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| Home Front: Culture Wars |
| Barack Obama is facing an anti-Big Government revolution |
| 2011-11-10 |
| Widespread unhappiness with the government’s economic policies throughout the course of 2011 is also reflected in a rise in the number of Americans identifying themselves as conservative. As Gallup’s polling shows, 42 per cent of Americans now call themselves conservative (based on June-August interviews), up from 40 per cent in January-March. At the same time, the percentage of Americans who adhere to a liberal ideology has fallen from 22 to 21 during the same time period. The percentage calling themselves moderate also fell, from 38 per cent to 37 per cent. While liberalism is in retreat, the United States is becoming an increasingly conservative nation, rejecting interventionist solutions to economic problems, from endless bailouts to suffocating business regulations. As I noted in an earlier piece, Barack Obama could end up being America’s last Big Government president, with future leaders wary of going down the same path of heavy borrowing coupled with excessive spending, that has fuelled spiralling budget deficits. It is little wonder that 57 per cent of Americans today “have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems” in Gallup polling, with 27 per cent believing “the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens”. On both sides of the Atlantic, governments have tried and failed with top down policies that stifle economic freedom while reducing prosperity. It is a foolhardy approach that is both unsustainable and antithetical to the cause of liberty, and faces a growing conservative revolution in the United States. |
| Posted by:Beavis |