You've Been Conned, Hoodwinked, Bamboozled, Led Astray, Run Amuck

By Charles Peirce, Esquire

29 October 14

hy is any attempt to get Senator Professor Warren into the 2016 presidential race a bad idea, and why do I think that many of the people floating the notion don't have her best political interests at heart? Because, on the very issues on which she built her career, the country doesn't have the analytical skills god gave a stone, that's why. And they have been badly led. And they have been heavily -- and effectively -- propagandized.

Q: Do you think the U.S. economic system (generally favors the wealthy) or (is fair to most Americans)?

Generally favors the wealthy 71%
Is fair to most Americans 24%

Other polls show something ironic: People trust Republicans more than Democrats to fix this and make the economy favor regular people again.

In other words, SPW's basic message -- There is no pea under the shells. You've been conned, hoodwinked, bamboozled, led astray, run amuck etc. -- has gotten through to almost three-quarters of the country. That's not bad for someone who wasn't even a politician six years ago. But, because of the effective campaign of vandalism run by the Republican congress, and because of the complete inability of the Democratic party to craft a consistent economic message that doesn't sound like warmed-over DLC hash, and (yes, dear friends) because the twice-elected Democratic president didn't choose to hold completely responsible the grifters and thieves who rigged the system in the first place, there is absolutely no way at the moment for any Democratic politician -- including SPW -- to take full advantage of the success of her message. People want what Senator Professor Warren is selling. They just don't want to buy it from Democrats.

How can anyone possibly look at the past 14 years and conclude that the modern Republican party can be trusted to "make the economy favor regular people again"? The party of deregulation, privatization, obstruction, and Mitt Freaking Romney? Well, one reason is that there is no apparent opposition to it on the core economic issues. There has been lip service, and moans of impotent frustration, and Tim Freaking Geithner as Treasury Secretary. So kids come to believe the darndest things.

Here's another irony: With the annual budget deficit down two-thirds from what it was when President Bush left it, people think it's worse. This is from the October 13 Gallup poll: "The GOP's lead on the federal budget deficit has also widened, to 20 points from 14 points in April, and is now higher than at any other time during Barack Obama's presidency." That last one is not a poll of opinion, that's a poll of people's understanding of basic facts. The deficit is way, way, way, way down, but people think it's up.

Yeah, this is about a kind of willful detachment and deliberately cultivated stupidity on the part of what is still allegedly a self-governing people. But it's also about every Democratic politician who made The Deficit more of a priority than stimulating the economy, all the Democratic politicians who fed Vaal on the Simpson-Bowles fiasco, and every Democratic senator in a "red" state, most of which took the brunt of the collapse right in the teeth, who chose austerity because that's what "my constituents" want. This is Creationism in a political context, true. But it's Creationism that both parties pitched to the country. Come next Tuesday, we may see the true triumph of calculated and crafted ignorance. Nice job, everyone.