Quote Originally Posted by dragonrider
And here is something I don't think I have heard a lot of people talk about. I think that on top of the desire to punish whoever they percieve as responsible (right or wrong), people tned to throw in their lot with the Democrats when the economy is REALLY bad. This country has a small upper class and a small lower class and a large middle class. The two parties fight over that middle class. When things are good, that middle class feels the possibility that they too might make it into the upper class and they begin to support policies that open opportunities for the upper class --- Republican policies. When things are bad, that middle class begins to fear that they might actually slip into the lower class, and they begin to favor policies that give a greater safety net to the lower class --- Democratic policies. If you are in the middle class right now, how do you see your near future --- are you more likely to get rich or get poor? Are you more concerned about opening opportunities or having a safety net?
Excellent post and you're pretty much dead on, everything during an election year, especially this year in particular because of the situation we're in.. is based on perception. How people percieve things and how they actually are are two different things.

Contrary to the rising costs and the banking/financial industry being on the rocks.. the actual economy is not in Horrible shape as many would have you believe. However since stock trading is considered the backbone of this country (even though it's actually not) people perceive times are bad. Truth is you can still get loans, provided you meet the prime criteria, you can still get credit cards (provided you have a fico score 700 and above). Things are not getting bad, it's simply that financial institutions are not making any risky moves at the moment. One of that being loaning to people who have sub par credit history/rating.

Even your example of when people flock to democrats and when they flock to republicans is a perception. Probably the only point in your whole Post I don't agree with. People view the republican party for being for the rich mostly because of how they attack taxation without understanding their reasoning behind it. Republican philosophy revolves around free market and deregulation (which is what brought us out of our last horrible economic mess). They believe that with less taxation that the free market will have room to grow, expand their profits. In turn companies will re invest into themselves through research/development and hiring of new employees. In addition to company funded benefits (due to increased profits from more workers and less taxation). When the companies profits go up, even though the tax percentage on the company is less, the government will still make the same amount of money simply because of the increase in revenue/profit.

However democrats believe in more taxation of corporations and the rich, despite the fact that the top 3% pays well over 90% of the total taxes in the nation. They then hand this back to the middle class; which if you truly think about it the amount each person get's back because of the increase on the upper class is really a marginal amount. Not enough, in my opinion, to make a true impact on the middle class person's lifestyle and living conditions (the actual terminology for this slips my mind at the moment. Long day at work). In addition to this a companies job is not to help the population.. a companies job is to protect it's profits for it's investors. The investors are the companies bosses. The easiest way to protect that is through increasing the cost of their products and reduction in work force.

Two different approaches to try to achieve the same solution. Personally I prefer the republican approach as it benefits more people in the long run.

Anyone ever hear of John Forbes Nash?