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Ach's avatar

I understand that inflation is rough, and Dems' messaging, frankly, has been malpractice grade. But man - R's do nothing except yell and point, have absolutely no plan, Trump admin verifiably contributed to the current situation - and there they are running up huge margins on these issues, just by showing up.

Same with crime: people everywhere screaming about bail and how CJ reform is failing, and Dems take the brunt of it...and yet, it's like Trump never signed (and bragged about...remember Kim K. in the oval office) the First Step Act, and people continue to ignore basic facts, including that crime ticked up significantly under Trump in 2020, that red states have dominated the top 10 in crime for years, etc.

Even immigration...thinking back to 2018, after two years of unified Republican rule, they used the "caravan" in their favor, even though it was happening entirely on their watch. I really have a tough time with all of these polls and narratives when they are so contrary to reality and recent history.

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R Mercer's avatar

I am wondering why people think the GoP has an edge in economics (including inflation)... then I remember that people are , by and large, economic illiterates and idiots.

The reality is that a lot of this supposed concern over economics, inflation, etc. is merely a mask or rationale for voting your partisan lean/identification. Democrats have an economics disadvantage because they are identified with "socialism" (whatever that actually is in this day and age--it certainly isn't the actual dictionary definition of socialism) while the GoP is identified with good old market capitalism (which screws a lot of people over, but hey, it is the American Way).

Same thing with Law & Order.. the GoP gets an unthinking nod here for some reason--despite the fact they they are openly increasingly lawless and led by someone whop thinks that the law is for little people.

So what it REALLY comes down to is not what is actually done or doable (because the GoP has no plan or ability to "fix" the economy or curb inflation) but a combination of:

partisan identity/lean;

voting against whoever is in charge;

who you are most angry at because of what your central issue/value is (IOW, does abortion outweigh economics, does the election denialism outweigh other factors, and so on).

Basically a small group of voters decide things in many places, and they decide it largely on a non-rational basis, although it is rationalized through claims of voting kitchen table issues or whatever.

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