Friday, February 25, 2022

Ted Rall: It's the Inflation, Stupid!

 Franklin D. Roosevelt, scion of one of the wealthiest families in American history, was worth about $67 million in today's dollars. He attended the prestigious Groton boarding school, Harvard College and Columbia Law. He was relatable to the masses despite his privileged background. In the words of a PBS documentary, he was "a patrician who spoke the language of the dispossessed."

    Bill Clinton, on the other hand, had every tool he needed in order to connect with ordinary voters. He grew up poor in rural Arkansas with his mother and abusive alcoholic stepfather. When he ran for president, he was the lowest-paid governor in America, not even bringing in $40,000 a year. He deployed the common touch he picked up via his background during his successful election campaign.

    As president, however, he succumbed to the D.C. bubble, initially prioritized the right of gays to serve in the military and pushed a convoluted health care plan and disastrous trade deals like NAFTA that devastated what was left of the industrial Midwest. He won two terms at the expense of a future realignment; his cluelessness and cruelty planted seeds of frustration and rage that blossomed with the election of Donald Trump over Clinton's wife. The Rust Belt, once a bastion of union-aligned Democrats, shifted into the Republican column in part because a president who grew up poor forgot where he came from while a later one who grew up rich convinced folks in flyover country that he felt their pain.

    You don't have to be a member of the proletariat to earn their trust. You have to show them that you understand their problems.

    Because Democrats are failing to do that, they are headed toward disaster in the 2022 midterm elections.

    Gen. David Petraeus wanted to "flood the zone" with American troops in Iraq. The same strategy is generally effective in electoral politics -- bombard the airwaves and print with a steady torrent of consistent, on-brand, compelling messaging that sets the agenda for political discussion and forces your adversary to respond, thus unwittingly reinforcing your framing of issues and proposed solutions. Trump was a master at this. He would say or propose something dramatic or outrageous on Monday but by the time Democrats settled upon and began disseminating their counter-spin on Tuesday, Trump was onto the next act that would dominate the news cycle.

    The Biden administration is a messaging vacuum.

    President Joe Biden hardly holds any press conferences. He delivers few prime-time televised speeches. Messaging, when it happens, is outsourced to social media, press secretary Jen Psaki, allies and surrogates. Republicans and their media allies fill the vacuum; Democrats enable conservative framing by comparing themselves to former and possibly future President Trump.

    When it comes to voters' top concerns, the White House's instinct is to ignore or deflect. 

    Americans tell pollsters they're more worried about inflation than any other issue, followed by immigration and the COVID pandemic. Both Democrats and Republicans say the economy is getting worse.

    But voters aren't hearing much about those issues from Democrats. Biden is instead focused on Russia's incursion into Ukraine, defending a drug treatment program that Republicans claim would distribute free crack pipes at taxpayer expense and complaining that the GOP is blocking his nominees to the Federal Reserve Board.

    Guess how many people care about the Fed nominations.

    Voters support Biden's Ukraine policy, which boils down to stern disapproval coupled with more sanctions. But they need to hear about inflation. They need the administration to stop trying to change the subject to job creation: "If you can't remember another year when so many people went to work in this country, there's a reason: It never happened," Biden said last week. He's right. It has never been easier to find a job or to demand a raise. But what good is a raise that gets eaten up by inflation?

    People need to hear, as they did during Roosevelt's fireside chats, that the president recognizes the issues that afflict their lives. They need the president to explain what's going on and hear a list of credible actions he is undertaking to fix those problems. Unfortunately for the Democrats, neither the president nor leading officials are doing that.
    No wonder his approval numbers continue to decline. A CBS/YouGov poll showed that 58% of Americans said that Biden wasn't focusing enough on the economy; 65% said this about inflation. Only 33% said that Biden and the Democrats are focusing on issues they care about most.

    When he does deign to discuss inflation, the president appears out of touch. In December, he said inflation had peaked and would soon start to decline. He passed the buck to the Fed in January, saying that dealing with rising prices was their job. He accepted reality in early February, saying, "We have been using every tool at our disposal." Yet inflation continues to rage. If the White House has been doing everything it can, or perhaps more precisely everything it can think of, and prices keep going up, voters will naturally draw the conclusion that help is not on the way, at least not from the Democrats.

    It is understandable for the president to focus on a major foreign-policy crisis. But obsessing over the fate of a country that is not a traditional ally, has little history of shared values with the United States and falls under the sphere of influence of another superpower is politically dangerous, particularly when it comes at the expense of economic issues close to home.

    Ted Rall (Twitter: @tedrall), the political cartoonist, columnist and graphic novelist, is the author of a new graphic novel about a journalist gone bad, "The Stringer." Order one today. You can support Ted's hard-hitting political cartoons and columns and see his work first by sponsoring his work on Patreon.

COPYRIGHT 2022 CREATORS.COM

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gasoline | 18 Month Average Retail Price Chart

Anonymous said...

@9:01 PM
Who approved you?

Anonymous said...

Worst president in our lifetimes

Anonymous said...

9:52 - Why do you seem to have a problem with the graph? Attacking the messenger? Why not attack Ted Rall? Both Rall and the graph are absolutely accurate. And both speak to our national decline.

THE NEW AMERICAN SLOGAN IS....

************LET'S GO BRANDON - HELP IS NOT ON THE WAY************

Anonymous said...

@9:52 .. I’ll play..
What was gas before 11/3? What’s happened?

Anonymous said...

During the last election I did not vote FOR Trump; I voted AGAINST Hillary Clinton, and there is a difference. That said, I predict that if Trump is the Republican nominee then we will have another Democrat for another 4 years. While I applauded Trump's ideas, he is too abrasive for man of those that might ordinarily vote Republican.

Anonymous said...

I am really starting to think that these Democrats aren’t simply optimistic dreamers with poor implementation. I am really starting to suspect that they have a sinister plan to transform this country into a dystopian hellscape. Because that’s what they sure did to Jackson.

Anonymous said...

How does the cartoonist attribute global inflation and global escalating gas prices to Biden or any other Democratic president?

StarRider said...

"We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong ... somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises. ... I say after eight years of this Administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started. ... And an enormous debt to boot." Henry Morgenthau, Jr., FDR's Treasury Secretary for most of his administration.

The more things change...

Anonymous said...

Kowtowing to the climate alarmists Joe Dementia shut down oil and gas lease sales from public lands and waters in his first few days as the mindless puppet POTUS.

Find shelter @9:32 before it blows up because it is about to get real ugly.

Anonymous said...

I fear that this country will never have a President worthy of the Office. In todays political environment I don’t believe anyone who is capable will ever put themselves up for election only to have every moment of your life gone through by your political opponents with the goal to destroy you and your family. You only need to observe the individuals who are mentioned as possible candidates to see there is not much hope for the future.

Anonymous said...

California AVERAGE this morning now $4.79 per gallon.

Anonymous said...

@7:52am So being abrasive disqualifies an individual from being seen as competent? Today's youth has been brainwashed in how they see the world. Their parents were never abrasive (and very likely incompetent) because they were more "friends" than parents - so the youth of today have no concept of actual results, only how they "feel" about something. Sigh.

Anonymous said...

7:52 I would be happy to have some abrasiveness at this time. We certainly need it at a time when our borders are basically nothing, inflation is through the roof, our enemies know we are weak because of Biden. He has been a loser in his entire political career.

Anonymous said...

@7:52
So who'd you vote for or against in the 'last" election (since Hillary wasn't running) PS If Trump isn't the nominee then the country may never recovery..

"During the last election I did not vote FOR Trump; I voted AGAINST Hillary Clinton, and there is a difference. That said, I predict that if Trump is the Republican nominee then we will have another Democrat for another 4 years. While I applauded Trump's ideas, he is too abrasive for man of those that might ordinarily vote Republican."

Anonymous said...

@ February 25, 2022 at 11:11 PM

Pretty obvious you weren't around for LBJ. You got no idea how bad it can get.

Anonymous said...

I was working in gas field making $110,000 a year in dakotas with thousand of others many black also. Guess what Biden and the environmentalist put us out of jobs his first day. Now they’re begging Saudi Arabia to increase drilling as we speak.

molonlabe28 said...

Hate to see Ted this stressed out

It’s not going to be a pleasant spring, summer or fall for him

Anonymous said...

7:52 : I agree with you. First time around it seemed needed but now ? Give me Desantis/Gabbard ticket all day long. The country needs to get back to the middle. And quick.

Anonymous said...

8:27 follow up.......If you look close enough you can see Trumps end game and never forget he was a lifelong New York liberal. Did he do some good economically and common sense governing ? Oh hell yeah. Was it really about WE THE PEOPLE ? IMO, no. It was about real estate and having it 100 years from now. He was insuring his stake by running against HRC. Period. Where he failed was what the poster said. He is petty and cannot control it. Hell, he is still doing it. Why ? I am a moderate and I want moderate back. That ain't Donald.

Anonymous said...

@ 10:06

Just curious, can you name the “great moderates” of our time”? …

Anonymous said...

Well, I name myself and a rather large chunk of American society.

Anonymous said...

@2:04
Lol
Sooo..nobody?
Lol
Your funny…

Anonymous said...

7:14 : Hundred million Americans are somebody.

Anonymous said...

@11:48
and I bet your mother said 'you were special', bless your heart.

Go rub your 'participation' trophy you got for bowling the least gutter bowls at the summer camp for 'great moderate' gutter ball bowling children.


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If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

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