60-40 NATION:

Glass half full for most Americans (Jennifer Harper, 6/02/04, THE WASHINGTON TIMES)

Americans are optimistic, "very satisfied with life" and have confidence in their public institutions, especially the U.S. armed forces and law-enforcement agencies, two new polls show.

Fifty-six percent of Americans say their personal situation has improved over the last five years, up seven points since last year, and 68 percent expect their personal situation to improve over the next five years, up five points from 2003, a Harris poll released yesterday found.

"These changes since last year almost certainly reflect improvements in the economy and are probably good news for President Bush," the poll stated. "The better people feel about their personal situation, the more likely they are to vote for an incumbent."

The number of people who feel their lives have worsened in the last five years declined to 16 percent, five percentage points lower than last year.

Meanwhile, the nation's confidence in its public institutions is on the rise, according to a Gallup poll released yesterday.

Yet Democrats are running against the economy, Don Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft?

MORE:
Happy Bush Country (Ben Stein, 6/1/2004, The American Spectator)

I don't want to paint with too broad a brush. There are pockets of constant complaining. The big cities of the east and west coasts, especially among people who make their living be complaining, are not so happy as North Idaho. Whole large swaths of the population who rationalize their own failings by thinking of themselves as victims, especially in big cities and heavy coffee drinking centers, have their own clubs. Those brotherhoods specialize in pessimism and anger as they spend the money they have inherited or receive as allowances from family, state, or university. The malcontents live on their frustration and envy of the people who are actually out there accomplishing things. That envy rises like the steam from the coffee and lattes they are endlessly drinking. The discontented survey the scene of those who are actually in the arena doing. Then they react with predictable jealousy and scorn. (And by the way, I wonder if we can positively correlate caffeine intake with levels of envy. I think we can.) But these people are a minority. They do not represent at all what I see as the upbeat, up tempo mood of America even with the Iraqi prison abuse scandals, even with the high price of gasoline. That predominant mood, at least as I see it, is still mostly determinedly happy. Even after 9/11, even after the mass rallies in Moslem nations against us, even after the Europeans have scorned us often and contemptuously, we are still living it up and mostly contented with our lives.

That this can be true is even more amazing when one considers the state of the mass media in America and the upside down fun house mirror that media presents to the nation.

The mass media outlets are usually based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., all major centers of pessimism and anger. For reasons better understood by a psychiatrist than an actor and commentator, the people in the media in these places often -- but not always -- loathe and fear their own country in many ways. This shows in their endless "Hate America" pieces on the air, showing every kind of vice and crime and sorrow, and only rarely anything good. The news stories on the nightly news in America might just as well come from Al-Jazeera as from America, that is how filled with bitterness at their own country they are. America is torturing Arabs, repressing Black people, stealing the savings of the elderly, oppressing women, denying the elderly medical care. This in a nutshell is the news from the major networks and newspapers in America.

As far as I can tell, their dismal view of the nation and their general level of hostility and anger are largely unrepresentative of what the true mood of the nation is. Certainly it is wildly unrepresentative of the state of the nation. This nation, by and large, is wildly prosperous and happy. People of color have made amazing progress. Women in particular have made amazing progress. The news on the TV might as well come from the moon. [...]

Why is Mr. Bush still fairly popular, especially in the interior of the nation, the parts where the beautiful people do not live? Possibly it is because those friendly folks at Hill's Resort and Bottle Bay and in Ripon, Wisconsin, and Grand Rapids, Michigan, and Dennison, Ohio, know that Mr. Bush is one of them. Despite his patrician upbringing and his wealth -- modest indeed by John Kerry's wife's standards -- Mr. Bush connects with America. In his optimism and outgoing boyish cheer he resonates with the ordinary citizen in this country far, far better than his opponents. He is the happy, outgoing kid in the high school class whom everyone wants to be friends with. Not because he's the smartest or the richest or the handsomest. But because he's in the best mood.

This is a nation built on optimism. It is an idealistic nation. We have one candidate, Mr. Bush, who says to Americans, "We are all members of the great, happy club called America. We are the city on the hill, the light of the world. Let's be proud of ourselves and be happy. We make mistakes, but we try to correct them and go on to better days."

The men and women laughing softly into the summer night at Priest Lake and Lake Pendoreille would feel comfortable with him and he would feel comfortable with them -- and that may yet tell the tale in this election. He is one of us.

Posted by Orrin Judd at June 2, 2004 12:06 PM