DEMOCRAT TODAY REPUBLICAN TOMORROW

The political pendulum swings from left to right. All indications are that it has swung to the right for this election; thus, fits a pattern that seems to be forming; the electorate swinging every two years from left to right. In the past it has not always been easy to judge if we only look at the result—that is who won the election. The pattern of the number of votes is what counts in judging the swings of the pendulum, even if there were not enough votes for a candidate of one or the other party to win, it is the trend I am talking about.

Although the pendulum metaphor seems accurate, it also seems that the center point of the pendulum swing is slowly moving more and more to the left with time; from the bestial or instinctual drive, which defines the right, to the left as the instinctual tendencies are modified by learning. To charge that statement politically, I should say “progressively” modified to the left; thus, put it in a more conventional conservative-liberal context. The hallmark of conservatism is to keep things as they were and for liberalism is to make “progress” by trying new things. What I am talking about in this blog post is the apparent two-year swing cycle around this movement from right to left.

Robert Reich, former secretary of Labor, posted the following on Facebook:

It’s a vicious cycle that rewards the Republicans for handing out more tax breaks to billionaires – but keeps the minimum wage stagnant, education underfunded, and millions of low-wage workers without Medicaid assistance.

As a liberal, I find it difficult to think that people, in general, would not hold President Obama and his liberal agenda in high regard for doing a wonderful job in recovering the economy caused by disastrous republican policies. The recovery has been remarkable and the middle class, such as it is, is doing much better. Like Secretary Reich, I am concerned about those who are still hurting and not the ones that are no longer earning minimum wages, lacking in health insurance, buried under student loans debt, or cannot afford to buy a home; as it turns out, those are the majority voters. Thus, I did not take into consideration all the people who profited from the remarkable “Obama” recovery; the very people we think should reward the Democratic Party are the ones who will vote in favor or the party of the rich. The one absolute about human memory is, it is short; very short. Those who are now working because of Obama will not reward him but will vote against him and his party; they will not vote because of what happened in the past but will vote for the present and what they see as the future. They will vote for the party that advocates no more taxes; “if you earn it you should be able to keep it”. By creating jobs, people are earning money that could be taxed, thus Obama moved people from the roles of Democrats to the roles of the “no more taxes” Republicans; over time, that is good for America but not for liberals in this election for example.

For and additional example, surveys indicate that home ownership is the one single thing that correlates with Republican Party affiliation. Obama cleaned up the mortgage mess caused by deregulation of the home loan industry. By dong so, he increased the likelihood of you owning a home, which as I just pointed out will cause people to favor Republicans and vote against Democrats. It makes little difference that the Republican Party is the party of no more “regulations”; that was a thing of the forgotten past; after all, two years is along time in the world of politics.  

At first, this all seems confused; however, it is fundamentally logical and explains the political cycle; that is masses of people swinging from one party to the other. To political hacks, people like me, who sees one’s long term political beliefs as being of major importance in guiding society, it seems unbelievable that a person could change his or her political beliefs so flippantly but that is reality, whether I like it or not. By increasing the economy, the masses of people benefit, which means fewer and fewer, are suffering. The people who are suffering are the ones who have the need therefore will vote to have the masses help them. They are the people who think the government is there to do want they cannot do for themselves and understand that paying taxes generates the source of money needed to do that. They are not the jobless ones who are no longer suffering. As society advances, these things all become relative; we as a society move from actually starving to death to just being hungry, from eating at McDonalds verses eating at steak dinner with wine at a sit down restaurant, or moving from renting an apartment to owning a home.

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