While Barack Obama continues to advance the megalomaniac theory that by electing a man whose campaign theme was change the American people were demanding President Obama radically remold the country in his image the American people hold a much different opinion on the proper role of government. Funny how seeing the annual deficit balloon from a “Bush spends like a firggin’ drunken sailor” $500 billion to a “Holy flurking schmidt!” $3.5 trillion (that number is my back envelope calculation, BTW) in one year tends to jaundice the public towards Washington.
Especially since a large majority of the country knows where the actual blame lies:
In early October, as the meltdown of the financial industry gained momentum following the collapse of Lehman Brothers, a Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 59% of U.S. voters agreed with Ronald Reagan that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.”
Since then, the stock market has fallen roughly 3,000 points, millions of jobs have been lost, nearly a trillion dollars has been spent so far to bail out the financial industry, an additional $787-billion government stimulus package has been approved, and a new president has taken office who has proposed spending billions and billions more.
Despite all that, a new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey shows that the basic views of the American people have not change: 59% of voters still agree with Reagan’s inaugural address statement. Only 28% disagree, and 14% are not sure.I’m at a loss when it comes to examples of government performance and demonstration of problem solving skill that have convinced 28% of the public Reagan’s words ring false.
Getting the public to swallow a $3 trillion deficit won’t be easy and Republicans have a chance to seize the limited government high ground. Don’t believe the despair. A true change we could believe in would be smaller government, more freedom, and seizing less private money for redistributionist largess.
Although the Republican Party in Washington veered away from Reagan’s approach in the years since the 40th president left office, 83% of Republican voters around the country still agree with him. So do 40% of Democrats and 60% of those not affiliated with either major party.
By my math, that’s an election wining coalition. Congress and Obama are all but begging Republicans to embrace the inner Goldwater. We sure as hell didn’t and can’t win by trying to outspend liberals.
