We’ve all heard it before – namely the “It’s the economy, stupid” slogan originally made famous by Bill Clinton advisor James Carville back in the early 1990’s.
Carville’s admonition to his favored candidate was motivated by the fact that America’s voters were in a somewhat surly mood with the incumbent president, George H.W. Bush, meaning the lip-biting, lie machine big bubba Bill Clinton could surely scoop up wheelbarrows full of votes for Democrats just by talking about so-called kitchen table economics matters.
And “Ragin’ Cajun” Carville was right, at least for that time period. Americans had lived high off the hog during the Reagan years and were used to seeing their family’s standard-of-living increase. Bill Clinton promised to bring back the prosperity of the previous decade and triggered good feelings in enough folks to elect him – twice – with less than a majority of popular votes, no less.
Its déjà vu all over again in 2024, as public opinion surveys show that America’s voters are, still, worried about their pocketbooks and inflation’s deleterious effects on their purchasing power. The concerns haven’t quite shown up in their presidential candidate preferences, but it seems that it’s only a matter of time before economic worries rear their not-so-ugly heads to handcuff the Democrats.
Which is good for Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump.
In an article titled “Harris Can Avoid Reporters But Not Economics”, The American Spectator’s David Catron wrote earlier this week:
“None of [Kamala’s] ‘solutions’ will solve the problem because [inflation] wasn’t caused by corporate price-gouging, greedy landlords, or evil drug companies. It was caused by the fiscal incontinence of the Biden-Harris administration beginning with the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, an unnecessary and inflationary stimulus that passed only because Harris cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. This was the first of many wild spending bills, culminating with the Orwellian ‘Inflation Reduction Act,’ that produced a cumulative inflation rate of more than 20 percent.
“Unless the Democrats have a plan to win the election without regard to ballots cast by eligible voters, Harris is likely to lose. Her 2024 campaign is already beginning to resemble the shambolic, unfocused effort she eventually abandoned in 2020 before any primary voter had a chance to reject her. Harris has an aptitude for achieving high office without the benefit of votes. Nonetheless, the voters are very restive about the economy in general, and inflation in particular. And no amount of propaganda from the corporate media will reduce the rising prices they continue to pay for the necessities of life. If you are old enough to remember 1980, you know the voters are capable of saying, ‘OK, it’s time to listen to my wallet.’”
How does the old saying go again? The Biden/Harris big government, big spending programs were akin to pouring gasoline on a fire, but even then, the Democrats screwed up, since the fuel that was added to the conflagration was bought from overseas countries that hate the United States – or are at least antagonistic to the notion of free markets, free liberties and individual rights.
For example, the Democrats’ insistence on blaming the petroleum industry for “climate change” and messing with the price of energy was a no-brainer for fostering inflation. All Democrats had to do was examine the statistics on how much of the nation’s energy needs are supplied – or aren’t supplied -- by so-called “renewables” and they would’ve realized that jacking up the cost of gas and electricity would result in bad things for average citizens.
The ruling elite users of private planes and climate-controlled mansions couldn’t care less how expensive energy got as long as they could rain subsidies down on the lower income strata to help them buy heat and air and gas for their cars. These people are too poor to buy EVs, so the government’s “incentives” to purchase a plug-in vehicle meant nothing to the basic consumer.
Many Democrats went to the best woke colleges but they still don’t understand simple economics. And that’s why Catron says cackling Kamala’s current standing won’t last long – or at least not until Election Day.
Poll after poll and survey after survey shows American voters caring most about the economy, and the same tallies reveal that “ordinary” people see Donald Trump as a vastly superior steward of finances over cackling Kamala Harris and her bumbling sidekick “Tampon Tim” Walz. Yet, if you believe the recent polls, the Democrat duo has pulled even with Trump and possibly vaulted narrowly ahead. Such logic defying voter duplicity doesn’t make much sense, yet if you’ve studied human behavior – especially political human behavior – the bifurcated reaction to cackling Kamala does add up.
It's kind of like how American voters, as a group, don’t approve of Congress and feel that the political class is incompetent at best and corrupted and sinister at worst. As a whole, Congress’s popularity numbers make those of the president (of either party of any timeframe) look warm and fuzzy by comparison.
Yet if you break it down to the individual districts – or states for the senate – it’s probably a rare thing to see a congressman or senator in a “safe” jurisdiction with underwater approval ratings. Sure, you might see a representative or senator struggling to reach fifty percent in swing districts or swing states in a given year, but by and large, incumbency is a powerful tool/weapon for the holder of the title.
Most people don’t pay attention to their politicians’ voting patterns.
Why? Because the congress-person has the power to reach any constituent or constituency directly if they feel the need to do it. Most of the time the citizenry is ignored or forgotten about between campaign cycles, like so many stuffed animals tucked under a little kid’s bed between birthdays and the next Christmas. Out of sight, out of mind is another way to put it.
It’s the same way, to some extent, with the current political situation. The persuadable portion of the voting public doesn’t automatically associate the high prices they see at the gas pump or grocery store with the new Democrat nominee’s maniacal grin. Cackling Kamala’s been going around the country saying “On day one… I’ll get to work bringing prices down”, yet Harris neglects to mention that she’s basically already occupying the seat of power and wouldn’t have to wait that long to move the proverbial needle – but she won’t promise to do it.
If Harris were to, for example, suggest that domestic oil and natural gas production should be ramped up to reduce the world oil price, her wacko environmentalist kook fringe mind-numbed zombies would be up in arms and start to behave like the pro-Islamist/Hamas groups who throw a tizzy each time a Democrat plans to toss a bone to Israel in its war against the enemy in the Middle East (which, to be honest, is found in every direction except to the seaside).
The last thing Democrats need is to get another one of their fringe nutcase communities mad at them, because then the protester crowds at next week’s party convention in Chicago would outnumber the population of the city itself. With tens of thousands of desperate freaks and goons going nuts with sign, burning American flags (like they did when Bibi Netanyahu spoke in Washington a few weeks ago) and running down TV news crews to give them a microphone, Democrats must do everything possible to keep things as quiet as feasible.
And that goes triple over the economy, since Democrats, at least temporarily, have managed to sell a tiny smidgen of the voters that they’re actually doing a good job with the facts and figures and the nation’s household bottom line and can be trusted to make things better if cackling Kamala raises her right hand and swears an oath next January. Who knows if Harris even recognizes her right from her left, but that’s another story.
Democrats are essentially relying on voters to disapprove of the government’s direction but make an exception for its leaders, kind of like a congressman’s constituents can hate Congress but not their own elected officials. Take my home state of Virginia, for example, where two awful Democrats (aren’t they all bad?), Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, have been our state’s voices in the upper chamber for what… seems like forever?
How can this be? I know for a fact that a lot of people here in the Old Dominion are less than satisfied with the economy and don’t like senile Joe’s and cackling Kamala’s anti-family budget policies, yet our senators aren’t thought to be at risk to lose and Democrat campaign resources go to other places to help the Jon Testers of the world pull off another fast one on the citizens of Montana.
Why aren’t Warner or Kaine ever put on the hot seat? Aren’t they complicit in the rotten condition of the economy? Do we ever hear of either of them pulling a Joe Manchin and bucking Chucky Schumer on the most damaging of Democrat proposals? Did they vote against senile Joe’s and cackling Kamala’s inflation-spurring “Rescue” plan in 2021 or the ridiculously mislabeled “Inflation Reduction Act” more recently? Nope. I mean yup, they voted for it.
Both of their voting records are pretty much straight down the line leftist Democrat and the party’s economic crisis-fostering policies and laws and personnel. Maybe it’s because the federal government and its massive bureaucracy have such a huge presence here in Virginia. That’s gotta be it.
The presidency is considered somewhat differently from Congress and local offices, so the economic malaise will eventually catch up with Harris and Walz because voters will realize they’re the ones in power and helped create the mess in the first place. Donald Trump never really disappeared, but he’s been away from the unending establishment media propagandizing the current regime in the White House.
Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can run from the economic conditions, but they can’t hide. Cultural or demographic factors may distract Americans for a time, but they won’t be fooled permanently. And asking the voters to pack away all of their issue concerns for two and a half months is a lot to count on. There’s a Democrat created hole in everyone’s pocket and the change jar is running low.
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