Much like belly buttons, pundits on each side have an opinion concerning the message sent in the recent elections. This time, some of our friends on the Left may be closer to the truth. They say the election was painted against a backdrop of affordability. Republican strategists seem to shrug it off and say, well, they were blue to dark blue electorates and the party in power always does poorly in these elections. Let’s just move on. By ignoring affordability and the economic unrest, Republicans may be whistling through the political graveyard.
The Democrats running in New Jersey and Virginia were weak and, in some cases, deeply flawed. They didn’t just win; they clobbered their opponents. Why?
Why would New York, the center of finance and home to the most capitalistic enterprises, elect a young, inexperienced, self-described socialist? One who seems to have a flirtatious relationship with jihadists, no less? Maybe it was a telling clue when the CEO of the nation’s largest health insurer was gunned down on the streets of New York and a shocking number of New Yorkers cheered. Why?
A partial answer is that too many young people today have been educated (indoctrinated) to believe in class warfare and moral ambivalence. They are susceptible to the lure of the politics of envy. Capitalism exploits the poor, so socialism is morally superior. Carried to its extreme, capitalist CEOs who run big health insurance companies and who exploit their customers are considered fair game. This ethos has been metastasizing while too many capitalists have looked away.
Granted, candidate Mamdani was young, articulate and attractive, running against tired retreads. And had it been only a two-horse race, he probably would have lost. This explains much, but there is more to the story.
Candidates or their parties should never blame the voters after a loss. Speaking from some experience, when we lose elections, it comes down to simple (usually self-inflicted) mistakes.
We were either advocating a platform that the voters didn’t appreciate or we did a miserable job of communicating those positions. Both boil down to a failure to listen to what the voters are really saying.
Republicans believed that the voters were saying that the Democrats were about as popular as toenail fungus and Trump’s successes alone would float their boat. The Schumer Shutdown (ostensibly to maintain Medicaid benefits for illegals) would be the final nail in their coffin. But when voters see their costs for everything from meat to insurance to property taxes rising faster than their paychecks, Trump’s success in negotiating trade deals with Asian nations did not cut it. And Republicans blaming Schumer for the shutdown, when they controlled all three branches of government, didn’t either. Once again, the pocketbook prevailed.
Speaker Newt Gingrich famously said that if you can’t communicate, you can’t govern. The marketing people at Coca-Cola understand the importance of repetition. Republicans don’t.
Voters care less that inflation is slowing down. They do care that they haven’t had a good steak since the first Trump administration. The cost of rent and almost everything else is too high. They empathize with Obamacare subscribers whose premiums are going through the roof, but theirs are as well. And Republicans have offered no solutions. Worse, they’ve done a miserable job of explaining “why” average Americans feel like they are losing ground.
Why is a very important word. Americans will forgive much if they understand the why. Why do so many things seem to be unaffordable? Why did we have that extended spike in inflation?
The spike in inflation was caused primarily by two factors. The first was the huge deficits during the Biden administration. The excuse for the runaway spending was the economic damage created by the COVID pandemic and subsequent lockdowns. When our government spends (and prints) $5 trillion it does not have, those dollars will be worth less. Too many dollars chasing the same number of goods and services causes inflation. Can you recall a Republican attempting to explain this?
The second root cause of the inflation can be attributed to consolidation. Federal regulatory agencies have largely looked the other way while big companies have merged with other big companies, decreasing potential competition. From food and fuel to airlines and healthcare, merger madness has produced predictable results. Consolidation (usually sold as increasing efficiencies and lowering costs to consumers) almost always delivers just the opposite. Putting more market power into the hands of fewer players creates oligopolies. Just look at the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries. We’ve seen lots of mergers and acquisitions. Have prices gone down? Has service improved?
Americans weren’t supposed to notice any of this or ask questions. But they have noticed and they haven’t received good answers. If the GOP can’t deliver good answers and real solutions to the problems Americans face every day, voters will increasingly turn to snake oil salesmen who at least show empathy.
It starts with really listening.
Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.
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