Cowboy Capitalism Has Failed!
The arguments of the American right wing are beginning to take shape. The Wall Street Journal is already claiming that Obama has had more than enough time to solve the economic crisis, whilst Limbaugh and others are trying to tie the economic crisis to Obama's nomination for the presidency, or even to his speech at the Democratic National Convention, despite the fact that the dates simply don't match.
But the truth doesn't matter to the Republicans, as they have always believed that the truth is simply what they say it is, and they will simply repeat this message continuously in the hope that repetition will help it sink into the US subconscious.
Jonathan Alter here points out that the economic policies which the Republicans are calling for - a free market economy with little government regulation and a tax burden which falls disproportionately on the poor - is exactly what got everyone into this mess to begin with.
It is this very "Cowboy capitalism", as Alter calls it, which failed; and to return to it, as Limbaugh wants, is "objectively stupid."
I have been astonished by the Republican response to this recent financial crisis. It was a crisis which was, in many ways, fuelled by the very deregulation which they have spent the last thirty years championing, so I thought they were always going to find it difficult to find a narrative which resonated with the general public.
But they have made no attempt to change their tune at all. Indeed, they are acting as if the financial crisis had nothing to do with them and that it is somehow a problem which Obama has created.
They are lost souls scrambling about trying to make their message relevant, despite the fact that it led us to this impasse. But they simply cannot adjust. They cannot accept that Reaganism, the philosophy to which they have tied themselves for the past thirty years, is over.
Making the rich richer and hoping that it trickled down to everyone else was bullshit. Now, who could have imagined that?
UPDATE:
Here's a typical example of Republicans attempting to put the blame for the economic crisis on Obama's doorstep. Here Jim Cramer rants about Obama's “wealth destruction.”
Yeah, 'cos this all started the minute Obama came on the scene. And they are supposed to be the party of personal responsibility? Give me a break...
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