Whether it's chronic self-delusion or simply garden-variety human conceit, we seem capable of convincing ourselves that these times — "our times" — are unique in human history. Sorry, but the current 2010 political campaign and the attitudes of the voters are both a spitting image and a carbon copy (when was the last time you saw a carbon copy?) of the 2006 and 2008 political years.
There is one survey question that qualifies as the EKG test of the American body politic: "Do you think things in the nation are headed in the right direction, or do you feel that things are seriously off on the wrong track?" Back at the turn of the century, it was not uncommon to find a slight majority of Americans responding things were indeed "headed in the right direction." But by 2006, nearly three out of five answered "off on the wrong track" — and, in 2008, three out of four said the same.
After a fleeting up-tick of optimism after President Obama's inauguration, pessimism has returned. Today, 30 percent of voters, in the most recent NBC News-Wall Street Journal poll, saw things "headed in the right direction," while 61 percent believe they're "off on the wrong track."
In the three election years — 2006, 2008 and 2010 — the president's job-rating has been respectively 33 percent approval, 25 percent approval and currently 45 percent approval, while the voters' ratings of Congress have been 16 percent approval (2006), 12 percent approval (2008) and 21 percent approval (2008). As recently as 2005, more voters approved than disapproved of the job Congress was doing.
What you, my ever-observant reader, may by now be pointing out is that in 2006, the Republicans controlled both the U.S.
House and the Senate and George W. Bush was in the White House (as he still was in 2008). But in both 2008 and now in 2010, Democrats held majorities in both houses of Congress, and since 2008 Barack Obama has been the president.
This is all true. But the attitudes of the voters remain essentially the same in 2010 as they were four years ago. The American electorate remains pessimistic and disappointed, and has grown increasingly angry.
In the first two elections, the voters expressed those feelings by voting out of office those who were in office. In 2006 and 2008, the "In's" who felt the voters' wrath were Republicans. All available evidence, some seven weeks before Election Day 2010, indicates that the part played by the Republicans in 2006 and 2008 will, on Nov. 2, be filled by the Democrats.
It is true, as Democratic strategist Jeffrey Horwitt points out, that "this election is not as much about Barack Obama as 2006 was about George W. Bush." Obama is today significantly more popular both personally and politically than Bush was four years ago. But it is also accurate that voters are now even more lacking in trust toward Washington and more hostile toward a power structure they are convinced pays little attention to them.
In the United States, historically the most optimistic of nations, only 27 percent of Americans "feel confident that life for our children's generation will be better than it has been for us," while 66 percent are "not confident" that will be the case and two out of three voters "think America is in a state of decline."
In 2008, the majority voted for "change we can believe in," and two years later, regardless of whom you blame, Washington has most definitely not changed for the better ... which makes the election year of 2010, sadly, an awful lot like both 2006 and 2008. Yes, we have seen this movie before.
To find out more about Mark Shields and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com.
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM
COPYRIGHT 2010 MARK SHIELDS
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3 Comments | Post Comment
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Sir; ....No party elected out of the sort of discontent we see today, and the hoplessness can take comfort in being returned to office because neither party, doing as they must to get elected again, which means serving the benefits of government to the rich -will solve the problems that plague America... This country may be in decline, and some glorific figure might rise to power against a tide of malaise by blowing a load of sand up every ass in America, like Reagan; but the outcome will be the same... This people may be in decline, but only because their traditional forms do not work for them... They cannot get justice from their laws or government and so they fall back on the even older form of religion. and pray for justice because no one, and no society, can live without justice... Capitalism is in decline... How long has capitalism been on life support??? It is the same news nationally, internationally and locally...You have to work harder, longer, faster, smarter to have a job, and at the end of it your company or employer goes belly up or moves on to greener tax and profit pastures... There is nothing of the traditional relationship between employers and employees; no tin man with a heart one can talk to, and just automatic, mechanistic, computer programed exploitation, and people; the whole society is feeling it... It is possible for the profiteers to take too much out of a society... The South had to have capital and markets to make slavery pay, and those who controlled the capital and markets bled the South long before the first gun was fired in defense of slavery... Perhaps the extreme profits paid to the middlemen and bankers limited the extent of slavery, and so lessened its injury; but I think they made slavery's horrors and indignities complete because so much of it was for nothing, no gain, and no increase, not for the society, and not for the masters... And what would the great war in defense of slavery have been if those people had not already been made hopeless and demoralized by the futility of working for nothing as much as their slaves??? They were decapitalized as much as we are today, all working for distant masters, waiting as we are for some bad year to wipe us out of existence... America is right to fear and hate Wall Street... Even when Wall Street pays their pensions, they throw every paycheck into jeapardy...No society can live exporting all its capital and importing all its products, and the short term profits built on this behavior are paid with the misery and uncertainty of an entire people... And no people can live always on the move in pursuit of jobs that evaporate almost as soon as they are filled... Our jobs are mobile as we are not, and can always find greener pastures while they leave a desert behind; even overseas where no worker can demand his rights... This people feels oppressed, and with little wonder... We are oppressed.... As Jefferson pointed out, people some times must change their forms, and not because it is what they want, but out of necessity...To have as many people as there are in this land begining to agree that change is needed without any sense of the direction that change must take is a road map to chaos... No party should take comfort in winning an election when all the parties may soon be turned out with violence... Government needs to work for people and bring them justice... It cannot stand by while injustice is made commonplace... Thanks... Sweeney
Comment: #1
Posted by: James A, Sweeney
Sat Sep 11, 2010 8:31 AM
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Who the heck are those 30% who are satisfied and believe we are heading in the right direction? I've got a bridge for them to invest in.
Comment: #2
Posted by: Mike Ohr
Sun Sep 12, 2010 8:36 AM
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I suspect polls and don't like to take them because my “answers” usually need more nuanced “questions.” Nevertheless, even with a wide margin for error, Congress' consistent ratings in the low two digits point to a problem.
Polls show our biggest problems are fallout from the financial meltdown, high unemployment, healthcare, education, the environment, etc. I say our biggest problem is money influencing congress and an inability to enact fair campaign finance reform. I say our second biggest problem is unfair redistricting, that is, gerrymandering. Maybe the basic problem is that our system can't correct for these.
Put another way, when I ask a friend who is a naturalized U.S. citizen who grew up in Denmark what the fundamental difference is in our country's politics, she replied matter-of-factly, “Oh, in Denmark the politicians care about the people and try to help solve their problems.”
I don't understand why, even as ineffective as the Democrats are, Republicans are getting traction again. Why are so many ordinary people persuaded to vote like wealthy stockbrokers?
Comment: #3
Posted by: Hal Harber
Sun Sep 12, 2010 2:39 PM
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