Bad Economy Vibes Are a Threat to Democracy. Too many Americans are willing to sacrifice constitutional government for a better-feeling economy MATT JOHNSON JAN 15, 2024 After the GOP’s post-insurrection pivot, no Republican capitulation to authoritarianism and demagoguery is too hypocritical or undignified to come as a surprise anymore. Trump’s automatic support among the majority of Republican voters shouldn’t shock us, either—regardless of his ninety-one felony charges, increasingly deranged and apocalyptic promises to purge civil servants from government and install an army of loyalists, public embrace of insurrectionists, professed desire to terminate the Constitution, and obsession with the idea that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Trump is the Republican party, and he has been for a long time. There are no better angels of the party in tension with Trumpist authoritarianism—voters want him to purge the Deep State and punish his political foes. They want revenge for the “stolen” election in 2020. When Trump says, “I am your retribution,” his supporters know he means it. He has no platform beyond his grievance-fueled plan to gut the government and destroy his political opponents. All he cares about is vengeance and loyalty, and governing won’t even be an afterthought. He wants the whole country to bend the knee. THE MOST ALARMING POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT of the past year isn’t the Republican party’s capture by Trumpism—that’s not news. It’s President Joe Biden’s unpopularity. Biden currently has a dismal 38 percent approval rating—around four points lower than Trump’s was at this point in his presidency. Beyond having justified concerns about Biden’s age, millions of voters (including many who aren’t addicted to Trumpism) don’t think he’s done a good job as president. While they’re understandably critical of him on issues like immigration, they also refuse to acknowledge what he’s done right—on foreign policy, working with a hostile Congress, and especially the economy. This has drastically increased the probability of a second Trump term. Although inflation hit 9.1 percent in the summer of 2022, it’s down to around 3 percent today. What makes this rapid decline particularly remarkable is that the U.S. economy has so far managed to avoid much of the pain that typically accompanies getting inflation under control. The labor market remains strong and the unemployment rate is at just 3.7 percent. The United States has had 36 consecutive months of job growth, while unemployment has remained below 4 percent for almost two years straight. In March 2023, just 30 percent of economists thought the Fed could achieve a historically rare “soft landing” (significantly reducing inflation without a recession), but the proportion jumped to 69 percent by August. Yet Americans aren’t impressed. A recent Pew survey found that 64 percent of American adults aren’t confident Biden can “make good decisions about economic policy,” including 39 percent who are “not at all confident.” Just 14 percent of Americans say they’re better off financially under Biden, while 70 percent say his policies have either hurt the economy or made no difference. At a time when Americans rank the economy as the most important issue by a vast margin, these are sobering numbers. What makes the widespread economic pessimism and hostility toward Biden even more puzzling is its misalignment with Americans’ behavior. Consumer spending has remained strong on the back of solid employment figures and wage growth, which demonstrates that Americans aren’t behaving as if the economy is as bad as they’re telling pollsters. And it’s strange to place all the blame on the Biden administration in the first place—inflation is a global problem, and many countries haven’t managed it as well as the United States. The intense and widespread dissatisfaction with Biden’s economic performance is an emergency for American democracy. According to a recent New York Times/Siena survey, voters trust Trump over Biden on the economy by a chasm of 59 to 37 percent. Although Democrats relied on anxiety and anger over the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade to galvanize voters in the midterms, the survey found that twice as many say the economy (versus social issues like abortion) would determine whom they vote for in 2024. And among those economy-focused voters, Trump is ahead by a margin of 60 to 32 percent. Even voters under the age of 30 trust Trump over Biden on the economy by a gap of 28 points. This is part of a larger trend—declining enthusiasm for the Democratic party among major demographics. Black, Hispanic, and young voters express significantly less overall support for Biden than they did in 2020. All these factors create a dire picture of the electoral map for Biden—Trump holds substantial leads in five out of six key swing states (Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania). When Biden remindsvoters that “democracy is on the ballot” in 2024, Trump accuses him of “pathetic fear mongering.” In a typical Trump inversion, he describes Biden as the “destroyer of American democracy” and blames his administration for the indictments. At a recent rally in Nevada, Trump declared that “they’re weaponizing law enforcement for high-level election interference because we’re beating them so badly in the polls.” Biden obviously has nothing to do with the charges against Trump, and he doesn’t talk about them because he wants to avoid creating any impression to the contrary. This is the right strategy, but it allows Trump to control the narrative......read on https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/bad-economy-vibes-are-a-threat-to-democracy ......and..... The Battle to Protect American Democracy Is the Most Important Battle of Our Lifetimes, There can be no middle ground in the fight between democracy and authoritarian fascism........ https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/09/01/battle-protect-american-democracy-most-important-battle-our-lifetimes
