But thefurious and frustrated electorate should be careful when they demand change inthe upcoming midterm electionsbecause what they get may well be very differentfrom what they actually want.
Tounderstand why, let's look again at the findings of that poll. While thatsurvey (and many others) show Americans deeply polarized over partisanpreferences, the Obama presidency and other questions, there is broad agreementon at least one critical issue: extending unemployment benefits for themillions who have lost jobs and remain out of work. Fully 62% said thatCongress should continue to extend benefits; only 36% said it should not, with2% undecided. Most independents joined most Democrats in supporting extendedbenefitsand even 43% of Republicans agreed.
But whenRepublican congressional and Senate candidates are asked that same question,their responses are negativestrangely and sometimes harshly out of touch withthe current realities of American life.
Listen toSharron Angle, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Nevada, a Scientology adherent who alsofavors returning the country to prohibition of alcohol. Although there are fiveunemployed workers in this country for every available job, she believes thatunemployment insurance is keeping people from seeking work.
"Youcan make more money on unemployment than you can going down and getting one ofthose jobs that is an honest job but it doesn't pay as much," she said notlong ago. "We've put in so much entitlement into our government that wereally have spoiled our citizenry." She is not only heartless, but alsobadly misinformed, since she apparently doesn't know that the average weeklyunemployment check is scarcely higher than the minimum wage in most places. Itwould be educational for her to attempt to maintain a family with that level ofincome.
CuttingBenefits Won't Increase Employment
Not everyRepublican running for office this year necessarily shares that brutalviewpoint, and few of them are stupid enough to say so as bluntly as Angle. Yetthe idea that unemployment benefits ought to be cut off to encourage people tofind workeven when there is no work to be foundreflects the Republicanconsensus.
KentuckySenate candidate Rand Paul, for example, sees cutting off benefits as"tough love." The only way to revive the economy, in his view, is forAmericans to "accept a wage that's less than we had at our previous job inorder to get back to work."
Neither Paulnor Angle should be seen as outside their party's mainstream. In the Senate,Republicans have consistently blocked the extension of unemployment benefitsusing similar arguments. Sen. Jon Kyl, the Arizona Republican who holds hisparty's second-ranking position in the Senate, explained last March on theSenate floor that he would vote against extending benefits because unemploymentinsurance "doesn't create new jobs. In fact, if anything, continuing topay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek newwork."
Such is theRepublican vision in 2010, echoing that of the 19th century: a nation ofworkers toiling longer hours for far less money, descending to the threshold ofpoverty. Nobody who votes for Republicans in anger should complain when that iswhat Americabecomes.
© 2010 Creators.com
