Obama makes tepid comments pretending to defend the 99% against the 1% and Republicans squeal about how might they lose a class warfare fight. It’s comical, isn’t it?
No doubt Barack Obama would love to reprise Ronald Reagan’s 1984 “Morning in America” reelection campaign, but the anemic economy is not cooperating. Without a robust recovery to trumpet, the president is betting his reelection on class warfare — focusing on “income inequality” and “fairness.” Class warfare is not a winning strategy, but it is the only card Obama has to play.
Goodness, we certainly can’t have any of that crazy fairness or equality stuff, now can we? Plus, a study of history clearly shows that class warfare is sometimes a fine and winning strategy. But then, Republicans only honor revolutionaries after they’ve been dead for a hundred years, if they honor them at all.
That’s the good news for Republicans. The bad news is: Right now, the GOP is blowing it.
Well, of course the GOP is blowing it. They wouldn’t know how to defend the middle class if they tripped over it. Just look at their candidates; Plastic Man, Gasbag, Mr. ‘Let’s Bring Back The Inquisition,” and an anti-war White Nationalist. Is this a clown show or a train wreck? None of them have even vaguely said anything intelligible about trying to end the recession or create jobs.
But then, neither has Obama. He’s in the 1% too. His current modest faux-populism is just a campaign ploy with no substance behind it. But it is instructive that politicians and talking heads now seem genuinely terrified by the thought of class warfare.
Krugman sums it up: The main reason to be angry about it is that it’s gratuitous. This doesn’t have to be happening. We actually have the tools to make most of this go away. If we could throw aside the political prejudices and bad ideas that are crippling us, in 18 months we could be back to something that feels like a much better economy.
Let’s see… “Class War President” + DOW tops 13,000 for the first time since Mach 2008 = ?