President Joe Biden goes into next year’s election with a vexing challenge: Just as the U.S. economy is getting stronger, people are still feeling horrible about it.
Pollsters and economists say there has never been as wide a gap between the underlying health of the economy and public perception. The divergence could be a decisive factor in whether the Democrat secures a second term next year. Republicans are seizing on the dissatisfaction to skewer Biden, while the White House is finding less success as it tries to highlight economic progress.
“Things are getting better and people think things are going to get worse — and that’s the most dangerous piece of this,” said Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who has worked with Biden. Lake said voters no longer want to just see inflation rates fall — rather, they want an outright decline in prices, something that last happened on a large scale during the Great Depression.
What is frustrating is the framing we keep seeing being set up by the corporate media - people keep being given a moral framework and permission structure to vote for what is likely to be the end of the country, by voting against Biden (or sitting out, or voting for an absurd third party candidate) just because they feel gas or groceries are too high. As if the President sets prices.
I’m not saying this permission structure is all that new. It’s been there, just like the stupid “who would you like to have a beer with?” narratives…I’m just saying continuing this horse race stuff is absolutely not helping. I get that people are struggling, but voting for OJ is not going to help their situation and the media often frames it that way. And of course we know that many are absolutely not struggling, in fact, many are doing better, but they are now given excuses to vote for donnie that give cover for the real reason they are voting for him (racism).