In poll, voters blame Biden for pandemic

In a recent New York Times/Siena College poll, voters say across the board that they prefer Donald Trump's policies to Joe Biden's.

One likely voter, Henry Perez, 50, who lives in California’s Central Valley, put it this way: "Just go to the pump and go to the store — that will tell you everything you need to know about how Biden’s policies have hurt me."

Everything you need to know.

Mr. Perez is complaining about high prices resulting from inflation, which was a worldwide consequence of supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic. He's complaining about high energy costs, which are a consequence of pandemic disruptions, oil producers deliberately restraining production increases to maximize profits, and the upheaval in energy markets caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. (I know persons who blame Biden for Russia's invasion, too.)

For many voters, everything you need to know is that prices are higher after the pandemic—a pandemic that began a full year before Biden took office—than before it. That's despite the fact that under Biden, inflation has been lower in the U.S. than many advanced countries, and the U.S. economy has led the world, through and out of the once-in-a-century pandemic. (Both Europe and China have been in economic doldrums.)

It's despite the fact that wage growth in the U.S. has actually outpaced inflation, meaning workers are better off on net.

It's despite the fact that Trump lost 9.1 million jobs in his final 12 months in office, and lost 2.7 million over four years, whereas Biden created 7.1 million jobs in his first 12 months, and almost 15 million jobs in his first three years. That latter accomplishment is unprecedented in U.S. history, and Biden still has another 12 months to increase it further before his first (and only?) term ends.

Of course, Mr. Perez could not tell you anything factual about Biden's "policies," or Trump's. That's the problem with everything you need to know reasoning. It isn't reasoning and it isn't everything you need to know.

Some voters won't vote for Biden because he hasn't delivered on promised student loan debt relief. That's despite the fact that Biden issued an order that would have provided relief to 43 million borrowers, but the Supreme Court invalidated it. All three justices appointed by Trump voted to smack down the Biden move. Elections really do have consequences. (Biden, doing what he can by executive action, has responded with more targeted student loan debt forgiveness, taking multiple smaller bites at the problem.) But what many everything you need to know voters care about is that Biden didn't give them what he promised, so they're mad at him.

Welcome to democracy which, as Winston Churchill put it, "is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried."

Democracy gave us the first Trump presidency. Back then, one acquaintance told me he'd vote for Trump because Trump would run the country "like a business." That's despite the fact that countries aren't businesses, and shouldn't be "run" like them. And for whatever it may have been worth, Trump's own actual business record at the time of the election included four bankruptcies. Now it's been recently adjudicated in court that Trump's business model employs financial fraud, to the tune of $355 million in the single case just concluded, plus $95 million in interest. Trump is on the hook for $450 million.

Although we might wish for better informed voters, we won't be getting them. In some ways it's amazing the thing holds together at all. Maybe this time it won't.

By the way, this post's title is sarcasm. But you knew that.

Copyright (C) 2024 James Michael Brennan, All Rights Reserved

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