Angry voters are blind to progress

Paul Feldman, Las Vegas

Tuesday, May 11, 2010 | 2:04 a.m.

Voter anger at incumbents in Washington says more about the voters than it does about our elected representatives.

The 2006 housing-bubble puncture led directly to the financial industry collapse of 2008 — which virtually all economists agree is the worst economy we’ve seen since the Great Depression. It took about 10 years to get out of the Depression. And here we are, less than 14 months after President Barack Obama took office, and almost every economic indicator is pointing toward a steady, albeit gradual, recovery. In a civil society that would be called “success.”

Those constantly railing against the government have abdicated logic and succumbed to the rantings of the radical right, who make their living by instigating anger and criticizing everything the Obama administration does. Coupled with the need for instant gratification typical of the computer age, and the failure to learn — and learn from — history, many Americans have turned into a class of spoiled whiners who need to turn off the Fox News Channel and turn on to the facts.

Instead, many people want to vote out the Democratic administration that guided the turnaround — and replace them with the same Republicans whose policies caused the Great Recession, which happened on the Republicans’ watch. Incredible!