THE REASON WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS IS THAT WE'VE BEEN BAMBOOZLED

The right is having a schadenfreude OD after reading this:

Seventy-two percent of Americans say big government is a greater threat to the U.S. in the future than is big business or big labor, a record high in the nearly 50-year history of this question. The prior high for big government was 65% in 1999 and 2000. Big government has always topped big business and big labor....

I assume the uptick is inspired by Obamacare more than by the NSA, though I'm sure the NSA is in there. The fact that Obamacare is big government collaborating with big business is rarely discussed in America -- certainly the various parts of Big Medicine would prefer that we never discuss it. They've left government to take all the blame for Obamacare's problems -- which appropriate for the execution, but not so appropriate for the conception. Obamacare was built the way it had to be built to get Big Medicine's support.

The survey results are disheartening, but what's really disheartening is the fact that big business has never taken the #1 slot in this poll. It didn't even happen after Big Finance unleashed a global financial Katrina that drowned much of the world in 2008 -- notice that teeny-tiny uptick in big business's negatives in 2009. And notice how brief the uptick was -- unlike the economic downturn.

The one time in the past 30 years that big government's number dipped below 50% was in 2002. Big business's number rose sharply, but still didn't even hit 40%:

The historical high choosing big business, 38%, came in 2002, after a series of corporate scandals rocked major corporations including Enron and Tyco. Also at that time, Americans may have been less willing to choose government given the rally in support for government institutions and officials after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Great -- the only time in decades that hating government was not a majority opinion in America was when we wanted government to hunt down and exterminate a significant portion of the globe's practitioners of one particular religion.

Let me just point out that the near-constant rise is anger at government since 1970 almost exactly corresponds with a period during which the median income has absolutely stagnated, a stagnation that has not been experienced by the rich. Is big government the problem? Maybe to the extent that government has agreed to shift the burden of taxation to the middle class, and away from rich people and wealthy corporations. That's a government-business partnership, too, if business saying "Jump!" and government responding "How high?" can truly be called a partnership. And once again, business escapes all the blame.