Why Has Our Present Government So Quickly Lost Its Appeal?

In January 2009,  65% of the U.S. population approved of President Obama while only 30% disapproved.  Today, a majority, 51% to 48% disapprove of his job performance.  Additionally, people strongly disapprove of the performance of Congress, 72% to 21%, and only 11% have confidence in Congress.

The following is an item written just after the election of 2008.  At the time I was very concerned that the country had elected a very liberal president and congress with a very liberal super majority.  I felt that this occurred in the wake of a “perfect storm” for the Democrats.  The country was weary of the war in Iraq, the housing market was faltering as a result of the sub-prime mortgage crisis and President-Elect Obama had promised “change”.

The Leopards Spots  11/6/2008

“Now that the 2008 elections are history, the political landscape is taking
shape as I described that it was apt to in my earlier comments on this
subject. Both the executive and legislative branches of government will be
controlled by the Democrats as of January 2009. I have no doubt that
eventually liberal control will extend to the judicial branch as retiring
Supreme Court judges are replaced.

Barack Obama promised change and I have no doubt that this will occur. The
only question concerns the nature and extent of the change. My concern all
along has been that the coming change will take us dramatically to the left
toward socialism. This concern was based on Senator Obama?s past record as
well as his associations with a variety of far-left individuals who, at
least in some cases, could be considered anti-American radicals. However,
if we can believe the campaign rhetoric of Mr. Obama, he gave the
impression that he intended to change his spots and become a far more
moderate President. Time will tell.”

It’s very clear what happened here.  The American public historically has been, and still is, slightly right of center politically.  A significant percentage of the population are neither Democrat nor Republican but consider themselves to be Independent.  In 2008, many Independents were conned by the smooth talking candidate Obama and made to believe that he would strike a new bipartisan tone and “bring us all together”.  This did not happen.  He did not change his spots.  He and Congress have pursued an agenda farther to the left than suites the majority of the population. In so doing, reckless spending has created massive debt that will haunt future generations for years to come. Those conned by Mr. Obama’s campaign rhetoric, especially the Independents, are now disillusioned and are expressing this in the current polls.  The next question is how much of this will be reflected in upcoming elections.  Once again, time will tell.