Before I move on to “the real world”, let me offer one more ditty about the “opera buffa” that is the current political scene. As if writing an essay on recent political comedy is such a new and novel idea — wow, no one would ever have thought of that!<\/p>\n
Anyway, let’s talk about the latest Tea Party-Republican dream come true<\/a>. A man has stepped into the limelight almost as if ordered from Central Casting, to fill the role of the “Elitist Enemy of the People”. He’s an urbane, doctorate level, Harvard educated expert from the Northeast who designed a big-government program that President Obama and the Democrats rammed down the throats of a wary public. And now he’s been revealed to have clearly expressed his disdain for the unwashed masses that allegedly don’t know better, those who might not yet realize that he and Obama were chosen by destiny to pave the road to a better world. Yes, Jonathan Gruber<\/a>, MIT Professor of Economics.<\/p>\n At first, I didn’t think that what Dr. Gruber had to say about<\/a> the unsavory process by which the Affordable Health Care Act was hammered into existence within the unsanitary workshop of national politics was all that surprising or damaging. But then again, I am viewing Gruber through my own fairly educated, somewhat urban and elitist sunglasses. From the perspective of a working class family out in “the heartland”, trying to get by in a tough, unfriendly economy, resentful of some “un-American” force that has unfairly set a burdensome curse upon the lives of them and their neighbors, it is pretty bad. GOP politicians, Tea Party activists and talk radio hosts have primed these families to distrust people like Gruber (and they would probably probably distrust me too). Despite protests to the contrary<\/a> by “elitist” East Coast journalists, l’affaire Gruber<\/em> is politically damaging for the Democrats after all.<\/p>\n The Gruber “revelations” came mostly after the recent mid-term elections earlier this month, where “heartland” voters voiced their dismay about what Obama and experts like Gruber have offered them over the past 6 years. In a sense, the timing was lucky for the Democrats. Had “Grubergate” hit a few weeks earlier, the Democratic blood-letting could have become a full scale massacre; the Dems might have lost the Senatorial races in Virginia and New Hampshire and perhaps a few more close-call governorships such as in Colorado and Vermont(!<\/strong>). It looks like the GOP is using the Gruber videos to “keep the momentum going”, to get a head start on 2016. <\/p>\n The Nov. 4 Democratic wipe-out was clearly about Obamacare. The overall mood behind it no doubt also involved angst about the ebola crisis and the rise of ISIS in Iraq. But the underlying emotional logic is the same for all three subjects: dislike of a well-educated, elitist President who stuck firm to the liberal playbook, even after things started backfiring regarding his decisions on health care, public health threats and overseas military interventions. Obama’s alleged incompetence in real-world matters came shining through to middle-America, despite all of the President’s Harvard credentials and those of his brain-trust (including Gruber, despite the Petrine<\/a> denials<\/a> of Obama and Nancy Pelosi — you can hear that rooster crowing in the background).<\/p>\n Thoughts like that can become rather popular amidst those who don’t hold Ivy League degrees and are struggling to keep a job or to find one, while still paying all the family bills. As such, Grubergate does not bode well for Hillary Clinton in 2016. As I said in a recent post, Hillary is politically tied at the hip to Obama. Heck, she herself tried to foist a health care monstrosity-of-sorts on the public back in 1994. I was hopeful in my last post that perhaps there was some light at the end of the tunnel regarding public acceptance of Obamacare, acknowledgement that it is good for the country after all. A Pew Foundation poll showed that the disapproval margin over approval was down to 6% as I posted my essay. But a subsequent Gallup poll (taken just as the Gruber videos hit the news) showed it back up at 19%. The running average of polls has not shown any improvement trend since late 2009, bouncing mostly between 10 and 13% in the red. This to me is amazing given how much good that Obamacare has actually done over the past year. It’s obviously the perception and not the reality that is winning the day, politically. And the Gruber revelations just add more fuel to all those (mis) perceptions.<\/p>\n The only saving grace for Democrats is that Gruber is going to be old news by 2016, probably mostly forgotten. The hyper-24\/7 news cycle is sometimes as much a blessing as a curse. Despite the fact that my optimism was a bit premature that the public is finally coming around on Obamacare, my other speculation regarding the potential positive effects for the Democrats of a continuing economic recovery and a revival of wage growth might be moving closer to daylight. A recent article in Bloomberg<\/a> indicates that signs of wage growth are picking up in various sectors, and economists expect that a general wage increase tide will soon flow into the working sector. Although rising labor costs might put a drag on economic growth, the effect of cheap oil (now back down to about $75 per barrel) could provide a counter-stimulus that will keep the party going. Employed people with rising wages are much more likely to look kindly upon incumbent parties in big elections.<\/p>\n The 2016 fun is only beginning, however!<\/p>\n Dicta — Jonathan Gruber grew up in Ridgewood, NJ, about 7 miles from my home town. Not far in distance, but socio-economically in a different galaxy. Another interesting factoid: Mitt Romney and Gruber once got along rather well, as a recent video<\/a> seems to indicate. Hmm, perhaps Romney is going to need to lay low<\/a> for now regarding the rumors that he’s been thinking about getting back into the fray for 2016; at least until this blows over. (But by then, a whole lot of other Republican Governors and ex-Governors will have the jump on him; but hey Mitt, thanks anyway, it was an interesting thought!)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I move on to “the real world”, let me offer one more ditty about the “opera buffa” that is the current political scene. As if writing an essay on recent political comedy is such a new and novel idea — wow, no one would ever have thought of that! Anyway, let’s talk about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4899"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4932,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4899\/revisions\/4932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}