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Its Still the Economy [1]

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Date: 2024-11-11  

I am sure there are lots of reasons why I’m wrong, but a couple of things struck me about the Harris loss this past Election Day. First and foremost, I am not convinced that the majority of voters this year reflects the actual majority sentiment of the populace. Maybe it does: maybe we are, sadly, a nation whose majority is racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, etc. If that’s the case, then a great deal that has been lost may not be recovered for generations to come.

But what if the majority of voters did not vote for Trump per se. What if members of the majority of voters said something like, “Yeah, I know he’s a fascist, but I can’t find an apartment I can afford?” What if the majority of voters includes segments who really don’t care for Trump, or Trump’s policies (“Yes, i know he’s a convicted felon, but ….”), but felt that Harris was too close to, and too indistinguishable from, an economy which cut off financial options for them? Maybe a not insignificant part of the “Trump base” in this election cycle is made up of people who aren’t inherently racist, sexist, etc., but who genuinely felt the sting of the inflation that hit their wallets and pocketbooks during Biden’s (i.e., Harris’ ) tenure, and thus, perhaps, they were willing to go another route, even if that route was littered with policies and promises with which they disagreed.

We can and will wring our hands over this truly historic and tragic loss, and no one will be able to say with any certainty what coulda, shoulda, woulda been done differently to procure a win.

But let me ask this: might the Democrats have fared better if, recognizing the weight of the economy on a very large swath of the voting population, they proposed immediate tax deductions or credits (or cash rebates for those whose AGI is low enough to avoid federal income tax altogether) for rent that is above average in the taxpayer’s locality by some percent, perhaps tagged wot the inflation rate since 2020? And a similar deduction/credit/rebate for the cost of groceries in excess of some established cost measure. Each of these (and similar steps) might be an immediate, pocketbook-impacting step to alleviate voters’ inflation rage (rather than the promise of litigation against price gougers that means nothing to voters today), demonstrate Democrats’ understanding of the real world problems of the voters’ financial lives, and manifest an intention to do something affirmative to address those legitimate concerns.

There’s still time and opportunity to do it, too. House Democrats can repeatedly introduce legislation to do this and force the Republicans to oppose it publicly. Who knows. It might help in 2026.

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