The unemployment rate has not only dropped since Obama took office, it has dropped dramatically.…
A Bloomberg Poll released on November 19th found that a majority of
Republican voters believe the unemployment has risen during Barack
Obama’s presidency.
According to the poll,
53 percent of Republican voters erroneously think the unemployment rate
is higher now than when Barack Obama was first inaugurated in January
of 2009. Only 38 percent of Republican voters correctly understood that
the unemployment has dropped during Obama’s presidency.
The unemployment rate has not only dropped since Obama took office,
it has dropped dramatically. When Barack Obama took the oath of office
in January 2009,
the unemployment rate was 7.8 percent.
It rose to 10.0 percent by October of that year, as the full impact of
the 2008 economic crisis took hold and caused massive job losses in the
U.S. economy.
However, since October of 2009,
the unemployment rate has dropped sharply, and by October 2015 it had fallen to 5.0 percent.
After the Bush economy fell flat on its face, Barack Obama has put
Americans back to work again, and the nation has enjoyed a modest
recovery.
Republican voters however, live in an alternate reality. They are so
resistant to the idea that America isn’t on the road to ruin, that they
refuse to see any good news so long as Barack Obama remains in the White
House. Their frustration with the current president however is rooted
in ideology not in genuine suffering. Republicans can believe what they
want to believe, but they should never confuse their beliefs with the
truth.
With the wingnut base so detached from reality, it is little wonder that
they have rallied behind Trump’s “make America great again”
slogan. Republican voters have lost sight that Barack Obama is already
making America great again, rebuilding it from the economic destruction
wrought by the policies of the shrub.
The wingnuts refuse to accept reality. They want to believe Barack Obama
is a terrible president who has caused Americans untold suffering. They
want to believe that unemployment has risen with Obama at the helm.
However, this nightmare is a figment of Republican voters’ collective
imaginations. The unemployment rate has dropped under Obama’s
leadership, and even if Republicans can’t acknowledge that reality, the
rest of us know its the truth.
