Remember that period — early in 2009 — when President Obama had yet to compile any record in office? Nina Easton does, and she helps Fortune readers reflect on political changes that have taken place during the 2 ½ years of an Obama administration:
In February of 2009, with Barack Obama barely a month in office, Newsweek declared “We are all socialists now.” The most interesting part: its matter-of-fact tone, asserting that as boomers age and spending grows, Americans were turning, well, French. A bit tongue-in-cheek, maybe, but it’s worth noting that, as it turns out, we’re not all Euro-socialists. Not even close. The rise in federal spending from 21% to nearly 25% of the economy in just two years has contributed to an angry backlash — leaving Americans more, not less, divided about government’s proper role in our lives.
In the summer of 2004, little-known Illinois Senator Obama first captured the public’s imagination with eloquent pleas for national unity. But the fireworks this Fourth of July more closely resemble the old days of democracy when Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton engaged in down-and-dirty debates over government’s reach. As the 2012 election approaches, one camp says Washington is strangling the free-market economy. The camp on the left views Washington as the grand savior from destructive free-market greed. Exactly half of us think government is too big, and 55% think it’s always wasteful, says the Pew Research Center. Pew also concludes that Americans are more doctrinaire, more hardened in their views, especially over this question: “Should government do more to help the needy even if it means bigger deficits?”
It could be worse. We could be living in the times of one of John Hood’s more boisterous ancestors.
