Essay:Liberal Predictions of the Decade

The first decade of the twenty-first century was marked by many predictions by liberal experts. Almost invariably, these predictions were spectacularly wrong.

Among the most egregiously-incorrect predictions:

• "I believe, that this war is lost, and that the surge has not accomplished anything" (Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on the Iraq War troop surge in April 2007, by December 2008 violence in Iraq was at a 5-6 year low.)

• "Our [stimulus] plan will save or create 3-4 million new jobs, 90% of these jobs will be created in the private sector." (President Barack Obama on the economic stimulus package.) When the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was passed in February 2009 the nation's Unemployment Rate was 8.1%, by December 2009 it was 10.2% and the nation had lost over 2.8 million jobs.

• "The American people have been paying the cost for the Republican culture of corruption...Democrats will restore truth and trust to our government, and put the priorities of the American people first." (Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi) The current Democratic Congress and administration have been rife with scandals, from corruption charges for Congressmen to a never-ending run of Administration nominees who just couldn't seem to remember to pay their taxes. When the nonpartisan Judicial Watch released its 2009 list of most corrupt politicians, nine out of ten names on the list were Democrats.

• "Americans do want to pay taxes for services. Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less." (Colin Powell, May 2009). Since Obama's election, there has been an escalation of voter outrage over government spending.

• "President Obama signed executive orders Thursday directing the Central Intelligence Agency to shut what remains of its network of secret prisons and ordering the closing of the Guantánamo detention camp within a year." The New York Times on January 22, 2009. Guantanamo prison is now expected to stay open until 2011.

• "Global Warming will increase at an exponential scale!" We now know that not only was this prediction incorrect, but that the evidence that it was incorrect was so clear-cut that the liberal scientists studying it had to falsify the data, resulting in Climategate.

• "George Bush is a dictator! He's trying to create Empire America! He and his cronies will never give up power!" The more extreme versions of this prediction suggested that President Bush would declare martial law or stage another terrorist attack prior to the 2008 elections in order to remain in power. Of course, none of that happened; the election proceeded smoothly, the transition of power was peaceful, and the only fraud committed was on behalf of the eventual winner, Barack Obama. The outgoing President and his staff didn't even remove the "W" keys from the keyboards at the White House, unlike certain other past administrations.

• "Our efforts in Iraq are doomed! It'll become a quagmire! The people of Iraq aren't ready for democracy!" Since the troop surge (also condemned by liberals as doomed to failure,) steady progress has been made in Iraq. In 2005, millions of Iraqis participated in democratic elections for the first time in decades.