They’re selling policies that rely on the notion that free markets, individual responsibility, and choice don’t work

Some are, but for the most part, the Democrats are middle-of-the-road types who’ve done more for free markets than people give them credit for. But they also push a notion of corporate responsibility as well, which is important and something you guys seem to leave off the table.

Keep in mind that historically when Republicans have gotten their way and have gotten the deregulation the so desire, it has almost always backfired and cost the taxpayers a lot of money. From energy, to accounting, to S&L’s, to the airlines, most of these plans have been abject failures. I think people are right to question whether or not the free-market idealogues really know what they’re talking about.

Like it or not, the economy is not doing so well, in part because of income inequality. I don’t know of any economist worth his salt that would argue that vast income inequality is a sign of a healthy economy. Real wages have continued to decline for the past ten years, the middle class is earning less than it was in real dollars, but executive compensation continues to rise. People notice this. So this isn’t a wag the dog moment. It’s been openly discussed for some time among progressives and democrats. concerns about the health of the economy for most Americans predates the current housing crisis by a number of years.

What you call “stoking economic fears” I call being honest. Everyone poo-pooed lefty economists who warned the Bear Stearns was in trouble months ago. A right-wing CNBC analyst even got on TV to assure us that “Bear Stearns is fine”, complete with charts and graphs “proving” his point, and that lefty nutjobs were trying to scare people into believing otherwise. Well what do you know…the leftys were right and the right-wing was wrong. Again, this makes we wonder why you think people should believe you about this. What’s worse, telling things like it is, or cheerleading a company teetering on the verge of bankruptcy because it would hurt you politically?