Blogs > OBAMA GETS AN F; HE IS NOT ALONE

Jan 5, 2011

OBAMA GETS AN F; HE IS NOT ALONE



I usually put little stock in online reader polls but I found this Politico one rather striking for the simple reason that it is cannot be dismissed as a right wing outlet. Yet, when asked to grade Obama's year, 48% of the 59140 voters gave him an F. Another 11% a D. In short 59% of the readers failed him. Nor was their judgment unique. A striking FT lead editorial notes the general failure of the failure of the Western governing elite. Following references to the emergence of the American Tea Party, the rise of European nationalist parties and the decline of the the Japanese Democratic Liberal party, the editors write:

In the long run, failing elites are discarded. That happened to the aristocracies and monarchies of old. In high-income countries, recent failures of elites have been too obvious to ignore. The advantage of democracy is that it discards failure more quickly and less violently than other systems. True, electorates may well make serious mistakes, by discarding what works for what turns out not to do so. Yet democracy imposes an invaluable discipline on elites: the latter must convince the public that they know what they are doing. Recent performance is making this quite a challenge. The people are complaining loudly. Elites must both listen and respond.

Counter revolutionaries, the editors write, are challenging the fundamental direction technocrats have been taking the developed world. Only indirectly do the editors admit that these"technocrats" are in reality leftist elites bent on achieving their revolutionary goals by bi-passing the populous. A revolution must precede a counter revolution.



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