The new
Washington Post-ABC News poll is out, and as Greg Sargent
points out, it crystallizes precisely what the 2012 campaign should be about, and where Democrats can find a very clear advantage.
It finds that a sizable majority sees the current economic system as inherently unfair in a way that favors the wealthy, and sees this as a more serious problem facing America than government regulation of the free market:
What do you think is the bigger problem in this country—unfairness in the economic system that favors the wealthy, or over-regulation of the free market that interferes with growth and prosperity?
Economic unfairness : 55
Market overregulation: 35
Among the 55 percent who see economic unfairness that favors the wealthy as the main problem say Obama is better equipped than a GOP candidate for president to deal with it, 35-15. Not surprisingly, those who see market regulation as the problem overwhelmingly see the GOP candidate as the best equipped to deal with it.
The Post polling team gave me a partisan breakdown. Moderates see economic unfairness on behalf of the wealthy as a bigger problem than market overregulation by 59-29. And those who see unfairness as the problem break two to one in support for Obama over the GOPer as the one better positioned to handle it. Independents see economic unfairness as a bigger problem by 52-38 (though they split evenly between Obama and the Republican).
Anyone who has paid attention to how banks and financial services companies destroyed the housing market in the past decade knows overregulation is the least of the nation's problems. Unless, as this poll reflects, they're a conservative ideologue who agrees with all of the GOP presidential candidates that government regulations of any kind are Satan's work.
It also means that, contrary to Mitt Romney's wishes, discussion of income inequality won't be confined to "quiet rooms," and that it goes far beyond a matter of "envy" on the part of the great unwashed.