This year, though, a creepy sense of unreality crept in.

It came through on two levels.

The first lay in endless reporting of every microdevelopment in the only national news that was happening -- the so-called "fiscal cliff negotiations."

Blah. Blah. Blah. Most Americans stopped paying attention.

Anyway, what "negotiations"?

With the nation $16.4 trillion in debt and the government borrowing 40 cents of every dollar it spends, Republicans tried to get Democrats to cut spending.

They would have none of it. Democrats insisted first on raising taxes on a flatlined population by $613 billion between 2013 and 2022 -- in addition to their taxes for Obamacare.

Merry Christmas.

And when President Obama and his supporters got what they wanted -- more revenue with no cuts in spending -- the news carried comments like "Brilliant strategizing."

Irresponsible governance as political brilliance.

Unreal.

The second contributor to this growing sense of false reality seeped through in commercials that punctuated television news.

There was the woman who pulled a long-tailed hat out of a gift box, gave it her best smile and said: "Just what I wanted!"

Then she's seen driving around in a shiny new red car -- what she really wanted.

Was that really an option for many Americans?

In another ad, financial guru Suze Orman and TV psychologist Dr. Phil took people considering impulse purchases of a dress or a Christmas tree for wild rides in a luxury car and admonished them for foolish spending.

They were apparently supposed to buy luxury cars instead.

It seemed wildly out of sync with the reality many Americans face.

Television showed a plethora of shiny objects. Stores opened for 48 hours straight.

It looked like a monstrous amount of goods chasing people with too few dollars. Who was going to buy all this stuff?

Christmas Day. Ho, ho, ho.

Back to work Wednesday, scramble to catch up, go in again on Monday.

Tuesday, celebrate New Year.

Back to work Wednesday.

Just in time to see Sen. Jay Rockefeller and other Democrats take credit for sparing West Virginia families thousands of dollars in tax increases they might otherwise have faced.

(Truthy version: Republicans prevented Democrats from abandoning many of the Bush tax cuts, as many sought to do.)

Rockefeller's claim hit the same day that many working people received smaller paychecks because of the return to normal Social Security withholding taxes.

Ending the payroll tax holiday was the responsible thing to do, but the return to normal taxation will pull $100 billion out of family pockets and into the maw of an insatiable government.

Family Dollar Stores cut its earnings forecast for fiscal 2013.

Dollar General Corp. also signaled lower expectations.

If Family Dollar and Dollar General see trouble ahead. . . . .

But Obama and the Democrats say that in Round Two of fiscal cliff negotiations, they will insist on $1 more in revenue for every $1 in spending restraint.

There it is again -- that sense of disconnection with reality.

Are we on the same planet?

The president is safe. He won re-election.

Sen. Joe Manchin is, too.

But the Democrats who have enabled the president on his spending spree are not. Some face voters two years from now.

Under Obama, the Democratic Party has greatly expanded the welfare state, burnished its reputation for fiscal irresponsibility, and communicated increasing disrespect for the working people who pay for it all.

Will spending and sloganeering cut it the next time around?

Maybe and maybe not.

With some120 million votes cast, Obama won the power to grow the federal government and tank the American economy by a margin of only about 5 million votes.

That's as weak as federal math.

Maurice is editorial page editor of the Daily Mail. She may be reached at 348-4802 or by email at ha...@dailymail.com.