The messaging in this election was amazing. Biden had improved the economy. Looking at the data, things have not been this good since the 60s. Biden had started easing us off neo-liberalism, which Reagan has put us on and we have been on since, good old Reaganomics where the rich get tax cuts and that is suppose to magically stimulate the economy, that same failed policy that even at the time was called idiotic by leading economists in the world and has been proven in the years since to do nothing more than move wealth from the 99% to the 1%. Biden was deconstructing it. Finally! This is exactly what everyone wants.
But the GOP messaging was that the economy was the worst it has ever been—objectively not true. Inflation happened, but wages went up more (on average). That Biden caused everything—objectively not true. That he was implementing policies to make it worse—objectively not true. It completely blows my mind that the GOP was able to get working class people to vote against what they really wanted by just outright lying.
Everything Trump has proposed will make the economy worse. But the GOP lies and says it will magically cure everything. People believe it... but we shouldn't be surprised. People are busy, they are not experts. The Democrats didn't help. They just attacked Trump as an autocrat and said electing him will be the end of democracy, then called everyone stupid for believing what the GOP says. Yeah... great messaging... that will really win you votes. You can still see this attitude now. Trump won, and what do Democrats do? They call everyone who voted for Trump an idiot. Is it any wonder they keep losing?
I'm afraid of the next 4 years. I'm not afraid Trump will grab power and it will be the end of democracy. Even surrounded by yes-men this time—which wasn't the case last time—I think if he tried that, people would stop him. Given how bad he's looked the past few months, I think it's more likely he dies in office and we have to deal with Vance—not a good prospect, but remember before sucking up to Trump, he was against Trump and the MAGAs, calling them too extreme. No, what I'm afraid of is that Trump will not only put us back on failed neo-liberalism—Reagannomics—but that he will put it into hyperdrive and the rich will get even richer while the middle class suffers and the working class is just put into misery.
It is as it is. The letter Bernie put out after the election was spot on. "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them. First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well."
Yes to everything you have said.
And in my own much less eloquent way…
Trump is just a classic snake oil salesman. He has mastered the art of manipulating, never apologizing, never acknowledging any of his own contradictions. And he just says things over and over and over and over so that people believe him. And then the internet magnifies what he says. So you can go online and find “source” after “source” quoting his truth. So it feeds into the illusion he has created.
It is a troubling time.
I wonder how many policies Trump has touted will be implemented. And then I wonder when people feel the implications in their wallets if they will realize they were complicit in what has come.
But then the scary thing is they won’t. And will probably further and perhaps more violently place the blame of vulnerable populations of people.
☹️