David Axelrod called what took place election night a “primal scream.”
Clearly there were many causes for disenchantment, but not the least was our failure to put people back to productive work during the Great Recession We relied heavily on monetary policy that greatly benefit the already wealthy at the expense of depriving those out of work of an adequate income and of meaningful work.
We stole years of their most productive lives. Pushed them down the social ladder. Jeopardize the lives of the futures of their children. And expected them to remain quiescent.
It wasn’t the sole cause of other dissatisfactions, largely cultural, but it was a major one. Meanwhile the nation was deprived of projects that would have produced highways, bridges, libraries, tunnels, electric grids, better education and so forth.
The irony was Republican obstructionism and not lack of efforts by Democrats prevented a temporary New Deal approach to spur the economy.
Many voters did not know whom to blame. They just attacked everyone in government. They went for Donald ‘Trump, not knowing the true cause of their hardships.
So, dear God, what have we wrought? Where do we go from here?
EDITOR: My apologies for the initial garbled version. It was written while distraught and under the effect of a sleeping pill. My ‘bad’.
Hi Robert;I hope those sleeping pills are not needed frequently. For myself I prefer a few drinks before bedtime. I think you will agree things have been quite stressful over the past year. Unfortunately, one of the effects of sleeping pills, and perhaps alcohol, is memory loss. If I’m not mistaken, (or just plain drunk) Mr. Obama was given 987 billion dollars for “shovel ready jobs” of the type you describe. I still recall Mr. Biden laughing over the fact that “those shovel ready jobs were not a shovel ready as they thought”. Imagine, 987 billion wasted. But it’s only money,we can print more. Darn, there I go again, recalling facts. At any rate, don’t be distraught, at our age it’s not good or our health. With any luck the Donald will fix it.
ROBERT: There was the ‘W’ stimulus bill at the end of his tenure in office and the Recovery Act at the outset of Obama’s. They fended off another Great Depression but were not enough to lift us out of the Great Recession. Another stimulus bill in 2009 / 2010 was needed. Instead we followed monetary policy that brought about low interest rates that drove up the stock market, enriching the already wealthy and leaving the blue and gray color workers out of work. They got their revenge on Tuesday, but against the wrong party.