"In fact, more than a third of independent voters and a smaller but noteworthy contingent of Democrats said they were open to supporting candidates who reject the legitimacy of the 2020 election, as they assigned greater urgency to their concerns about the economy than to fears about the fate of the country’s political system."
"In fact, more than a third of independent voters and a smaller but noteworthy contingent of Democrats said they were open to supporting candidates who reject the legitimacy of the 2020 election, as they assigned greater urgency to their concerns about the economy than to fears about the fate of the country’s political system."
Let's review: what exactly is wrong with the economy right now? The job market is great. Gas prices are down. The stock market is doing its thing. But we have inflation. Something like 8 or 9 percent. That's admittedly not good.
Let's just set aside most Americans' pitiful understanding of the economy. Inflation is actually a worldwide problem, and in general the people we elect to office actually make little immediate difference. Things would be roughly the same if Trump were still in office, other than the fact that he'd be lying about the numbers and the word "inflation" would mysteriously disappear from the vocabularies of primetime Fox News hosts. Alas, we have our general political culture to thank for this.
Regardless, the 8-9% is an annual rate. And while we certainly don't want it to continue for long, so far it's been, if memory serves me, about a year since inflation started really becoming a concern.
In other words, unless groceries are being hit worse than average, what was a $100 grocery bill a year ago is now a $109 grocery bill. Wow. Almost enough to drive a man to clip a coupon or two.
So this is the huge concern over the economy. While Americans are gainfully employed and otherwise fattening ourselves on our enviable standard of living, many of us are ignoring the threat to democracy because we're freaking out over a minor dent in our pocketbooks - which is ironically being driven by us spending loads of money anyway.
I'm kind of sensing some echoes of 1992 here, when the media arguably sensationalized a minor economic slowdown that was actually reversing itself as the election approached and in one year turned an incredibly popular presidency into a one-termer. I have a feeling that "the economy" is far worse in the minds of many people than it is in reality, and more or less amounts to Americans complaining about how expensive things get when you have lots of money to spend.
"In fact, more than a third of independent voters and a smaller but noteworthy contingent of Democrats said they were open to supporting candidates who reject the legitimacy of the 2020 election, as they assigned greater urgency to their concerns about the economy than to fears about the fate of the country’s political system."
Let's review: what exactly is wrong with the economy right now? The job market is great. Gas prices are down. The stock market is doing its thing. But we have inflation. Something like 8 or 9 percent. That's admittedly not good.
Let's just set aside most Americans' pitiful understanding of the economy. Inflation is actually a worldwide problem, and in general the people we elect to office actually make little immediate difference. Things would be roughly the same if Trump were still in office, other than the fact that he'd be lying about the numbers and the word "inflation" would mysteriously disappear from the vocabularies of primetime Fox News hosts. Alas, we have our general political culture to thank for this.
Regardless, the 8-9% is an annual rate. And while we certainly don't want it to continue for long, so far it's been, if memory serves me, about a year since inflation started really becoming a concern.
In other words, unless groceries are being hit worse than average, what was a $100 grocery bill a year ago is now a $109 grocery bill. Wow. Almost enough to drive a man to clip a coupon or two.
So this is the huge concern over the economy. While Americans are gainfully employed and otherwise fattening ourselves on our enviable standard of living, many of us are ignoring the threat to democracy because we're freaking out over a minor dent in our pocketbooks - which is ironically being driven by us spending loads of money anyway.
I'm kind of sensing some echoes of 1992 here, when the media arguably sensationalized a minor economic slowdown that was actually reversing itself as the election approached and in one year turned an incredibly popular presidency into a one-termer. I have a feeling that "the economy" is far worse in the minds of many people than it is in reality, and more or less amounts to Americans complaining about how expensive things get when you have lots of money to spend.