What the Voters Want

Do Americans want more money from Big Government? Mickey Kaus insists no, citing a column by Michael Barone, who in turn relies on research by Stanley Greenberg.

But as the evidence passes from Greenberg to Barone to Kaus, a fascinating game of broken-telephone is played.

Greenberg begins with the observation that ordinary voters do in fact and emphatically want more assistance from government:

When we conducted our election-night national survey after last year’s Republican sweep, voters strongly chose new investment over a new national austerity. They thought Democrats were more likely to champion the middle class. And as has become clear in the months since, the public does not share conservatives’ views on rejecting tax cuts and cutting retirement programs. Numerous recent polls have shown that the public sides with the president and Democrats on raising taxes to get to a balanced budget.

Conservative talkers may deny that insight, but Republican politicians respect its power - and act on it. The GOP did not get around to promoting the Ryan plan until after the 2010 elections. In the months before the elections, the GOP emphasized its unwavering opposition to any kind of cuts in Medicare, which amounted to (you may recall) "death panels."

The problem faced by Democrats, Greenberg argues, is not that ordinary voters object to money being sent their way. They certainly do not feel that receiving help from government prevents them from achieving the "earned success" celebrated by Barone. On the contrary, they regard Medicare and other government benefits as a constituent element of their "earned success."

Rather, ordinary voters conclude that the proceeds of government activism will not go to them, but to the undeserving and unworthy. Greenberg quotes his own focus groups:

“There’s just such a control of government by the wealthy that whatever happens, it’s not working for all the people; it’s working for a few of the people.”

“We don’t have a representative government anymore.”

Into the gap between what Greenberg is actually saying - and what Barone and Kaus hear him to say - could vanish Republican hopes for 2012. Greenberg's voters are not yearning for "less government." They certainly are not yearning for the repeal of the Medicare guarantee for people under 55 in order to finance a cut in the top tax bracket from 36% to 28%. They are yearning for someone who will act in their interests within a political system that looks to them increasingly oligarchical and exploitive.