Your average voter doesn’t follow political news…they are not politically active…they don’t care about what goes on in Washington.
They worry about the costs of meat, gasoline, how their kids are doing in school, and if they are going to have enough money to maybe retire someday.
And they use their own personal situation and perception of how they are doing since the last election on who to vote for.
Look I don’t answer the polls, accumulate the results, I’m just pointing out that Biden has an uphill battle…I haven’t voted Republican or Democrat in a Presidential election since probably 2012.
Almost this exact back-and-forth about consuming right wing news went down a few months ago in this thread. (I also notice that the OP was again helping me with breathing advice back then, for some reason)
Maybe because when I read your comments they come across as “exasperated” like if you could just show me the truth to get your point across. And that you believe that I’m too ignorant to see the truth that you’ve presented…and then all would be right because I would see that you’re right.
I’m not exasperated with you. Maybe with the people getting polled? Sorry if my words come across that way. You’re the only poster that has mentioned it.
Do we not see eye to eye? I thought we agreed that the economy is doing just fine, people’s wages are outpacing inflation, people are acting as if their personal situation is just fine, but they are still saying the economy is poor. And, I think we also agree that people’s perception is trouble for Biden – I’ve said that from the start.
Where is our disagreement?
ETA: I guess I think that you’re using Carville’s quote wrong, because he was talking about an actual soft economy, so we disagree on that.
It is possible for people to go throughout their days and not watch political news or care about what is out there. The lady that cuts my hair, couldn’t give iota of crap about what goes on in Washington. The same goes for the service guy at the Ford dealership where I take my car to be serviced. I meet and interact with people at my job that don’t care about the political process.
It may be hard for someone like you that is likely a political junkie to understand that the majority of the country isn’t like you.
My point is, they don’t have to watch “political news”. They’ll hear about this through a wide variety of right wing sources, none of which are “political” in nature. The information that “the economy is terrible and it’s Biden’s fault” will be repeated as a mantra by every source and every person they come in contact with. I’m sure they don’t give a crap about it. They’ll hear about it just the same, and it will become a part of what they believe to be true.
But where we disagree, is that Bush wasn’t responsible for the recession in the early 90’s. Carville knew that as well, but he wanted voters and the news media to focus on it so it would impact voter outcomes.
Then, it’s really wrong. If only voters would actually focus on the economy as it is (strong job growth, wages outpacing inflation, etc.), Biden would score much better.
You say that Carville was trying to get voters to focus on weak economy, which Bush wasn’t responsible for. Biden may or may not be responsible for the strong economy, but if only voters would focus on it, he would poll better.
Your clarification makes it seem like you’re really, really using Carville’s quote wrong, practically backwards from the original context.
Which is kind of fucked, considering that politics is the key factor in deciding whether my trans coworkers get put into a camp and whether we’re a dictatorship or not, with all the consequences that follow.
Another thing I heard (from some NPR talking head) was that in terms of consumer sentiment in inflation hits well above its weight class vs recession.
If 5% of businesses close and unemployment goes up 5% that is really really bad for the 5% of workers who no longer have jobs and can’t find them. Their entire lives are turned upside down but that is only 5% of the people. The other 95% hear the bad news but aren’t really personally affected all that much.
On the other hand if prices go up 3% its no where near as catastrophic, for the economy as a whole, no one’s life fundamentally changes, no businesses close, but it affects everyone. So everyone feels sour.
Also when the economy recovers from a recession people get their jobs back, new businesses open and can see the improvement as things go back to the way they were. When inflation stops, the prices don’t go down, they just stop going up. So its harder to see the change.
The most common source of political “news” for my right wing coworkers is …. Sports radio. There are two sports radio stations and intermingled with ranting about our NHL, MLB, NFL and NBA teams is ranting about politics.
Yes. And inflation doesn’t stop. It just slows down. 2% has been the historical rate, and where the Fed hopes to get. Your average person doesn’t connect that when 9% inflation decreased by 6% to 3% inflation, that prices didn’t decrease by 6%…which is kind of how it sounds, but that price increase just slowed down. The price of a gallon of milk is still going up.
Milk decreased 3.34 USD/CWT or 16.32% since the beginning of 2023, according to trading on a contract for difference (CFD) that tracks the benchmark market for this commodity. Historically, Milk reached an all time high of 25.20 in May of 2022.
People believe the economy is terrible because it IS. Whatever metrics they use to gauge how the economy is doing mean fuck all to regular people. People who can’t afford rent, gas and groceries, much less things like healthcare or home ownership are not going to give a rats ass about GDP or unemployment rates or the DOW. It has nothing at all to do with rightwing propaganda, if you think the economy is doing good you are simply measuring it by really stupid standards. Stop telling people how great everything is when every day they are struggling worse than the day before and start talking about how you are going to help them deal with the shitty economy.
Probably true, but I’m also guessing that offering actual solutions that stand a snowball’s chance in hell of working would lose massive numbers of votes. ‘Cause socialism.