Open Thread

August 24th, 2009 9:57 AM

For general discussion and debate. Possible talking point: The real reason Americans are angry!

Americans of all stripes, it turns out, aren't very keen about the government barging into their lives. An ABC/Washington Post poll from June showed people preferred "smaller government with fewer services" over "larger government with more services" by 54% to 41%, up from 50%-45% a year earlier (independents were even more pronounced, at 61%-35%). A Rasmussen poll from April showed that 77% of Americans preferred a "free market" economy over a "government managed" economy, up seven percentage points from just last December. A July CBS poll found that 52% of Americans think that Obama is trying to do "too much." After 11 months of federal bailouts and freakouts, Americans have become bone tired of panicky power grabs from Washington. It's the big government, stupid.

Why are Americans figuring this out now? Wasn't this obvious during the campaign? What prevented people from seeing this was coming before they voted?