Unemployment Rising Again, Many Obama LGBT Supporters Deflated

This is not helpful to the President’s gay supporters when it comes to his re-election a year from now. After all, most voters, including gay people, vote their pocket book (There is absolutely no fun in getting married if you and your partner struggle with constant unemployment and under-employment, or have lost your home).

Recently the Rasmussen’s index of consumer confidence fell dramatically since January from a height of 88 to 73 in mid-March. This means people don’t have confidence to meet their immediate and future consumer and investment needs without unrelenting stress. Now, from the prestigious Gallup organization comes the reason why: Unemployment is up, not down!

Gallup has measured true joblessness in its polling during this entire recession. Here’s the story:

• Unemployment stood at 10.9 in Feb, 10.

• It fell each month ending up at 8.9 in Aug.

• Then it rose again steadily to 10.1 in Oct.

• And dropped to a low of 8.8 in Dec.

• And then shot up again to 10.3 in March of 2011!

In other words, the American public had it right when they were euphoric in January of 2011 with a consumer confidence rate of 88% and are right, again, when they lost all confidence as unemployment soared again over the past three months. Worse still, Gallup reports that at least one out of five Americans, including millions of gay professionals and service workers, are either unemployed or under-employed. Under-employment means that people have jobs but have seen their incomes or their hours reduced.

Economists predict “false dawns” in permanent recessions when the clouds part and all seems well. But the dawns are, indeed, false, and the dismal reality of the continuing depression pushes its way back in.

You wouldn’t know that the economy has crashed in the past three months by watching this president or this Administration. In fact, the Obama folks were wondering when to declare that the recession was over. As joblessness was rising again to new heights, Obama was declaring, in his State of the Union speech that the darkest days of the recession were over — and trying to convince us he was the “Second Coming of Ronald Reagan”. Nobody called him on this Hoover-esque optimism. But it now shows how out of touch with reality he is.

Not all of this economic downturn can be ascribed to the gas price increases. The Middle East turmoil that triggered it had not really hit until the middle of February. By then, according to Gallup, joblessness had risen from 8.8 in December to 10.0 in February, on its way up to 10.3 in March. No wonder hotels, restaurants, and other businesses are laying off hard-working gay people.

Or, if you get tired following the ups and downs, you can say that unemployment has ranged between 9 and 11 percent under Obama’s entire presidency and you would be right. Yet most successful incumbent Presidents run for re-election with a 5-6 percent unemployment rate at worse. When Ronald Reagan won re-election in 1984 by carrying 49 states, his tax-cutting, pro-capitalist economic program had turned an 11 percent unemployment rate to less than four percent by his third year.

Until we repeal his social engineering, reduce the economic uncertainty it has engendered, roll back his spending and his deficits, and deregulate the economy, joblessness will continue. And continue. And continue. And continue.