Posted on 12/07/2005 9:53:26 PM PST by smoothsailing
The Good News Is Good
By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
Published 12/8/2005 12:09:57 AM
WASHINGTON -- The President is out on the hustings. He is exhorting steadfastness on the war. He is booming the economy. He will be getting hoarse quite soon. The reason is simple. He is trying to reason with the unreasonable. On the matter of the war his opponents' rejection of reason is demented. There is no alternative to facing down the terrorists and the nihilists in the Middle East. They attacked us here and will do so again and again unless they are defeated -- and for many of them that means death. They have transcended the kamikaze pilots of World War II to become a kamikaze movement. There is no alternative to defeating them.
On the matter of the economy the President's opponents not only reject reason they reject an abundance of evidence that the economy is vigorous and on course to healthy growth. On the war his opponents gin up a host of spurious arguments and faulty data. On the economy the data is overwhelmingly against them and as for spurious arguments they have very few. This economy is in a period of growth and there is no alternative argument to growth save for those made by the diehard disciples of the late Prof. Malthus (1766-1834), prophet of scarcity and no growth.
Yet gloom over the economy is pumping from every smoke stack of the Kultursmog. During the 2004 presidential election, when the economy had already been growing strongly for a year, 36% of the citizenry had been persuaded that the economy was in recession. Now a year later, with growth nearing 4% for the past ten quarters, 43% of the citizenry believe we are in recession.
Unemployment has dropped from 5.5% to 5%. In the past 16 months 3.5 million jobs have been created. Stocks are on the way up. The Fed has taken strong measures to squelch inflation and seems to be succeeding with no damage to healthy growth. Still with practically every economic announcement the coughing, wheezing voices of the Kultursmog predict economic danger.
Brian S. Wesbury, one of the most infallible students of today's economy, laments in the Wall Street Journal:
"During a quarter century of analyzing and forecasting the economy, I have never seen anything like this. No matter what happens, no matter what data are released, no matter which way markets move, a pall of pessimism hangs over the economy." Whereupon he cites the auspicious data and their gloomy explications: Bond yield up? Housing market imperiled! On Monday, housing market weakens? The housing bubble is about to burst! On Tuesday, the housing data strengthens? Bad news, the Fed will raise interest rates!
How do we explain the unreasoning response to all this good news? How do we prevent the President from growing hoarse in defending a perfectly defensible economic vigor? Allow me to offer this explanation. Republicans in power worry Democrats. If the Democrats presided over an economy as robust as this, there would be no apprehension in the Kultursmog. That brings us to the heart of the matter. The media are not dominated by liberals. They are dominated by Democrats.
Actually there are no true liberals out there nowadays. For many decades those who were pleased to call themselves liberals in America were civil libertarians of various degrees of libertarianism who believed in state management of the economy and in inflicting moralism into every disagreement. When President Bill Clinton said "the era of big government is over," he was merely acknowledging the confusion into which American liberalism had collapsed. A liberal today is merely a Democrat.
Democrats, certainly all who identify themselves deeply as Democrats, worry about George W. Bush in the White House. In this they are sincere. Bush frightens them. Of course, Ronald Reagan frightened them too. In fact, it is instructive to note that the very same things that worried them about Reagan worry them about Bush. Both are seen as stupid, overly religious, overly patriotic, simple.
The concern our Democrats have about the economy is heartfelt. I do not think anything can be done to cheer them up. Certainly improvement in the economy is not going to cheer them up. What could be done? If growth were to rise from 4% (third-quarter growth has just been revised up from 3.8% to 4.3%) to 5% they would only fret about inflation or perhaps the rape of the environment. And do not try to cheer them up with a hearty Merry Christmas. They suffer some bugaboo about that too.
The best course is to avoid all serious discussion with them. Talk to them about the New Deal or the New Frontier. Remind them that Chelsea Clinton is almost old enough to run for president, and she has never been accused by an Independent Counsel of lying.
.......................
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator, a contributing editor to the New York Sun, and an adjunct scholar at the Hudson Institute. His latest book is Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House (Regnery Publishing).
How many fools have 'bet the farm" trying to beat GWB? Funny thing always seem to happen, Bush says what he`s going to do, and, SAZZZZAM,it works.
Watch the immigration issue, all you Tancredo followers, same thing is going to happen.
If you are going to bet against GWB, its a good idea to have a rich uncle.
You owe me for one laptop. My APO address is forthcoming... (G)
Yes sort of like taking on Rush without having your facts straight. He'll eat you alive. Both are great men who have done great things for our country.
President Bush will go down as the greatest President in the history of our country. He is changning the face of the middle east...something no other President has been able to do.
Rush Limbaugh will go down in the books as the greatest radio talk show hose in the history of our country. He changed the face of radio and no other host can compare with him.
Yep, two great men and Margaret Thatcher to boot!
Unfortunately I do not have a rich uncle.
Fortunately, I have no intention of betting against President Bush.
Yet still, it would be nice to have a rich uncle! ;^)
Evening Old Sarge! Must be about chow time there.Take care,FRiend.
Really great article; thanks for posting it!
Excellent. Of course, he is right. Nothing can make the Democrats happy while a Republican is in the White House. But they are not winning the hearts of Americans with their whining.
...nature of the treat...
...threat.
Great post, smoothsailing!
Forgive me :)
What's to forgive? ;]
FReepmail...
We have passed a tipping point. It is no longer "the economy stupid". The reason is not political or psychological. It is systemic and structural.
It's simple; there are now more people outside the private sphere than within. Rising tides can raise only those boats which happen to be IN THE WATER.
Federal, state, and municipal workers, teachers, union bosses, those who work for non-profits, those who work for private firms dependent upon government contracts, many seniors, and beneficiaries of income tax policy....are now in a position whereby they must view PROSPERITY through GDP growth..... as SOMETHING WHICH HAPPENS TO EVERYBODY BUT THEM.
We should no longer be mystified when so many fail to greet positive economic news with glee. ENVY is the operative emotion here. The days are gone when we can envision a bright future for the Republican party because of proper stewardship of the economy. The time has also passed when we can deem a Republican administration as a success which does not REDUCE the size of government.
We are sowing the seeds of our own destruction.
[I think today's terrorists are not so much a kamikaze movement, but more of a death cult.
A death cult made much more dangerous by overt and covert support from too many other enemies of Liberty, both foreign and domestic.]
The truth will set you free. They most certainly are a death cult and will throw themselves and all of us off the cliff and destroy our free nation, thereby destroying the future of our children.
Why waste any time trying to cheer up a Democrap?? They richly deserve every single bit of their misery.
It delights me.
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