Greg Mankiw tells us that the CBO got it all wrong, that it’s the rich folks who are hurting (because from 2007 to 2009 their incomes dropped faster than those of regular folks), which causes Matt Levine to suggest that, like so many Harvard professors (and like so many former chairs of President Dubya’s council of economic advisors), Greg can be liberal, if only with the truth.
The “markets do it all for you so shut up” crowd are definitely upset at this news, but, of course, we’ve been hearing it for a long time. The not-neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party has been pressing this issue throughout the Bush years, with very little effect. It works in Nancy Pelosi’s district and the Upper West Side, but once you get west of the Hudson, not so much. So what’s the deal? Do Americans not care?
If you just look at election returns, you would have to say that a lot of Americans don’t care. A large chunk of the American population (and a larger chunk of the electorate) basically sees itself as part of the haves, who don’t want their hard-earned/inherited/government-funded wealth given away to the have-nots. However much Democrats moan and groan about the contrast between the GM worker of the fifties and the hapless WalMart employee of the present, most of America doesn’t seem to be listening.
Since 1992, we’ve had five basically jump-ball presidential elections in a row. The Republicans lost badly in 1992 and in 2008, but when the Democrats were actually so foolish as to enact “Democratic” legislation, they took a pounding in the off-year. In 2004, Karl Rove’s elaborate attempts to create a new era of Republican dominance resulted in the narrowest second-term margin of victory for a President in modern times. If the Democrats had been so fortunate as to find a “real” Catholic Democrat from Ohio instead of John Kerry, they might have ousted Bush with a win in the electoral college while losing the popular vote, a highly entertaining outcome. The Democrats don’t know how to win, but the Republicans don’t either. Considering Obama’s abysmal record, it’s the slimmest of consolations.
