One of my favorite political parables comes from the 1980 election. What happened is that Ronald Reagan loudly and persistently promised that a big supply-side tax cut would get us out of the recession and supercharge the economy. A few years later the economy recovered—as it was bound to do eventually—and Reagan was able to loudly and persistently take credit for it. The result was morning in America and a landslide victory over Walter Mondale in 1984.
The lesson here is not that tax cuts supercharged the economy. They were probably #4 or #5 on a list that includes Paul Volcker lowering interest rates; oil prices coming down; big deficit spending; and devaluation of the dollar. The lesson is to loudly claim that you're doing something to save the economy and then wait around for the economy to recover. Then you can credibly claim that it was your policies that rescued the country.
Democrats don't do this much, and it's nice to see that change this year. Joe Biden and the liberal commentariat are pretty united in their insistence that the economy is in dire shape and the Democrats' $1.9 trillion coronavirus bill will rescue us. Well, maybe it will and maybe it won't. But if the economy is doing well in 2022, Democrats are well set up to take credit for it. Ditto for 2024.
And if the economy isn't in great shape in 2022? Then it probably doesn't matter. In other words, talking up the coronavirus bill has a big upside and no downside. So talk away.
In other words, it's pragmatic to mislead voters occasionally when your opponent does it all the time. Thanks for reminding us that "Democracy is the worst form of government except for those others that have been tried from time to time."
I'm afraid I'm unable to locate the word "mislead" in anything Kevin wrote.
What he wrote, loud and clear, was "Get out in front of the parade and strut like the drum major. Then you'll get credit for the parade."
That's simple salesmanship. It's something the Republicans have been better at than the Democrats for a looooong time.
It's a shame Ronald Reagan wasn't a better actor, or he could have played Harold Hill in the Music Man rather than run for California governor.
"The lesson is to loudly claim that you're doing something to save the economy and then wait around for the economy to recover. Then you can credibly claim that it was your policies that rescued the country."
Ok, so it's the old 'actually doing something' versus 'being around when something happened'. And yeah, I reckon the right wingnuts always have been better at that then the lefties who seem to think that they have to 'do something'.
For an interesting discussion:
https://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2020/12/news-versus-emergence.html