A conservative dilemma

By Neil Braithwaite

Filed Under Domestic Policy, Policy on Nov 30 

Earlier this year when Rush Limbaugh told Sean Hannity that he hoped President Obama’s policies would fail, many conservative Americans understood exactly what he meant and were in complete agreement with him. After all, what conservative free market capitalist would ever believe Obama’s socialist policies would do anything but destroy America. However, the problem in agreeing with Rush is that the only thing that will eventually fulfill a hope for President Obama’s policies to fail is for the economy to continue to falter.Regardless whether conservatives believe the stock market is in some kind of weird “up” cycle or the most recent GDP numbers truly reflect the current economy, or that any other positive economic reports and projections are just propaganda, they must reluctantly agree that it will be a real dilemma for them if the economy does begin to rebound amidst President Obama’s policies.

For the sake of our country and its people, positive economic signs and reports are a welcome sight. But something strange has been happening to many conservatives since President Obama started implementing his economic policies. Most conservatives expected the results of Obama’s policies to be negative, and have found themselves not only perplexed by reports of positive economic signs, but also maybe even hoping the economy continues to tank or at least, not improve.

Does believing the economy should be tanking, or hoping the economy tanks, make conservatives any different than many liberals during the final years of the Bush Presidency? Wasn’t it Rush Limbaugh who led the conservative mantra that Obama, along with many liberals, seemed to be cheerleading for a continued bad economy to help win the election? Have conservatives taken a page from the liberal playbook and become economic naysayers, cheerleading for a continued bad economy in order to win in 2010?

The dilemma most conservatives currently find themselves in is not grounded in the success or failure of Obama’s policies, or the result of any positive economic signs. Rather, the conservative dilemma is brought about as they witness what Americans have been doing since the birth of this great nation — persevere.

Unfortunately for hard working Americans, their perseverance may be exactly what President Obama is banking on to make him “look” successful, and also be the catalyst that helps him to succeed in “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”

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4 Comments

  1. David Kaiser, Editor on 30.11.2009 at 14:14 (Reply)

    It’s really not that much of a mystery as to why the stock market has rebounded in the last few months, and it has to do with the fact that interest rates are incredibly low.

    People who are looking to invest money are not going to be putting that cash into savings accounts or CDs because they are yielding nothing. The only place where anyone is getting any kind of significant return on their investment is in the stock market. The current low interest environment is rocket fuel for the stock market.

    Expect a very bullish market over the next 12-18 months.

    The economic indicator that will bear the most interest is the unemployment numbers. Unemployment always lags behind the rest of the indicators, so when that number starts turning around, you know things are moving ahead.

    Of course I could be completely wrong, but it’s how things look to me!

    1. Alaina Segovia on 30.11.2009 at 19:40 (Reply)

      I’m going to have to disagree with you David. I like to be an optimist, but I just can’t see the economy turning around for a while. The market is up because companies have slashed their overhead (including staff) to the point where they can actually turn a profit in this economy and show some solid numbers.

      We’re in for a double dip recession. My guess will be shortly following 2010 Q1 numbers… maybe as late as next summer. The credit market is still stagnant and you can’t grow an economy without credit, particularly for businesses. You can also think the continual printing of more money (inflation, here we come), the ridiculous amount of spending by The One (de-values the dollar), his anti-business policies and the likely increase in taxes on businesses (both large and small).

  2. jessica on 30.11.2009 at 14:35 (Reply)

    he didnt hope that the pres would fail in general he hoped his socialistic policies would fail

  3. David Kaiser, Editor on 01.12.2009 at 09:03 (Reply)

    Alaina,

    A little inflation isn’t a bad thing, and because we’re still coming out of a recessionary time, I don’t see heavy inflation coming any time in the near future. The basically zero prime interest rates will discourage people from saving and encourage consumption and investment, which in turn will lead to a kind of gilded recovery. I think the market will go up, but other indicators, such as unemployment, will lag behind.

    As soon as we start getting a sniff of inflation, the Fed will increase the interest rates, which should be enough to stave it off.

    The one thing I will agree with you on is any significant increase of taxes during this period will disrupt consumption and investment, scaring people into saving and we’ll be right back where we started.

    As far as the dollar goes, I’ll be worried when the Fed starts buying bonds in foreign currency, which is a sure sign they want to keep the dollar from falling any further. Basically, I’ll worry when the Fed is worried.

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