I may need them to pay the rent at this rate.

I am by nature an optimist, so I don't see it this negatively. Yes, we have lots of problems, but none of them are unsolvable.

The price of oil will come down eventually. Demand has not really outstripped supply, yet. Much of the increase in the cost of oil can be laid on speculators. I expect the loopholes that allow that to happen will be closed sometime in the next year. The price of oil will drop some. This will take some of the pressure off of the economy. That in turn will improve people's outlook. Add in a new president and a continued downturn in violence in Iraq and consumer confidence should rise.

While the I expect the price of oil to drop, it will stay high enough to keep the focus on finding solutions. This won't be like the 1970's when a drop in the price of oil killed alternative fuel research. This time, everyone realizes something must be done. That's a positive.

An added benefit from alternative energy research will be a drop in greenhouse gas emissions. Another plus.

As far as health care goes, they will have to find a way to shift the burden for the costs. Right now, that burden falls heavily on employers. We need to move away from this model so our employers can be more competitive on the world market. At the same time, we need to limit the amount of money the insurance companies are skimming off the top. This shift of costs and reduction will make UHC possible.

The one thing in your scenario that could cause us to be well and truly f*cked is some kind of war with Iran. This would absolutely throw the whole world into an economic nightmare. Everyone realizes this danger. That's why I don't think it will come to that. No one, not even the Israelis are prepared to face the consequences of such an action. Hopefully, this is all simply posturing to force the Iranians to make concessions.

One thing I've learned in my 60+ years is that things are seldom as bad as they seem. That's why I am an optimist.

consider that the Neo-cons have won the war, regardless of who is elected the next President.

Their goal has always been explicit - bankrupt the nation so that the only solution is to "starve the beast" - that is, to eliminate all those "entitlement" programs you're speaking of.

Under those circumstances, they've won.  When progressives are talking about our social compact as "entitlement" programs, and admitting that we may have to cut/eliminate them and give up on our heart's desire - universal health care - then they've managed the conversation, they've dictated the parameters and they've won.

I'm not criticizing you, mind - you may well be right.

But they've won.

I'm not an economist, so I don't know how the public would react to a push for UHC (or at least something close to it; only Edwards had a truly universal plan). But I don't think a bad economy pre-empts the creation or expansion of a government program. If so, we wouldn't have Social Security, FDIC, the FHA, etc., etc.

Given how many people are being wiped out by unexpected medical bills, or can't afford health insurance in the first place, I don't see why a push for UHC wouldn't be of huge comfort to them, assuming it's not paid for with George W.-style "voodoo" math.

negative in my first comment - I agree with Indie that there are things that can be done to address this - the real question is whether or not enough Democrats will bite the bullet.

1) return the tax codes to some semblance of sanity, including  taxing the wealthy and the corporate world at their truly fair levels;

2) punish those corporations that have set up fake off-shore headquarters to avoid taxes;

3) pass legislation that sets reasonable limits on corporate profiteering/greed;

4) re-establish genuine but reasonable regulatory processes over the financial world and US stock and commodities markets;

5) re-think the most extremely generous cases of free-trade;

6) create a credible, logical and achievable energy policy which is not dictated by big oil, big auto, big sugar, big corn;

6) recognize the importance of our allies and return to an era of international political negotiation and collaboration;

7) deal with China and Russia in the above ways (negotiation, collaboration and fair, but firm trade policies;

8) recognize that we don't really need to be the world's police force and our military doesn't need to be spread all over the world; in conjunction with this, demand that our allies begin to fund more of their own national defense needs, and stop the US subsidization of their defense.

For starters.

that I've been aching to hear acknowledged by the remaining candidates.

And the Democratic party is still in need of a thread, an over-arching philosophy.

"tax and spend liberals" slam.

It has been the Right who have been (in theory) the Responsible Adults and the Democrats have by and large allowed themselves to be painted into the Dreamy Hippie corner for a long time.  Leaving the benevolent emotions aside, we should all want a healthy and educated population so that they can be productive, pay taxes and reduce government spending.  The fact that words like these are often read as "Right Wing" just shows how "Wrong Wing" the left has often gotten it.  When people can work and pay taxes they usually don't have many of the social problems that Liberalism aims to fix.  It also allows us to spend more money on the remaining issues while spending less in total out of a larger pot.

It is just this sort of pragmatic liberalism that attracted this wobbling-centrist back to the left via Sen. Obama, and the more the Dem party as a whole embodies it the more small-c conservatives we fight for us.

Great diary.

-chris

Part of the problem is that our consumer confidence is terrible.  I know it's impossible to prove, but the stock market started tanking in 2000 right after we elected Bush because people knew that he was A) an idiot, and B) pretty much stole the election and damaged American credibility.

I am an optimist.  I believe that Obama will help the economy by the mere fact that we'll be proud to be Americans again.

Call it voodoo if you want, it's my belief.

The New Deal (Social Security, welfare, union protection, etc.) wasn't put out when everything was hunky-dory. Those programs were put out in the darkest times when people really needed them and the government couldn't really afford them.

When people are out of work, that's when they need UHC. When the economy's bad, that's when we need the government to step in and help the people who have been thrown under the wheels of the machine.

The problem that we have is that, in good times, the Republicans have been spending like drunken sailors. And, now when times are tough... They're spending like drunken sailors and cutting income (taxes). We need a government that will balance the budget and put away money in good times (like Clinton did) and spend it in bad times (like FDR did), not the other way around.

Not for the millions of uninsured or underinsured people in this country.

For many, it's literally a life-or-death necessity.

I think you are right - the bottom is about to drop out.  And for most people it won't matter who is to blame for it.  Things like not having a job, not having a place to live, food to eat, health care for your family.. these things trump political discussion for most Americans.  The only people who will endlessly discuss it when  it happens will be people like us on these boards and the knuckleheads on TV.  Most people will be too busy trying to figure out how they are going to survive.  

No, we don't concede on our issues. We're Democrats and we keep moving our agenda no matter how bad the GOP screwed up this country.  

The New Deal didn't happen because FDR was too scared to make bold moves when our economy was in the crapper. It happened because he knew we had to invest in the USA in order to save our economy and improve the lives of Americans. That's what the Democratic party stands for.

If you run scared every time the economy sours and have trouble supporting these principles when we most need to be committed to them, you need to stop calling yourself a "progressive" or "liberal". Real progressives do not cave on their commitment to Democratic principles because they're scared. Sounds like you've been suckered into supporting the conservative talking points with just a couple of their scare tactics.

What we are facing in this election is pretty simple.
Do we continue to allocate to imperial dreams and corporate greed(there may not be a difference)...
or do we work to rebuild...
Perhaps only in an America of $5 gas...low wages..inferior education..foreclosures and no health care can the programs necessary for rebuilding take place..
When folks come to Denver in Aug they can be a part of one of the Driest Denver's ever recorded...
so yeah we are looking at global warming too...

tap yer toes..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENXhShuof 1I