Word: washingtonization
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When Obama took office, conventional wisdom held that the American people, jarred by a financial crisis they were routinely told was "the worst since the Great Depression," would race into the protective arms of Washington. After all, the Federal Government had given us the New Deal in the worst of times and a patchwork of economic safety nets since. The idea is that we instinctively turn to its beneficent hand to ease the pain of hurricanes, floods, tornadoes--and recessions...
...today's hard economic times, something startling began showing up in public-opinion polls: fewer people than in the past wanted Washington to step in. In the latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, only 23% of respondents said they trust the government "always or most of the time"--the smallest proportion in 12 years. The percentage of voters who think government should "do more to solve problems and meet the needs of people" has dropped 5 points since Obama's first weeks in office, while that of those who think government should leave more things "to businesses" rose 8 points...
...What people understand that policymakers in Washington don't is that there's a real belief out there that all government does is waste money," says Doug Schoen, the pollster who helped President Clinton move into the era of "Big Government is over" after the Democrats' 1994 midterm-election drubbing. "Taxes go up. Debt goes up. People think, 'All you're going to do is waste my money and put me in a dire situation.'" Karlyn Bowman, a public-opinion researcher at the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute, advances the counterintuitive notion that Americans may be happier with Big Government...
...elderly and poor. But any bold reach beyond the basics becomes problematic when swing voters start to confront costly realities and the soaring sweep of campaign promises gets lost in programmatic details. Since last spring, there has been a sizable drop in the portion of voters who think Washington should guarantee health insurance, with Gallup now recording--for the first time since it began asking the question--more people saying it is not the government's responsibility (50%) than saying...
...woman's right to choose. She tries to project a muscular toughness, as Hillary Clinton did, with plans to fire 40,000 state employees and constant talk about her "spine of steel." "Sarah Palin almost ruined it for women," says Bruce Cain, executive director of the University of California Washington Center. "But Hillary Clinton did wonders. If you want to run, you want to be like Hillary. You want to know your stuff cold." (See pictures of wildfires in California...