Objectively, most of us are better off than we were four years ago. Who wants to go back to the days of school closures, masks, and double-digit unemployment?
So why is former President Donald Trump enthusiastically asking on social media, “Are you in a better position than you were 4 years ago?
Paul Krugman believes the answer is that the electorate is giving Trump a COVID mulligan, which is true. But then Krugman wonders why the electorate doesn’t make a mulligan similar to President Joe Biden’s.
The challenge for Biden is that, unlike Krugman, most people don’t see peak inflation in the post-Covid economy as inevitable, nor do they deserve to do so. Obama advisers Lawrence Summers, Jason Furman and Steven Rattner warned Biden that his $1. 9 trillion partisan spending plan would cause inflation. And that’s what happened. As a direct result of Biden’s reckless spending, real wages are falling, borrowing costs are rising, and people can no longer afford space or a car, two core elements of the American dream.
Krugman also highlights how well-placed Trump was pre-COVID. In February 2020, he got his first positive net approval rating, unemployment was 3. 5%, and Trump was targeting minority voters with a Super Bowl ad touting his First Step Act. Because of COVID, Trump was on the verge of re-election.
But most importantly, not only does the electorate not blame Trump for COVID, but it is the Democrats and Biden who are most associated with the worst political reaction to COVID. And they’re right to do so. Biden wasn’t president for most of 2020, but when he became president, he immediately sold out young people to the teachers’ union’s demands for more school closures.
In fact, before the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Democrats were headed for disastrous midterm elections, largely because of the failure of their COVID response. Only the abortion issue saved the Democrats from a red wave.
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Biden has vowed to return to normalcy if elected president. Instead of bipartisan moderation, Biden has governed from the left, enacting massive stimulus measures that have caused inflation and dismantled our immigration enforcement capabilities, leading to an influx of 3. 8 million illegal immigrants.
The majority of the electorate needs a pre-inflationary, pre-border crisis America, and that’s what Trump promises.