When Bill Clinton in 1992 brought the phrase “It’s the Economy Stupid” into the American political lexicon, it did not win him the Presidency. In fact (yes, in fact) George H.W. Bush would have won in a landslide had Ross Perot not run as a third party candidate. The vast majority of the votes Perot received was taken from Bush and would not have gone to Clinton.
The Bush Economy, recovering from the bumbling that took place in Reagan’s final years, was markedly improving. The Savings and Loan disaster that was born during Reagan had been well handled. His Economy didn’t sink him. After the first Gulf War he had one of the highest favorability ratings in the history of the US Presidency.
Nixon, on the other hand, won re-election in 1974 with inflation that was off the charts (by today’s standards), real unemployment up, and a recessive growth rate (they called it Stagflation), not to mention an unpopular war. What was his secret sauce?
What the Democrats in 2024 have somehow lost sight of (or maybe they never had sight of) is that it’s the narrative that makes the difference. Their guiding axiom should be “It’s the Narrative, Stupid”. The Republicans, the Conservative Media, and maybe even Trump himself (although incredibly ignorant of history is still intuitive) have long figured that out. I have cringed during every week of Kamala Harris’ campaign for their failure to address the economic narrative, her especially.
For four years the Republican Christian Conservative narrative has been telling the Country that we have the worst economy in the history of mankind. They offer no specifics beyond, for example, the price of bacon (which is always in plentiful supply) and finding someone to interview who is in dire economic straits (when EVER is that person not hard to find). They ask the same question every four years (just as Democrats do) “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
What they are really asking is “Do you feel better off than you did four years ago"? They don’t want individuals to actually look at their life situations; they want them to listen to how bad their lives potentially are. If the economy was running great on all cylinders and you were living a life of plenty, but then you were told that an asteroid was soon to crash into Earth and destroy all life forms, how do you think that “feel” question would be answered ?
Whenever I have heard Harris asked the question of why a majority of polled Americans think Trump would do better job on the American economy than her I listen slack jawed agape at the foolish response she gives. A question whose origin comes from years of people being told their lives are in the toilet, regardless of the trips they take, the concerts they go to, or the restaurants they eat at. She answers with comments about Trump’s inane ramblings or specifics regarding laws passed and contrary statistics. Bottom line: she and other Democrats surrender to the Republican narrative.
How should she answer? Simple…and simple is the operative word. Simple in ways that people can feel they understand and have the potential of being remembered.
Democrats should have focused on just three things:
First, that the inflation that occurred in 2021 & 2022 did not just happen in the US, rather it occurred in every developed economy in the World as a direct result of the Pandemic, which began in the Trump Administration and took at least 10 million lives (more likely 20MM) worldwide.
Second, these same Democrats under Biden brought down inflation faster than any other Country, without a recession, and now our economy is the envy of the World and the US Dollar is stronger than ever. We beat every other country and are number 1 (that’s right, use competitive sports analogies).
Third, once Biden took over after a huge stock market drop under Trump, the Stock Market has hit new highs almost every month of the Biden Administration. (Why didn’t Kamala use that fact when Bret Baier asked her why people think the Nation is going in the wrong direction? ‘Bret, what direction would they prefer?’)
The Pandemic, competition, and the Stock Market are things even the simplest of people understand. And all of it can be fact checked. It’s a narrative. Harris and the Democrats wouldn’t have had to bring up anything else.
Frankly, I think all the
Democrats should have just kept their mouths shut and let Pete Buttigieg do all
the talking.