I think he means Aesop's story about grapes, rather than Steinbeck's On Nov 4, 9:42 am, Tommy News <[email protected]> wrote: > Put it in R and go Backwards! > > Giving the Keys Back to the Folks Who Crashed the Car > > -by Paul Pierson > > After Tuesday's drubbing, Democrats will search for the hidden message > of the election. But the message isn't hidden: The decisive blocs of > voters that switched from Democrats in 2008 to Republicans in 2010 > were angry and disillusioned -- with the economy, with a political > system they see as helping banks and CEOs, not ordinary working > families, and with both parties, Republicans (exit-poll favorability > rating: 41 percent) as well as Democrats (43 percent). They want > action to rebalance the economy so it produces jobs and gains for the > middle class, not just Wall Street. Unfortunately, they're not going > to get it. > > That's because these voters have just handed Congress back to a party > least likely to heed their call: the party that spent the last two > years saying no to Wall Street reform, to an economic recovery package > that included major tax cuts, to expanded health insurance and medical > cost control, and to extension of the 2001 tax cuts for the middle > class; the party that shamelessly courted lobbyists and corporate > donors while claiming they were only against reform because it > represented a "bailout" of these very same interests. > > In exit polls, voters were asked who they blamed for the state of the > economy. In order, they blamed banks, then the Bush administration, > and only then the current administration. Yet those who blamed banks > gave their votes by a wide margin to the GOP. Their votes have made > Speaker-to-be John Boehner the second most powerful person in > Washington only months after he staged an open rally for bank > lobbyists, urging them to block Democrats and their "punk staffers." > The rally worked: Wall Street swung toward the Republicans, joining > health insurers, big business groups, energy companies, and the rest > of the GOP's new money trust. > > Midterm election losses are a virtual inevitability for the party of > the president. A terrible economy makes them more certain -- and > larger. The only thing that would have saved Democrats from big losses > this time around was a huge organizational and fundraising edge. > Thanks to the Tea Party and billions in outside campaign spending that > favored the GOP, the edge was Republicans'. > > If there is a hidden message in the election, it's one that we, in our > recent book, Winner-Take-All Politics, call the "dirty little secret" > of political science: most voters pay little attention to what happens > in Washington and have only the vaguest sense of what is happening > there. Most are completely unaware of how the filibuster has been used > relentlessly to block action on the economy, and a majority mistakenly > believes that the astonishingly unpopular TARP legislation passed > under Obama, when in fact in was signed by George W. Bush. > > We are taught to believe that voters call the shots. And they often > do. Yet the vote is a blunt, heavy weapon -- one that voters barraged > with negative ads and misleading messages, without strong guidance > from grassroots organizations, often wield with little awareness of or > regard for the collateral damage that will result. In this case, the > damage is likely to be the crippling of goals and policies that most > Americans continue to support. > > One salient example sums up the whole: Republicans' big gains came > with older voters -- in part because they were frightened by GOP > attacks on the health care bill. Yet Republican budget blueprints -- > from Paul Ryan's "Roadmap for America's Future" to the GOP "Pledge to > America" -- mean even bigger cuts in Medicare and the revival of the > GOP's mothballed plans for partial privatization of Social Security > and Medicare. Ask older Americans whether they would like to trash > their cherished programs in return for massive new tax cuts for the > richest of the rich, and the answer will be a resounding no. Only on > election day, a strong majority of older Americans, in effect, said > yes. > > In John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, perhaps the most memorable line > was uttered by an angry farmer about to lose his home (sound > familiar?). Enraged and despairing but unable to pinpoint blame for > his terrible loss, he asks, "Who can we shoot?" That's what voters > were asking in 2010, and most had no clearer idea than the farmer of > where responsibility for their plight lay. > > The 2010 election was the political equivalent of the perfect crime: > The GOP vigorously took on all reforms designed to rebalance the > economy for the long term, tying Washington up in contorted knots, > then were rewarded at the polls by voters dissatisfied with an ugly > D.C. culture unable to produce economic renewal. > > Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson are the authors of Winner-Take-All > Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--And Turned Its Back on > the Middle Class > > More:http://www.facebook.com/ > > -- > Together, we can change the world, one mind at a time. > Have a great day, > Tommy
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