Arthur Brooks’ wonderful piece on the changing of American politics from Sunday’s Washington Post is in a vein that Examiner colleague Michael Barone touched on his own Sunday piece. The point from both Brooks and Barone is that the old fault lines of politics have given way to new fissures that focus mostly on government spending and authority
It’s a subject that I’ve been a bit obsessed with lately. OK, maybe more than a bit.
What’s clear is that the old divisions, which took shape more than 40 years ago and have mostly been about the culture and the way America prosecuted it’s foreign policy, have given way to questions about the size and shape of government. The end of the culture wars, the sun setting on the Baby Boomer, economic bubble fatigue, and most of all, the explosive growth of government have brought us to a rather unexpected moment in American politics.
Brooks has great insight on how the Obama agenda tipped over the political order, but not in the way that the administration imagined. To quote another smart political thinker, it has proven to be a “catastrophic victory” for the Left.
Here’s a nice chunk of Brooks, but read the whole thing here.
“The irony is that, by wide margins, Americans support free enterprise. A Gallup poll in January found that 86 percent of Americans have a positive image of “free enterprise,” with only 10 percent viewing it negatively. Similarly, in March 2009, the Pew Research Center asked individuals from a broad range of demographic groups: “Generally, do you think people are better off in a free-market economy, even though there may be severe ups and downs from time to time, or don’t you think so?” Almost 70 percent of respondents agreed that they are better off in a free-market economy, while only 20 percent disagreed.
In fact, no matter how the issue is posed, not more than 30 percent of Americans say they believe we would fare better without free markets at the core of our system. When it comes to support for free enterprise, we are essentially a 70-30 nation.
So here’s a puzzle: If we love free enterprise so much, why are the 30 percent who want to change that culture in charge?
It’s not simply because of the election of Obama. As much as Republicans may dislike hearing it, statism had effectively taken hold in Washington long before that.”
