Somebody: No, American's are just stupid. Considering that the woefully insufficient Recovery Act still managed to lower unemployment by a percentage point or two, there's really no planet on which President McCain or a Republican Congress would have done a better job digging the country out of recession. Moreover, if more Americans had historical perspective, they'd realize that over the entire period since World War II income growth under the Democrats has been greater than under Republicans. But, that's just it, they have no historical perspective. The deciding margin of voters this mid-term will be casting their ballots based on current economic conditions, full stop.
I mean, seriously, why aren't American workers marching on Washington for jobs and general economic relief? It's not a very politically sophisticated demand. In another era we would have had Coxey's Army or the Bonus Marchers amassing in the nation's capital. Lowest common denominator populism like that shouldn't require a politically advanced Trotskyist vanguard to awaken to existence.
Honestly, I think it's because capitalism is such an old system at this point, and has shrugged off all challenges and alternatives. We can point out that there's nothing natural about wage slavery or whatever, but frankly it seems as venerable as Moses and the Tablets to most people. It doesn't even occur to Americans to blame the bosses for high unemployment or excessive financial speculation. On the other hand, our political representatives and "Government" as an abstract entity are always highly visible and can easily be given the blame for just about everything.