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1796 points koolba | 7 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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drawkward ◴[] No.42063854[source]
It's the economy, stupid:

-Inflation is not prices; it is the rate of change in prices. Low inflation doesn't imply low prices. -Aggregate statistics don't necessarily explain individual outcomes.

The Dems failed on this count massively, and have, for maybe the last 40 years, which is about the amount of time it took for my state to go from national bellwether (As goes Ohio, so goes the nation) to a reliably red state. This cost one of the most pro-union Senators (Sherrod Brown) his job.

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UncleOxidant ◴[] No.42066822[source]
> The Dems failed on this count massively

What was their failure here? The failure to explain to the economically illiterate that while inflation is now about where it was prior to covid that prices won't be going down (unless there's some sort of major recession leading to deflation)?

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ComplexSystems ◴[] No.42067493[source]
The failure is in this very common exchange

Average voter: I can't afford groceries at the store. Inflation sucks.

Response: Actually, here is the correct definition of "inflation." As you can see from the correct definition, inflation rates are now good! Hopefully this helps you understand why things will never get better.

What the average voter hears: I can't afford groceries. Your solution to this problem is to reframe the current situation as "good." I still can't afford groceries.

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crazygringo ◴[] No.42067909[source]
Where are you getting that "response" from? Here's a more accurate exchange:

Average voter: I can't afford groceries at the store. Inflation sucks.

Response: I know, inflation was caused by COVID and Biden got it back down. We had the best soft landing you could have asked for, Biden did a great job. But the original inflation wasn't under the president's control, it was a worldwide phenomenon, and you can't run it in reverse to go back to old prices.

What the average voter hears: I don't care about any of that. Prices were lower under Trump and he's a businessman, so I'll vote for him so prices go back down.

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lazyeye ◴[] No.42068260[source]
The underlying subtext to the majority of comments here is that the voters are stupid. Its a pretty simple-minded analysis actually.
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1. drawkward ◴[] No.42068369[source]
Stupid? Nah. Ignorant? Yes, when it comes to technicalities of economics.
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2. lazyeye ◴[] No.42069882[source]
*Shrugs* I think they have a much better understanding of the realities of their own lives than the clueless fools in Silicon Valley.
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3. drawkward ◴[] No.42070306[source]
I completely agree, which is why I have been arguing all along that it is the disconnect between that lived reality and the way Democrats have been messaging that got in Harris' way.
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4. Aeolun ◴[] No.42071669{3}[source]
Trump has a lot of faults, but it’s not that he can’t keep his messaging at a level even the most uneducated of voters can understand.
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5. lazyeye ◴[] No.42081422{4}[source]
Does anyone remember when the left side of politics used to be about advocating for the working class?

Now that they just sneer at them.

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6. pvaldes ◴[] No.42081460{4}[source]
Is more like change the message fifty times a day so everybody ends confused and dazed and just remember or imagine the parts what they wanted to hear.
7. Aeolun ◴[] No.42086052{5}[source]
Look, I’m all for the working class. I can totally see how they’d vote for Trump because at least it’s better than voting to continue the oligopoly that’s the US right now. At least when you’re voting for Trump it’s abundantly clear in whose interests he’s working, and maybe if you repeat the same thing to him often enough, he’ll actually do it on a whim.

It still feels like a dumb idea, because of well, literally everything the man has ever done. Has anything he’s done ever had a positive impact on the working class? At least the dems have a sorta spotty record on healthcare, and a minor interest in keeping the workers fed and clothed.

It’s not the working class that I have an issue with. It’s everyone voting for Trump that I have an issue with. They just happen to overwhelmingly be hillbillies.

Europe has sensible political parties for the working class, that actually work for their interests, and the only reason I can imagine the US doesn’t have them is because nobody is interested in them. They roundly rejected Sanders and he’s the closest the US ever came.

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