Election 2012: It’s about Liberty, Stupid!
By Tim Dunkin
STATESMAN SENTINEL
June 24, 2012
Some of you may remember James Carville’s rather blunt expression of what he understood to be the priory issues in the 1992 election when he said, “The economy, stupid!” This was in response to his view that then-President George H.W. Bush was talking about foreign policy issues more than economic ones, and was intended to serve as a bit of back-handed campaign advice for Bush’s opponent, Bill Clinton. Since then, the expression, in various permutations, has become a trope in American political discourse, intended to convey the impression that its target just doesn’t get it, they just haven’t figured out what’s really important in an election, and is chasing rabbit trails by pursuing unimportant topics.
So it is in the present electoral season. Once again, we find ourselves in the midst of a deep recession (even worse than that of 1991), this one created, prolonged, and sustained by the horrid fiscal policies of both major parties, but especially the President’s party when it controlled both houses of Congress. And once again, the refrain is that this election is, and must be, all about the economy. Anything else is a distraction. Serious candidates won’t let themselves be sidetracked by unimportant matters.
And so continues the great political shell game whereby both parties, when in office, will pursue policies that will maintain the gradual slowdown of the American economy by burdening it with increasing taxes, regulations, fees, mandates, more social spending, and other hoops that economic producers will have to jump through to continue to be able to do business. Meanwhile, when the inevitable economic slowdowns catch up with this, as they invariably will, the party currently out of power can use the distress and anger of the electorate to toss out the other. Hence, a couple of terms with a Republican in office will be followed by a couple with a Democrat, and then a couple more with a Republican, and then a couple more with a Democrat, and on and on. They both get
You can read the rest of this article at:: http://statesmansentinel.com/2012/07/17/election-2012-its-about-liberty-stupid/
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Posted by RobertButler
on Jul 17 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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