For those of us not living in the concentrated sprawl of the coastal and Midwestern metropoli, it is often extremely perplexing how urban Democratic mayors in places like Chicago and Philadelphia can compile lengthy and embarrassing records of incompetent and failed policies, yet remain wildly popular within their urban constituencies. Even as these mayors accumulate massive public debts while governing with a seeming indifference to economic and developmental realities, there is often a certain immutability to their popularity. It is doubly surprising how mayoral characters of this sort are consistently reelected to office in enormous majorities, frequently over vastly superior Republican opponents.
It occurs to me that as the United States becomes ever more urban concentrated, is it not conceivable that we should expect to see this bizarre phenomenon replicated in national politics?
Presently, 81% of the population now resides in cities and the shift to urbanization is still increasing (although granted, the political character of a ‘city’ has a substantially different nature from state to state). As the Obama administration has been busily compiling a record of tremendously unsound and incompetent actions that would easily find envy from a generic Detroit mayor –ranging from highly questionable political appointments, to somewhat shady ‘community outreach’ and ‘urban renewal’ infrastructure projects like the stimulus– should we really be surprised that his poll numbers seem largely impervious to the folly of his actions?
Even in Rasmussen (ever the most generous to the Republican opposition), Obama appears to have hit an incredibly high floor of 56% support, despite the collapse of the stock market, a long string of dubious appointments, a largely unpopular bailout and fiscal policy, and a mounting pattern of profoundly inept foreign policy ventures.
We might also note in passing that as far as a national Detroitification may go, the enduring congressional obsession with the economic plight of Michigan, isn’t particularly encouraging on purely aesthetic grounds.