It’s uncanny how many people have told me lately how grateful they are for having grown up in the 1970’s and 80’s.
Why? You ask? If you believe the establishment media and the many and varied types of contemporary “woke” America haters, the 70’s were a post-Vietnam poor stepchild to the exhilarating, free love consuming and tradition-destroying decade of the 60’s. And the 80’s? Well, they were the “decade of greed” where the intellectually-challenged actor-President Ronald Reagan openly embraced wealthy people and corporations while the rich got richer and the poor grew poorer, forced to exist as homeless persons stumbling past gold plated mansion gates of the rich and famous, mumbling to themselves about inequity and materialism.
To these misguided glass half-empty doomsayers, Reagan spoke eloquently about a “Shining City on a Hill” but the American dream was shut off to everyone who wasn’t white and willing to sell his soul to the Gods of Capitalism who demanded absolute allegiance to secure the keys to a BMW and a second home on the beach in Malibu. Culturally, boys back then were all gay-bashing, beer swilling preppy frat snobs who made sport of abusing girls and not being held to account for it -- like Brett Kavanaugh.
Liberals believed The Gipper’s fondness for and willingness to tout limited government meant that anyone of like mind was just as passionate about screwing the “little people” -- those stuck working for pennies in non-union sweat shops. Therefore, in the twenty-first century, Democrats insist Big Government is needed to pull folks up by their bootstraps. More welfare, more taxes and more social programs.
Our contemporary Congress is populated with redistributionist liberals who aren’t the least bit shy about kicking capitalist booty and taking names. President Joe Biden said it himself, trickle-down economics has never worked. Everybody’s a believer now, right?
In a piece titled, “Is the era of small government over?”, pollster Stuart Rothenberg wrote at Roll Call:
“While Democrats like to point to recent ‘role of government’ numbers, which show a solid majority (from 55 percent to 58 percent) of Americans want the government to ‘to do more to solve problems and help meet the needs of people,’ future responses to that question could flip quickly.
“The more government does, the more an increasing percentage of Americans are likely to feel that it is doing ‘too much.’ The news coverage alone, combined with social media chatter, is likely to move public opinion. Of course, Democrats now note that the public is quite happy with the Biden agenda. But even a successful Biden presidency is likely to cause some Americans who are currently calling for ‘more government’ to reassess their position.
“The normal ups and downs of government — policy failures, personnel problems, new controversies and the inevitable second-guessing of any president — could well boost the ‘government is doing too many things’ numbers and deflate the ‘government should do more’ responses.”
Senile Joe Biden’s approval numbers are rather astonishing -- and frankly, unbelievable. This week, the Real Clear Politics average showed Biden’s positive ratings at roughly 54 percent and negative at just under 42 percent. The polling obsessed former President Donald Trump could’ve only dreamed of such illusory popularity.
No doubt the political hacks at the White House are riding on Cloud Nine these days, buoyed by surveys that show folks responding to Biden’s call for bigger this and bigger that. To the overfed government advocating coalition (which includes some Republicans, though none thus far have gotten onboard with Joe’s biggest faux fantasies), it’s all happy, all the time. ‘Send Joe out to make another speech’ they must be thinking, since the president’s public appearances just seem to make impressions all that much more encouraging.
Republicans see the figures and wonder, how could it be? Have Americans fallen so far that they’ve taken to Biden’s pitch for spreading the wealth around and that people are struggling and need a government handout and not a hand up? Forget about teaching a man to fish (so he can feed himself for a lifetime as opposed to one meal), government’s buying all the fishing boats and tossing the bountiful catch to its preferred takers, whether they need it -- or ask for it -- or not.
A lot of those fish are left to rot on the dock, the inevitable consequences of big government. The slimy swimmers are starting to reek, too. One can’t help but sense Biden will smell, too, once Americans wake up to the reality that government can’t just borrow and spend haphazardly while everyone dines on caviar and champagne (on the government dole, naturally).
Warning signs of inflation are everywhere. One craftsman who’s doing some work for us complained that raw material prices are going up so quickly he doesn’t know what to charge for his finished product. Builders are worried about skyrocketing lumber prices, among others. Everyone who drives a car sees what’s happening at the pump, and it’s likely to get worse.
Realtors say housing prices are so high now because there isn’t enough inventory to tempt buyers. “It’s a sellers’ market” is broadcast on the news. Interest rates remain at or near record lows, but for how much longer? With all the liquid money flowing around, it has to go somewhere. Ordinary citizens are caught up in the government’s buy now, worry later mindset. It’s a binge that’s bound to come complete with a nasty hangover.
Unemployment doesn’t seem too bad, but with April’s lagging job numbers, economists are afraid the post-COVID recovery is stalling despite the trillions dumped into the stream by Democrats under Biden’s dictatorial command. “Help wanted” signs are everywhere but it’s difficult to find enough willing bodies to fill the positions. Consumers are responding to more freedom (where available, of course) after a year of being locked in their homes.
Maybe that’s why masks are still required in so many places -- liberals don’t want to see smiles on Americans’ faces. Democrats want dour mugs and depressed citizens. Without a negative outlook, who would need more government?
There was a similar sort of contentment in the 80’s when Reagan was president. Reagan’s economic policies got the money supply under control and inflation down with it. Interest rates fell to manageable levels where people could afford to buy a home. After years of malaise, the military was beefed up to challenge the existential threat of Soviet Communism. Americans felt good about their country and themselves.
Today, the good feelings are all fake. The strength we’re seeing in the economy is residual leftovers from Donald Trump’s presidency. The optimism many are experiencing is attributable to the Trump administration’s “Operation Warp Speed” which pushed through development of a COVID vaccine in record time. Federal money continues to rain from the heavens. Someday the spigot will be turned off, however.
Human nature doesn’t change that rapidly. Folks who were alive during the good times decades ago realize that freedom and liberty and a president who talks like America’s exceptionalism is due to its founding documents and principles is preferable to one who claims he’s cleaning up the mess of “systemic racism” and the grossly contorted “science” of “climate change” wrapped around COVID hysteria. This is phony. We can’t believe a word they say.
The government (at least under Joe Biden) and the media can’t be trusted to tell the truth, but one can’t help but feel that the era of small government isn’t over. Not yet. In reality, we haven’t had true limited government in a long, long time. But Americans aren’t dumb. Folks with common sense see the problems with bloated bureaucracy, and a backlash will happen at some point.
Which will probably make us long for the good old 1980’s even more.
Joe Biden administration
polls
Joe Biden approval rating
big government
federal spending
national debt
Ronald Reagan
limited government
liberty