Facts matter, unless you are an ideologue.
Obama’s economic successes—and ultimately his legacy—stem from a progressive, policy-rich administration. Yes, one might argue that a progressive economic ideology favors more government control over economic activities and a greater redistribution of wealth—both a bane of any truly right-minded conservative—but the success of his progressive agenda implemented over his last two terms have actually improved the lives of most Americans, both middle-class and the working poor.
Conversely, conservative economic policies have not improved the lives of most Americans. Conservative policies most abide by a free markets ideology, an ideology that contends only truly free markets will produce the most prosperity for the most people. It is an ideology that contends that somehow big companies will be able to lift up the poor out of poverty, and that somehow the economic benefits generated by these companies will “trickle-down” to the lower middle class and the poor, thereby improving their economic lot in life.
But facts matter. The evidence that “trickle-down” economics works simply isn’t there (see Mehrun Etebari’s essay “Trickle-Down Economics: Four Reasons Why It Just Doesn’t Work” from the United for a Fair Economy website).
Ultimately, the only people who truly profit from free-markets capitalism are the those who already inhabit the top one percent. These companies don’t strive to continually expand their profit margins by creating jobs for the poor out of an altruistic belief that their profits will lift up the middle and lower class, but rather by the ideological belief that they have a “right” as practicing capitalists to increase profits even at the expense of cutting jobs.
The Right has always clung to the belief that their conservative economic ideology is pure because they believe their policies have created millions of jobs. But check the facts: Since the 1950’s, Democrats have created 58 million jobs while Republicans created only 26 million (see Christine Branch’s article “Fact Check: Democrats Have Created Twice as Many Jobs as Republicans Since 1950’s,” at the Occupy Democrats web site).
Facts matter.
Call and Response 