According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, Americans are not happy with ANY of their leadership, Republican or Democratic. The biggest
Six weeks ago the Democrats held a 24-point lead over Bush as the stronger leadership force in Washington; today that's collapsed to a dead heat. The Democrats' overall job approval rating likewise has dropped, from a 54 percent majority to 44 percent now -- with the decline occurring almost exclusively among strong opponents of the Iraq War.Yet the Democrats' losses have not produced much in the way of gains for Bush or his party. The president's approval rating remains a weak 35 percent, unchanged from mid-April at two points from his career low in ABC News/Washington Post polls. The Republicans in Congress do about as badly, with just 36 percent approval.
Another figure underscores the public's broad grumpiness: Seventy-three percent now say the country's off on the wrong track, the most in just over a decade.
So, there you have it; Americans are pissed at everyone right now and think things are going way off track. All this while the economy's in relatively decent shape. Can we say I-R-A-Q? Can we figure out how to get the heck out of there in a way that doesn't lead to even more disaster? If not, something tells me that these dismal poll numbers aren't going to be improving anytime soon.
From the report :
The last thirty years has seen a considerable drop-off in
median household income growth compared to earlier generations. And, by some measurements, we
are actually a less mobile society than many other nations, including Canada, France, Germany and most Scandinavian countries. This challenges the notion of America as
the land of opportunity.
The Congressional Budget Office finds that between 1979 and 2004, the real after-tax income of the poorest one-fifth of Americans rose by 9 percent, that of the richest one-fifth by 69 percent, and that of the top 1 percent by 176 percent.
Men in their fathers? cohort, those who are now in
their sixties, had a median income of about $40,000 when
they were the same age in 1974 (see last two bars of Fig-
ure 4). Indeed, there has been no progress at all for the
youngest generation. As a group, they have on average
12 percent less income than their fathers? generation
at the same age.14 This suggests the up-escalator that
has historically ensured that each generation would do
better than the last may not be working very well.
Going back to 1820,per capita gross domestic product in the United States of has grown an average of 52 percent for each generation. But since 1973, overall median family income has grown only 0.6 percent per year, a rate that produces a 17 per-cent increase in the average family?s income for eachgeneration.
For nearly thirty years after the end World War II, productivity growth and median household income rose together in lockstep. Then, beginning in the mid-1970s, we see a growing gulf between the two, which widens dramatically at the turn the century. As the data in Figures 6-9 indicate, the benefits of productivity growth have not been broadly shared in recent years.
We're living in a second gilded age, our political elites , both "Democratic" and "Republican" are obsessed with petty coffee table squables and have ignored the kitchen table issues. Large coporations and special interests have the access; but the middle class American has no voice. We're sliding down from a feisty Republic, to an effete empire and into being just another province in Greater Globalistan.
The steel mills are closed. The family farm is gone. The mom and pop retailer is extinct.
Something happened.
People, it's our own fault.
The Democratic Congress that we have today owes a lot to the economic worsening of independents and moderate Republicans. These people had it already worse by 2004, but they attributed that to 9-11. And they were also willing to give more time for the Bush policies to work.
I had many heated debates with many of them at the time. We couldn't agree even in small points.
The symbolic break was the high cost of gas. That was the big shifting event. Today there are no arguments; most of them agree that Bush is horrible. I have been even surprised to see some of them saying that we need a Democratic president to change things for the better.
But wages of workers has been flat. The erosion of benefits, such as health insurance and pensions, has made the middle class nervous. Job security is a thing of the past and the eight hour day, once the centerpiece of the labor movement, is going the way of the dodo.
Meanwhile, people see the upper one percent of the wealthy class getting richer. Corporations are flush with profits. The growing wage gap between the top tier of CEOs and everybody else is drawing concern from even some free market advocates.
In addition, people had very high expectations about our ability to extricate ourselves from Iraq. Indeed, in an election post morten I did in November, I jokingly proclaimed the Democrats "the biggest losers" because now they had to deliver on their promises. And of course, they didn't win nearly the number of new seats to do that.
Until we have a veto proof Congress, Bush will get his way on a lot of things. The candidates were right in yesterday's debate. Until America elects a Democratic president and sends a few more Democrats to Congress, the direction of our country won't change.
We can, currently, stop some of the worst of Bush's abuses and put a break on the rightward drift of important institutions, especially our judicial system and conduct hearings that let people know how bad and how corrupt it's been in Congress.
All of those hearings are at least opening windows and letting sunlight in to what had been corruption festering in a dank cellar. If the Democrats hadn't won, it still would have been growing like a toxic mold. But throwing the light on it is only a start.
I am worried that the too high expectations had to lead to disappointment. It's a tough one to fight. But fight it with a hard dose of reality we must or we'll continue to lurch off track.
I was afraid of just such public reaction when the Congressional Democrats failed to make their case on the Iraq war during the funding debate and permitted the republicans to frame the debate as a Democratic surrender to Al Qaeda, and also failed to accomplish any of their much ballyhooed agenda during the first session of Congress under Democratic control, and even acted just as republicans had when it came to earmarks, and now we have Congressman Jefferson showcasing Democratic corruption. Is it any wonder the voters regard the two parties, at least the National parties, as tweedledum and tweddledee?
Let's face it, there are a lot of Democrats out there who need to look at the larger picture and stop throwing the party under the bus for their own ambitions.
Iraq is the 5000 pound gorilla.
On the economy our message is more popular with the American public. The public knows democrats will raise taxes and thats a huge issue for people.
What have we gotten under Republicans? Certainly not "peace," with this FUBAR war in Iraq. And certainly not prosperity for most working Americans, who are struggling with health care costs and stagnant wages, or young Americans, who are facing enormous deficits (thanks to out-of-control Republican spending) as far as the eye can see. Heckuva job, Republicans, heckuva job!
There's plenty of time to improve these poll numbers, but I think this poll sends a clear message that the American public wants to see changes sooner rather than later. An "insider" quoted in the Sunday diary "Democratic Insiders Think Iraq War Funding Vote Helped Party" said:
"In the end, the Democrats did not hold up funding for the troops, but they made it clear that if they were in charge they would find a way to change and get us out. If Bush keeps this up, in 18 months Democrats will get their chance."
Unless Democrats work to seriously isolate Bush from the American public by creating a debate that highlight's his "stay the course" attitude versus a Democratic foreign policy agenda that looks to get out and move past Iraq, I don't think the American public is going to forgive anyone for eighteen months of the status quo.