While we're posting results from this week's YouGov poll, here's one that's crackers:
60% of Republicans say they're worse off than a year ago even though the economy has boomed over the past 12 months:
- The prime age labor force participation rate is up 0.3 points to the highest level in 20 years
- Real GDP per capita is up 2.5%
- Real wages are up 1.5%
- Savings are up 5.7%
- Inflation is down 1.3 percentage points to 2.4%
- Real spending per person is up $1,100
At a guess, I'd say that no more than 10% of the population is worse off financially than they were a year ago. But 60% of Republicans think they are thanks to Fox News.
"People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you," Republicans are either extremely gullible or so caught up in their personal ideology they can no longer tell when they're being lied to. When I hear Trump speak the first thing that comes to mind is he's a liar and charlatan. How they see anything else is confounding.
I live in the so-called TriState area, which is centered geographically in NYC. So, we've been exposed to this creep for decades.
He was like this back in the 70's, although not nearly as out to lunch with his speech. Liar and charlatan don't really cover it, but they'll do.
Before 2016 I never really gave him much thought. Just another obnoxious rich guy.
He was hard to avoid around here. He was always in the news for some kind of BS or another. He made it a point to be there.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-anti-indian-campaign-20160630-snap-story.html
https://time.com/4246080/tribal-warrior/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/feb/17/central-park-five-donald-trump-jogger-rape-case-new-york
I could go on, but this stuff was in the local papers.
That is assuming that Republicans say they are worse because they are convinced they are worse off. I don't see a reason to believe that.
They say it because they feel obliged to state their tribe position, and they regard "I am worse off" as their tribe position.
It's only a thin line of gritted teeth and talking heads that keeps them from believing they're failures, and that Dems are just plain better at succeeding. Hope it's a wavering line. Some of them have got to be choking on what Trump's throwing out there this last few weeks.
Logically, this shows that, when finances fail, people become Republicans. A Democrat is simply a person whose finances haven't failed. Prove me wrong!
This is the paranoia talking, because they think it's motivating. It's their security blanket. They fear god, after all.
But all we have to fear is fear itself, --the defining anti-conservative statement.
Or maybe Republicans are just lying to pollsters and journalists.
more likely, lying to themselves...
Haha. We took a (checks notes) $50k hit to our income compared to 1 year ago. Try again childless cat man.
We took a $100k hit.
But it's not the President's fault.
Maybe you shouldn't have gotten fired?
Wow! Are you 60% of Republicans? Or just one guy? 'Cuz if it's the latter, that's what we call an "anecdote" and it's not really evidence of anything.
People aren't rational, they're rationalizing.
It's pretty easy, even in a good economy, to focus on the negatives. Your 401k may be going gangbusters, but you can get yourself into a dither over gas prices or the grocery bill. Lots of Republicans take the normal jobs number revisions as proof that the government is lying about the economy to hide a recession.
One of the funniest things is to read Wall Street Journal article comments on articles about Trump's tariff plans. The motivated reasoning is very strong in there.
Of course, many of them may actually be suffering economically. Who knows what boneheaded financial decisions they made based on their partisan beliefs. Maybe they put a ton of money into Truth Social stock or Trump commemorative coins.
Gas prices are the same now as in 2006 and down a third since then accounting for inflation.
I was at the pump the other day and wondered about that. I found that they're the same now as in 1968, once you toss in that inflation thing.
In fact, aside from a downward blip in the late 90's, gas prices have stayed pretty much constant since the 20's, with inflation considered.
But! Since the average fuel economy for an average car is about double what it was in 1968, you could say that the cost per mile has effectively halved since then.
Of course, the media doesn't live on good news. Or, even OK news. They are all about anxiety, feuds, and fear. The GOP has used those to its advantage.
Republicans are lying. Shocking, I know.
Of course, someone who has not received a raise within the last 12 months (many people are on an annual cycle for that sort of thing) wouldn't have felt any personal impact regarding real wages being up 1.5% over the last year. However, they would be "about the same" as 12 months ago, not "worse off".
Similarly, with the labor participation rate, anyone who is not looking for a job would not have been impacted personally by that number being the highest in 20 years.
Only the hopeless political junkies would have sought out or seen any of these economic indicators. Everyone else only knows what they've seen on the news (ha!) or how things have changed for them personally which is most likely, "not a whole lot".
Still not buying the blame on Fox angle.
sure, they clearly contribute to this brain poisoning, but they average 2-2.5 million viewers in prime time. this is being driven in other places too
2 million households an hour is 24 million households in twelve hours.
That's almost one in three households.
I have 3 friends who voted for trump in 2020 and will be voting for him in 2024. One purchased a condominium on Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia for 880K and put another 400K into it. This is their weekend place and is addition to their 5 bedroom house in the suburbs and condo at the Delaware shore.
My second friend purchased a 250K Porsche 911 Cabrio in 2022 and bought a condo in Del Ray Beach Florida as their winter home. Him and his wife have a 900K townhome in South Philly.
Third friend purchased a late 80s Porsche 911 which is in the process of being restored. I don't have a clue on the costs but him and his wife live in a modest townhouse in the Philadelphia suburbs.
All three complain about taxes, Drag queens and trans women. By all accounts they are all doing extremely well financially but still will be voting Trump :/
Yeah.
I see similar things with several acquaintances. New expensive car, pricey vacations, business is expanding faster than they can grow, thinking about a vacation house, kids at expensive private school, big bonuses for the staff, ....but man, the economy sure is looking bad, taxes are killing us, everyone is struggling, really worried, hopefully things get better quickly.
Wtf....
Maybe you should consider new friends! :8^)
I saw all three at a wedding and of course the election came up, and not by me
Avoid weddings?
"All three complain about taxes, Drag queens and trans women."
And that's the crux of the matter. None of this is really about economics. It's culture war all the way down. The other stuff is just pure invention to convince themselves it's not all culture war all the time.
Well, it is objectively true that Elon took a bath on his "investment" in Twitter.
Seems to me that Clinton had this issue in 1996. The economy was doing well, but the press convinced people it wasn't. I am not sure Harris is savvy enough to run on Biden's successes. She is never going to convince Republicans to vote for her, but she should convince Independents. And she needs to GOTV Democrats. This is the first election that it really is a potential crisis if she loses. Trump seems to be intent on using the Federal Government to go after his opponents.
Trump has given Republicans permission/inspiration to whine and lie.
The MAGA true believers are unreachable, deep in their MAGA echo-chamber hole.
For everyone else, ads of Trump talking about a recession and a terrible economy set against charts showing the record-breaking stock market and everyone's ballooning 401Ks, slowing inflation, robust employment, booming GDP, steadily rising wages, and a boom in domestic investment into future job growth. Close with kids, adults, retirees looking at the camera, as if speaking to Trump, "You okay, bro?"
Neither candidate is telling it like it is
You want those great 2020 prices back? Easy, just put 10-15 million out of work. Paychecks go a lot further, assuming of course YOU still have YOUR job
Harris should say that, then add a fair part of the awful 2021 economy, that T conveniently rails about, was party due to his gross mismanagement of covid. The irony being that had he endorsed HIS vaccine, the economy wouldn’t have fallen so far, not to mention we’d have lost a lot fewer than one million Americans
The sad part is I’m betting a lot of folks would be fine with the cost of getting back those 2020 prices
Reminds me of Obama. Within a year the GOP was referring to HIS terrible economy
I never realized chutzpah was abbreviated “GOP”