I occasionally take an interest in the findings of pollsters. I generally find that their questions are slanted and their samples are carefully chosen to produce a desired result, but I'm pretty good at filtering through the bias and seeing what my fellow Americans think. (Hence my regular comments about the hopelessness of our collective situation here in
Les Etats Unis.)
So when I saw
this article from Stan Greenberg, I paid attention. Mr. Greenberg has a long history as a Democrat pollster and I've often found that he presents a reasonable, albeit left-leaning, snapshot of the electorate. To sum up the linked article, in case you don't care to read the whole thing - Democrats are pretty awesome but the public doesn't always realize this because Democrats are seen as the party of government. So naturally, when people get confused and don't realize how awesome government really is, they lose track of how awesome Democrats really are.
It sounds logical enough. Quite frankly, if you stripped out his spurious bullshit about how much we all support the Democrats' statist policies, I would probably agree with the remaining premise.
I.e. - People are disgusted with their government so they're not really in the mood to listen to the "party of government." The main contradiction to which he refers is one that I've mentioned plenty of times on this blog. We
do generally want to tax someone else (wealthier than ourselves, natch) to pay for various shit that we enjoy. On that score he's 100% correct. We
don't, however, support a majority of the big-government programs that have been shoved down our throats in recent decades. To conclude otherwise, you really need to word your poll questions in a misleading and dishonest way. Guess who's pretty good at that. (I'm lookin' at you, Mr. G.)
So anyhow, at least ole Stan made one point that does seem pretty sensible to me. People distrust their government and so they (for now) distrust the party that represents bigger government. Whether the liberals of the world realize it or not, this view is not at all inconsistent with that expressed by George Will in
a recent column. Think about it. Which parts of our lives suck most consistently? The parts that involve government and/or regulation, Mr. Will asserts. I agree.
The only real difference is that Greenberg thinks we would love government if only it could communicate better. I doubt it. I honestly don't think you would feel swell about the two hours it takes to renew a driver's license, if only you knew that the collective bargaining rights of the DMV employees entitle them to take a lunch break during the busiest time of day. I think you would still lean toward Mr. Will's position and conclude that most government work is ineffectual and frustrating.
Worst of all has to be the phony baloney friend-of-the-working-man horseshit that both parties try to peddle on you. Democrats demonize wealthy people to draw support from the poor and middle class, even as they advocate statist policies that would stifle middle class prosperity. Cap and Trade
ring a bell? Republicans characterize wealthy people as job creators, even if there's no evidence that an untaxed dollar in a rich guy's pocket will ever lead to the creation of a job. If the libs had any balls, they would come out and say that you're
entitled to the fruit of someone else's labor but you're
obligated to pay more for a better world. If the conservatives had any balls, they would come out and say that you're
not entitled to shit and you're
not obligated to pay for shit. Neither of them express either view though, do they? Cowards. They try to obfuscate and spin, time and time again.
But here's the rub. And here's where Greenberg is right. A Republican using his position to screw the taxpayer might be seen as a scumbag, but at least he would
philosophically be in favor of limiting opportunitities for politicians to screw the taxpayer. And he would be despised in most opinion polls, outside whichever district was the beneficiary of his scumbagishness. A Democrat, on the other hand, would face the double-whammy of being (a) the one screwing the taxpayers and (b) in favor of creating more opportunities to do so.
Take Joe Biden, for instance...
Oh for fuck's sake.
