America Wants Security
May 23rd, 2005 at 7:26 am by Susie
After November’s election, the victors claimed a mandate to unravel the welfare state. But the national election was about who would best defend us from gay married terrorists. At the state level, where elections were fought on bread-and-butter issues, voters sent a message that they wanted a stronger, not weaker, social safety net.
I’m not just talking about the shift in partisan alignment, in which Democrats made modest gains in state legislatures, and achieved a few startling successes. I’m also talking about specific issues, like the lopsided votes in both Florida and Nevada for constitutional amendments raising the minimum wage.
Since the election, high-profile right-wing initiatives, at both the federal and state level, have run into a stone wall of public disapproval. President Bush’s privatization road show seems increasingly pathetic. In California, the conservative agenda of Arnold Schwarzenegger, including an attempt to partially privatize state pensions, has led to demonstrations by nurses, teachers, police officers and firefighters - and to a crash in his approval ratings.
There’s a very good reason voters, when given a chance to make a clear choice, increasingly support a stronger, not a weaker, social safety net: they need that net more than ever. Over the past 25 years the lives of working Americans have become ever less secure. Jobs come without health insurance; 401(k)’s vanish; corporations default on their pension obligations; workers lose their jobs more often, and unemployment lasts much longer than it used to.
Welcome to the jungle, ladies and gentlemen (apologies to Guns and Roses). You are on your own. Hope you enjoy it.
ownership society indeed.
Don’t worry America. Just pray to God…and if that don’t work…we can allll sing!!
Gawwwwd Bless Amerrrricaaaaaa….laaaand that I looooooove.
No one wanted to listen to the progressives in November. I think more are listening a little closer now. Now if we can get the MSM out of it’s trance…
We have to flush as many of the wingnuts out in 06, and get the rest of them out in 08.
I hope it’s another 40 years before they get a foothold again.
it really is “what’s the matter with kansas?” material. these politians are routinely voted into office by the same people their policies screw.