The Political Pragmatist |

A reader wrote in response on a different site:

Why doesn’t someone do a simple survey of the public. One question; “Do you trust the government?”

A survey on this would be completely beholden to the questions and context and interpretation. A good guess would show that:

3 out of 4 would say they do not trust government.

4 out of 5 in subsequent questions would show by their answers that they want to.

Therein lies the problem. For thirty years, conservatives have repeated the line that government is the problem not the solution. Yet every time conservatives gained control of the government, they failed to show a better way. Americans don’t want to drown government in the bathtub. The truth is people want government to work.

In 2005, the party of individual liberty and freedom from government interference–which strangely supports telling women they have no rights over their bodies–gets involved with the Schiavo family’s agonizing decision to end her suffering, not a federal issue in any way and not what the government should be doing. Then, New Orleans drowns and the country sees what smaller and ineffective government looks like, exactly what they have been told they should have since “government is the problem.” Poor leadership of government turned out to be the problem.

To which Matt Continetti of the Weekly Standard says:

As unpopular as the Republican party is at the moment, it is actually winning a lot of the debates in Washington. Cap-and-trade has little chance of passing, health care is just as dicey, Americans are concerned about Obama’s reckless accumulation of national debt, Nancy Pelosi is playing defense for the first time in her speakership, and the president has reversed himself on military commissions, abuse photos, and preventive detention. Victory or near-victory in these policy battles hasn’t redounded to the GOP’s benefit because the public still associates the Republican party with George W. Bush’s failed second term, specifically the years 2005-2006 and the recession that began in December 2007.

And Matt Yglesias replies:

Note that what Continetti is saying here is basically that right-wing policies aren’t unpopular, it’s just that the catastrophic consequences of right-wing policies are unpopular.

And Jonathon Chait gets the last word: (Worth reading the whole post.)

I just realized I failed to explain what the downside of the Short Obma strategy is. The downside is that, in 2012 or 2016 or 2020, Obama remains broadly popular among the public at large, but highly unpopular among Republicans. In such a case, Republicans would need to nominate a leader who can credibley pose as a moderate successor to Obama, but the party base will only allow a nominee who opposed every element of Obama’s agenda. The nightmare scenario for the GOP is that their party remains dramatically out of step with public opinion and unable to accommodate itself to a changing landscape.

We are going to suffer the hangover from the success of the conservative movement for a long time, and pay for the failure. While Republicans continue to play the same notes and bang on the worn-out drum, nobody ever asks them to list their successes. They continually invoke the name of their patron saint, Ronald Wilson Reagan, but no one ever challenges them to name his achievements. Bringing down the wall? It fell two years after his famous speech. Shrinking government? Reagan expanded government more than any president before him and doubled the national debt–which now seems pathetically small in comparison to the present. He raised taxes six out of eight years. So much for the vaunted cut taxes cry. What exactly did he or the conservative movement do for which they are proud?

There is one achievement for which they may not inclined to brag . Karl Rove’s oft-stated intention of creating a one-party system worked to perfection. Unfortunately the one party left is the Democratic party. The only conservatives left with power are Democrats. The Democrats are still working from their old game plan, playing defense while the Republicans throw bombs.

So we really don’t trust government because we have forgotten what effective government does. President Obama has a strategy for the long-term–letting the Republicans continue to blow themselves into smaller and smaller pieces–but it is maddening for those who have been waiting to turn the ship around before it grinds itself further on the rocks. He wants bipartisanship, but the opposition refuses to give up the Alamo-strategy. Obama has laid out a map, but too few Democrats are out front navigating. Americans still do not trust the direction.

After 30 years, it is going to take time to clean up the mess. Government can work. It worked well for the middle class from 1945 until 1980. Someday, we hope to see 60% of Americans say they trust government. When that happens, chances are quite excellent that the middle class will again be doing well. Trusting the government and a strong middle class go hand in hand.