Folks remaining committed to Trump say they like his policies if not his personality, and they trust him on the economy. What policies? He makes grandiose promises about grocery prices, health care, and ethnic cleansing of unwanted immigrants, but no policies. His four years in office gave us a weekly barrage of slapstick decisions and scandals that kept everyone wondering what was next.
Some believe the economy was much better for the average person under Trump, and major news outlets say the economy was good during his term. Actually what the economy did was coast on eight years of momentum established in the Obama years. It was momentum great enough to weather the chaos of unpredictable, irrational policy decisions by Trump that generated trade wars, torpedoed agriculture, shifted more wealth to the already wealthy, and piled up national debt to no purpose. It was not a record to be proud of, so why is it remembered as good times?
Trump is less coherent than he was eight or even four years ago, but there are policies in place and ready to go should he be elected. The 2025 Project lays out a detailed map for transforming the United States into an undemocratic, authoritarian state. It’s serious and scary. Trump has tried to disavow it, but he was an early endorser of what his own former staffers produced. It’s a plan that requires a strong autocrat to whom all others are subordinate, and it is obvious that a meandering old man living in his own delusions is not that person. Who is? Vance might think he is, but he is out of his league in the boiling cauldron of billionaire egos who financed the Project. It would be cross, double cross and triple cross for power. The American public deserves what they get if they think any of them have the slightest interest in the well being of the average person.
I remain baffled by the apparent unpopularity of the Biden administration. The most common complaint is the high cost of consumer products. Ignored is the world wide COVID driven economic meltdown from which the Biden administration engineered not only the world’s fastest recovery, but also the most robust economy in recent American history. Inflation was a cost that had to be paid, but between the monetary policy of the Fed and the fiscal policy of the administration it was returned to normal levels quickly and without the expected spike in unemployment.
I am hopeful that more people are becoming more aware of that reality, even if reluctant to do so. When Biden’s policy initiatives and accomplishments are paraded by the public one at a time they receive hearty approval. The same goes for goals Harris has articulated in some detail. If she is elected there is every reason to expect the American economy to continue leading the world while benefitting the middle class more than billionaires. Our democracy will have been preserved. Our dignity among nations will continue to be recognized. We may even craft an immigration system that works while securing the border without inhumane brutality. There will likely be no miracles, but as a healthy democracy we will muddle through for the benefit of those who need it, not for those who don’t.
I wholeheartedly agree with you. I cast my vote based on the candidates’ character, and in the case of the Presidential candidates this year there is no QUESTION who has the greater moral character. As for policies, they are always hashed out and cobbled together with bipartisan consensus regardless of what the candidates promise. This great juggernaut of a country has survived multiple depressions and recessions, civil unrest and two World Wars, for heaven’s sake, and we will survive if not thrive under a Harris Presidency. It’s another Trumpian xenophobic, extremist, nationalist regime that I am afraid we won’t survive.