I’m running out of gift articles and I’ve already shared a few Krugman articles here, so I’ll leave it up to someone else. There are some excellent charts in that article about how partisan the Republicans are when it comes to opinions about the economy, and how much less the Democrats are.
For example, Republicans thought the economy was terrible under Obama, great under Trump, terrible under Biden. Democrats thought it was good (but not great) under Trump until COVID hit, good under Biden, but with numbers falling when inflation jumped up, and then back up as inflation was brought under control.
If it really is that partisan, I’m not sure it means anything for the election. If you average Republicans saying it’s the worst since the Great Depression with Democrats saying the economy is doing fine, you’ll end up with a low average. But, in terms of voter numbers, it may not sway anything.
Anyway, maybe someone else can gift that article. It’s exactly on point.
On the whole, Republican voters are a pack of gullible fools, who believe the bullshit propaganda that is being fed to them 24/7 by their bullshit media toadies. Truth? Facts? Observations? These are meaningless to R voters.
They are being played, and they are too wrapped up in the team mentality (or just too stupid) to realize it.
I agree, but what is amazing to me is how diametrically opposed to their own interests this is. You’d think they’d notice. But, no, they adore the party that basically serves only the wealthy, and they despise the party that wants them to have healthcare and a living wage. Focus them on wedge issues that have little impact on their day-to-day lives, and they seem uninterested in what’s going on right in front of them.
It really is a brilliant (and, of course, evil) propaganda strategy. I’d love to read the scholarly book that analyzes its tactics and effectiveness.
Even the Wall Street Journal is indicating economic optimism. I predict this will only continue to grow throughout 2024, as interest rates will drop a few times.
IF interest rateas drop. I don’t think they will - at least, not that much. There is still way too much deficit spending for inflation to return to historical levels.
A big thing to watch for: If interest rates don’t come down, we are going to see a massive implosion of commercial real estate, city budgets, the federal budget, and probably a number of bank failures as they loaded up on ZIRP loans at the behest of the government during the zero interest rate period, and those commercial debts will be refinanced at 6-7%, at a time when the valuation of commercial buildings has collapsed. They are going to be holding a lot of foreclosures. And businesses that used commercial real estate to backstop loans will be facing margin calls.
So there will be huge pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates, but if they do while governments are still borrowing and printing trillions of dollars, expect inflation to take off again.
The economy is always important politically, but I don’t think it has much if anything significant to do with Trump’s support. I think this is the media Trump voter:
In short, this voter, a well educated military veteran, wants the American system to be destroyed so something better can be built, and he thinks Trump is the best one for the job. I think some version of this is what most Trump supporters believe.
Ted Johnson can go fuck himself. This well-educated military man has lost all ability to distinguish fact from delusion and bought into every rightwing bullshit story out there.
My favorite:
And the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case in Florida? It’s the one that gives Johnson a modicum of pause. “You don’t f— around with classified material. Whoever advised him he could have that — he should have gave that s— up,” he said. “But he was being the stubborn, arrogant person that he is.” And he added, “I didn’t like the way the FBI did it. The raid was ridiculous. And that just emboldened me.”
So he acknowledges that Trump shouldn’t have had the material, but it’s OK, because he’s just stubborn and arrogant. And the FBI wasn’t nice enough, so now Ted’s even more of Trump supporter.
Tell me again why we should try to understand Trump supporters. What a stupid fucking piece of shit.
“This,” Ted Johnson told me, “is what I hope. … He breaks the system,” he said, “he exposes the deep state, and it’s going to be a miserable four years for everybody.”
Riiiggghhhhtttt!!! Cause he did so much to expose ‘’‘’‘The Deep State’‘’‘’ during the only four years he had the power to do whatever the fuck this moran is on about.
I’m quite sure if that line of questioning had gone on it would have been extremely revealing.
(My money is on 43 seconds and It’s the Jews.)
Notice that he also deflects blame from Trump. “Whoever advised him he could have that…”
No, Ted, no one “advised” Trump that he could or should keep classified material. The responsibility for this is on Trump. He wanted it, so he took it.
