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Democrats' Problem: Americans Have Little Faith in Government
Townhall.com ^ | December 8, 2015 | Michael Barone

Posted on 12/08/2015 7:19:00 AM PST by Kaslin

The Republican Party certainly has its problems: a chaotic presidential race; a despised congressional party; unpopularity among the rapidly growing number of non-whites.

But the Democratic Party has its problems as well. One of them is the fact that the two signature policies of Barack Obama -- the Affordable Care Act and the nuclear agreement with Iran -- are unpopular with most voters.

You heard little from the president about Obamacare or his approach to Iran during his 2012 re-election campaign. You've heard little about them from Democratic candidates for Congress in 2010, 2012 and 2014 or those running for next year.

It's also not clear that these policies would have been pursued in the same form if Hillary Clinton had been elected president in 2008. Would she have taken a mono-partisan approach to health care and hewn to it after the election of a Republican as senator from Massachusetts? Would she have banked so heavily on the notion that concessions could make Iran a friendlier power in the Middle East?

Maybe, maybe not. But as the certain Democratic nominee and as Obama's former secretary of state, she is saddled with them.

Richard Nixon in 1960, George H. W. Bush in 1988 and Al Gore in 2000 sought third presidential terms for their parties when their incumbent presidents had job approval well above 50 percent. Bush, after turbulent primaries, won a solid victory. Nixon and Gore, nominated with only brief opposition, lost by a hair.

Barack Obama's job approval is currently 44 percent, and Clinton, like Nixon and Gore, seems unlikely to undergo serious testing in the primaries and caucuses.

There is a larger problem here, not just for Clinton but also for her party. Since the 1930s it has been dedicated to the proposition that expanding government will help ordinary citizens make their way through the perils of (then) an industrial-age and (now) an information-age society.

The problem is that these seven years of the Obama administration, quite contrary to the president's intention, have discredited government as an instrument to improve people's lives.

The most glaring failure has been Obamacare, from the implosion of the healthcare.gov website to the recent announcement of the nation's largest health insurer that it would no longer offer policies on Obamacare's exchanges.

Designing government policies that can produce positive results without negative unanticipated consequences is a tricky business. Social Security required government to collect taxes and send out checks on time -- something a competent bureaucracy can do. Obamacare requires government to do many more things, some of which government is not very good at. Voters have noticed.

They have noticed, as well, that government is no longer very good at doing things almost everyone thinks it should do, such as providing health care for military veterans. Democrats can argue that the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital system's problems antedate 2008. But government is their baby, and they've been in charge for seven years.

Last week's mass murders in San Bernardino have underlined government's limits. Obama and Clinton have called for more gun control measures. But California already has the laws they want Congress to pass. Overall trends in Pew Research Center polling data in the last 20 years show an increase in the percent of Americans who support gun rights and a decrease in the percent of Americans who support gun control.

A third problem for Democrats is apparent in the fact that near the end of multiple Democratic presidential terms, sizable forces in the party turn left. A few examples are: Henry Wallace's Progressives in 1948; the anti-Vietnam war movement in 1968; Edward Kennedy's challenge of Jimmy Carter in 1980; and Ralph Nader's third-party candidacy in 2000.

Similar things are happening today -- in the Bernie Sanders candidacy, the Black Lives Matter movement and rebellions on college campuses. When the public has soured on Democratic policies, party rebels double down and demand more.

Republicans have faced similar discontent on the right, from Barry Goldwater in 1960, Ronald Reagan in 1976, Pat Buchanan in the 1990s and the tea party movement in the wake of George W. Bush's presidency.

But the problem is more acute for the Democratic Party, which has always been a coalition of disparate groups: the top and bottom of the income and education scales, ghetto blacks and gentry liberals, left-wing academics and labor unions.

Holding that coalition together is easier when faith in government is strong. It's harder today, when, as Pew reports, only 19 percent of Americans say they can trust the government all or most of the time. For Democrats, that's a big problem.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: 0bamaadmin
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1 posted on 12/08/2015 7:19:00 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Is Townhall sure the problem isn’t that they do everything they can to get White Americans killed and we’ve figured it out?


2 posted on 12/08/2015 7:20:28 AM PST by The Toll
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To: Kaslin

They had faith in government when the Democrats were promising to pick their neighbor’s pocket for them.


3 posted on 12/08/2015 7:24:18 AM PST by Steely Tom (Vote GOP: A Slower Handbasket)
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To: Kaslin

No sane person can accept our foul and corrupt “leadership.” But boy the electorate sure wants the “Freebies.” Americans get the government they deserve; i.e. a negro community organizer from Chicago.


4 posted on 12/08/2015 7:24:37 AM PST by AEMILIUS PAULUS
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To: Kaslin

Our Constitution has little faith in government.


5 posted on 12/08/2015 7:26:34 AM PST by ctdonath2 (History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the week or the timid. - Ike)
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To: Kaslin

“Democrats’ Problem: Americans Have Little Faith in Government” but like the free stuff anyway and will continue to vote for Democrats.

There was a time when most Americans, including most Democrats, believed that it was wrong to take money from the government.

That has changed and it is reliable recipe for Democrats — offer free stuff to voters that is bought with other people’s money and the voters will vote for you.


6 posted on 12/08/2015 7:26:51 AM PST by dhs12345
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To: Kaslin

Don’t underestimate the lasting impacts of the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov. That took what little faith in government that was held by however many of us and chucked it straight out the window.


7 posted on 12/08/2015 7:28:35 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: The Toll

“Death to Americans” -Hussein.


8 posted on 12/08/2015 7:29:58 AM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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To: ctdonath2

Succinctly deep.


9 posted on 12/08/2015 7:30:55 AM PST by Paladin2 (my non-desktop devices are no longer allowed to try to fix speling and punctuation, nor my gran-mah.)
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Tis The Season
To End The FReepathon


Click The Pic To Donate


10 posted on 12/08/2015 7:31:19 AM PST by DJ MacWoW (The Fed Gov is not one ring to rule them all)
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To: Kaslin
Democrats' Problem: Americans Have Little Faith in Government

But DemoRats have complete faith that the Government Jackboot Thug will enforce DemoRat policy as usual.

11 posted on 12/08/2015 7:33:29 AM PST by Navy Patriot (America, a Rule of Mob nation)
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To: Kaslin

“Democrat’s Problem: Americans Have Little Faith in Government”

Correction:

Americans have increasingly little faith in
non-Constitutional, Progressive government.

IMHO


12 posted on 12/08/2015 7:34:33 AM PST by ripley
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To: The Toll
What do you mean is Townhall sure the problem isn't that they do everything they can to get White Americans killed and we've figured it out??

Townhall is not the author of the article. Townhall published the article. By your logic National Review must have authored also the article instead of Michael Barone.

Can Democrats Win If the Public Doesn't Trust Government?

I would think that Freepers know the difference between author and publisher

13 posted on 12/08/2015 7:39:32 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Buckeye McFrog

Faith implies worship. Having any amount of “faith” in government is foolish.


14 posted on 12/08/2015 7:51:48 AM PST by darkangel82
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To: Buckeye McFrog
Don’t underestimate the lasting impacts of the disastrous launch of HealthCare.gov. That took what little faith in government that was held by however many of us and chucked it straight out the window.

Gruber needs to be hung around their necks like a millstone.

15 posted on 12/08/2015 7:58:20 AM PST by tacticalogic ("Oh bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: Kaslin

Little faith is an understatement.

Consider the low IQ idiots we’ve had in the IRS, the Just-Us Department of Clowns, and most importantly, Dorkbama the Muslim and the Hillabeast, the fact that we have not yet risen up against that collection of quota idiots and well-married bimbos is a testament to the tolerance of the population.


16 posted on 12/08/2015 8:25:25 AM PST by Da Coyote
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To: darkangel82

People began having “faith” in government after WW II. After all it had defeated Hitler and apparently brought about mass prosperity. Ever since we’ve been un-learning that the hard way.


17 posted on 12/08/2015 8:48:20 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: dhs12345
There was a time when most Americans, including most Democrats, believed that it was wrong to take money from the government. That has changed and it is reliable recipe for Democrats — offer free stuff to voters that is bought with other people’s money and the voters will vote for you.

That is why liberals want to get rid of the Ten Commandments. "Thou shalt not steal" means, among other things, "do not vote for big government liberals". The democrats buy votes by stealing from productive people. That is both evil and sinful. We need to bring back the sense of shame. Sure, you might accept charity when you need it, but only for needs and only while recognizing that it is charity and that government charity is taken by force from those who produced that wealth.

18 posted on 12/08/2015 8:59:33 AM PST by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: Kaslin

Barone, just like he was in predicting a Romney victory in 2012, is stuck on the stupid that issues and ideology still matter in US national electoral politics.

As opposed to identity.


19 posted on 12/08/2015 9:06:33 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: Kaslin

Barone, just like he was in predicting a Romney victory in 2012, is stuck on the stupid that issues and ideology still matter in US national electoral politics.

As opposed to identity.


20 posted on 12/08/2015 9:13:16 AM PST by tanknetter
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