Liberals probably don't know much about Amity Shlaes or Charles Kesler. And when they know something about what those scholars write, they probably aren't much impressed. On the other hand, if they are inclined to fine arts they might read Matthew Arnold's “Dover Beach,” with its exquisite rendering of the poet's frustration at not being able to understand why people behave as badly as they sometimes do.

Arnold expressed a certain pessimism that would eventually plague many modern liberals, and that is a mood we should try to understand. Liberal pessimism is so pervasive today, and so relentlessly enlarged by leftist muckraking, that dealing with it adequately would require a shelf of books. Space here is limited, however, therefore the following reflections are brief.

Obama

We should first recall the President's background notions: that Keynes rather than Friedman is the best guide to how government should oversee the economy, that government's proper role in America grew out of the New Deal, that the general welfare of Americans should be fostered by a “social contract” between government and citizens, and that “interdependence” is a fact of life which public policy should take into account. Convictions such as these justify a liberal thesis to the effect that after the New Deal – and partly because of it – ordinary Americans (retirees, farmers, veterans, clerks, industrial workers, small businessmen, students, professionals, and more) flourished until about 1970. Then the “middle class” began to lose income and influence, especially after 1980, to the point where restoring prosperity to people in that class became an avowed Democratic policy aim.

These notions appeared during the 2012 campaign, but they were not adopted by leading Democrats as a collective, ubiquitous, drumbeat sort of narrative. That is, they did not drive the Democratic 2012 election campaign as a set of distinct understandings that could function as an alpha story.