GOP talk of vibrant economy rings hollow

From the AP via Yahoo courtesy of AlterNet:

Times are "very good for the rich and very, very bad for the poor" who "can't afford to live," laments Larry Mitchell, 43, a now-and-then merchant peddling his wares recently in a submarine sandwich shop parking lot. He says the middle class is "having a hard time."

In the Ohio River Valley, where people decry high gas prices, stagnant wages, lost jobs and factory closures, many don't buy the claim that the economy is humming along.

Seven weeks before the midterm elections, the gulf between Bush's perceptions and that of voters form the political backdrop across the country as well as in a region with several competitive House races. This area typically gets left out of national boom times and usually feels the pinch more than others during slowdowns.

Here and elsewhere differing views on the economy could hurt the GOP's efforts to retain control of the House and Senate this fall, and give voters reason to put Democrats in charge instead.

Click here for the rest.

Most of the individuals feeling the economic squeeze in this article are Republicans, so I see this as pretty good news. That is, right-wing conventional wisdom, which has been so utterly dominant for years now, is starting to fall apart. Since the so-called Reagan Revolution, it seems that a majority of American voters and politicians have bought, hook, line, and sinker, the bogus notion of laissez-faire: the economy works best and provides for the most people, when the government stays the hell out. In practical terms this has meant massive tax breaks for big business and the wealthy, heavy deregulation, and the delegitimizing of organized labor and collective bargaining; ideally, this would free up business to make some serious bucks, which would then benefit rank-and-file citizens in terms of better wages and more job opportunities. The only problem is that it hasn't actually worked that way. Businesses and the wealthy have, indeed, benefitted from laissez-faire policies, but, through outsourcing, downsizing and other techniques, they've perfected the art of keeping it all for themselves. The money simply hasn't trickled down, and people are hurting. That's how we're able to have a "good" economy coupled with rising poverty. It's taken years for people who bought the bullshit to open their eyes to see the ample evidence before them, but it looks like that's exactly what's happening right now.

And that's a damned good thing. Bye-bye bullshit right-wing "philosophy."

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