!  The Democrats will find themselves debating "less" against "more" because they lack prescriptive alternatives not only to Ryan's plan but to neoliberalism in general.

You cannot argue that tax cuts do not create jobs, when your stimulus proposal was made up of almost 70% tax cuts.  You cannot argue that tax cuts do not create jobs when you extend the Bush era tax cuts to....create jobs and stimulate the economy!  You cannot argue against a proposal that lowers the highest tax rate to 25% because....that creates jobs!  

It is near impossible to argue against shifting medicare to a voucher system (here is a tough argument to argue against inregards to vouchers) and medicad to block grants when in your own healthcare reform bill you never seriously considered a single payer option and you never once questioned why we rely on business to provide the vast majority of our citizens with access to health insurance.  The reality is that the seeds for the Ryan proposal were planted during the Obamacare debates.

Until the Democrats find an alternative to neoliberalism they will never be able to change the narrative.  Until such time, the pressure will be for smaller government, lower taxes for the rich and corporations, more deregulation, and a shift from the federal, to the state, to local, and eventually to individuals of risk, and the too big to fail will only grow bigger.