Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

So last night Marian suggested that Obama is doomed. The economy is going to improve, Republicans will take all the credit for it, and they’ll win in 2012.

I don’t actually believe that — partly because I’m not sure the economy is going to improve substantially, and partly because if it does I think Obama will get credit for it. Presidents always do. Still, it did remind of how self-assured conservatives are compared to liberals. The basis for Obama being doomed, after all, is that Republicans have a great story all primed and ready in the American imagination, which means that when (if) the economy improves they’ll easily be able to persuade people that they were responsible. Even Marian, who doesn’t pay a ton of attention to politics, knows their story.

So what does the American economy need, according to conservatives? That’s easy. Lower taxes. Smaller deficits. Reduced spending. Less uncertainty. It may be nonsense, but it’s not an act. They are 100% convinced that this is bedrock truth, and they tell their story with absolute conviction.

And what’s the liberal story about what the economy needs? Don’t all raise your hands at once. More stimulus? That’s a good answer, but every Democrat in an actual position of power is either afraid to say so or doesn’t believe it. Hell, most of them weren’t even willing to take credit for the positive effects of the 2009 stimulus. A payroll tax holiday? Also not a bad answer, but no one is pushing it. Policies to weaken the dollar? That’ll be a cold day in hell. Massive infrastructure investment? A direct government jobs program? Work subsidies? Maybe, kind of, and we’re not sure.

In other words, liberals don’t have a story at all. A few of them do — call them the Krugmanites for short — but it’s a small and uninfluential band. In the halls of power and the corridors of the media, liberals have nothing but a collective clamor of pet ideas and peevish finger pointing. So even if the economy does improve, there won’t be any way for them to persuade the public that their policies were responsible. For starters, they themselves probably won’t really believe it.

Anyway, nothing new here. Just felt like getting it off my chest. Feel free to fire away in comments.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate