It’s a conspiracy! In a stunning display of harmonic convergence, the right and the left have hit on the cause of the persistent malaise that afflicts the economy: a sinister plot to destroy the country, for selfish and partisan gain. That these plots exist is the fervent belief of the most intense partisans, who believe their opposite numbers are not only wrong, but know they are wrong, and forge ahead anyhow, indifferent to consequence. But what do they know, and how do they know it? Let us look deeper and see.

The theme on the left—that Republicans in Congress are voting against things they know will revive the economy—came to the fore a year ago, when it began to be clear that “recovery summer” would in fact mark a relapse, and that the 2010 midterms were coming up fast. On June 23, 2010, the Huffington Post reported, Democrats in the Senate failed to pass “a bill to help the poor, the old, and the jobless, despite making a series of cuts to the measure .  .  . to appease deficit hawks.” This rang a bell in the minds of some bloggers, who put two and two together and reached twenty-four. “It may be time for a discussion about whether GOP lawmakers are trying to deliberately sabotage the economy to help their midterm election strategy,” wrote the Washington -Monthly’s Steve Benen, who noted the fact that in some other context some Republicans had voted for similar cutbacks before. The plan was to prolong the recession and wait for the voters to take out their rage on the innocent president. “If conditions do worsen, many, many, many more Americans will blame Barack Obama for the bad state of things than will blame the Senate minority,” said Think Progress blogger Matthew Yglesias. “The intersection of a minority that’s empowered to obstruct and an electorate that holds the majority responsible for policy outcomes is toxic.”