Why Am I Not Surprised?

It was H. L. Mencken who first observed, "You will never go broke underestimating the stupidity of the American people." Mencken had his act together. I'm looking at an article from the Washington Post today. Headline: "In poll, Republicans gaining ground on Obama." This is enough for you to understand the general tenor of the piece. The specifics just make you sick. Obama still gets 51 percent approval rating, but he's lost confidence of the people on the economy, health care, jobs, budget deficit by "bare majorities," it says here.  And if that's the case now, well, it's only going to get worse for him as we go along, because I don't see any shift in policy from him, do you? He's still talking about "bipartisanship," for Pete's sake. (The Republicans must be laughing themselves half to death into their whiskey sours. You can bet they're slapping themselves on the backs about now. The handwriting is on the wall for the Democrats; the Republicans can simply stay their obstructionist course. It's working like a charm.) Bipartisanship! Shit, these people have not supported anything Obama has proposed. Nothing. Not a single vote for health care, not a single vote for stimulus. Are you kidding me? And worse, this course is actually enhancing their chances to choke the administration to death:

When compared with the early months of Obama's presidency, the GOP's overall gains are striking. A year ago, Democrats held a 26-point advantage on dealing with the big issues; that lead is now six points. At the one-month mark, Obama's lead over the Republicans on dealing with the economy was 35 points; it's now five points.  

This ain't good, of course, because what it means is the Democrats will probably get murdered in November, because no improvement in the economy, the deficit, jobs, health care is on the horizon or even the far horizon. So what's to become of us? Well, we're going into gridlock again, folks. In fact, it could be argued that we're in gridlock right now.

But the point I really want to make here is this: if the American people think the Republicans are going to make things better, they are truly idiots. The Republicans will make things worse for the mass of people, who are already burdened beyond belief. They are going to do what they always do: they are going to take care of big business and the rich, and they are going to lie out of both sides of their mouths about how they're concerned for the common people. And the common people are going to buy it.

More on this later . . .