Resistance is not enough. Democrats have a winning leg to stand on that MAGA does not: It is economic fairness, the lack of which is underlying the demise and resentment of the middle class. Such economic populism can work both ways depending upon who gets the blame. In 2024 Trump won as more voted for cheaper and in 2025 we will get higher prices and much more: inflation per every economist on the planet. The fallout will not only be political, it will be painful for anyone who is price-sensitive. The last time we tried such a stunt was in the early thirties. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smoot-hawley-tariff-act
That is the Democrat's messaging challenge: to make sure the Trump regime gets the blame when inflation happens and health care becomes more expensive again, as the cost of housing keeps on soaring, and grocery prices increase, making the Biden era look like the good old days.
In fact, if there was one issue that tipped the election to Trump, it was his promise to lower grocery prices. He made a big deal of it in his campaign, he promised he would, polls confirmed that was the reason he won, and now he is already admitting he will have a hard time rolling back grocery prices. In fact, the likelihood that grocery prices will inflate will be due to his tariffs on imports from Mexico and a labor shortage from farm to processing caused by mass deportations. https://www.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-already-walked-back-221600205.html
Trump says it will be 'hard' to bring grocery prices down. Here's why. Already, Trump is blaming Biden, not COVID-19, not supply chain mess-ups, empty shelves, or stimulus checks causing more demand than supply. As Biden leaves office, grocery price inflation had been near zero for the past year. However, if grocery prices go south, tariffs and immigration mass deportations will be to blame,. The message must be more than "we told you so," but to tie it to Trump's own actions and deserved blame for whatever happened on his watch.
Update 1/20/2025 WORTH a read if you can getting through the paywall. My thoughts: if the the feds won't do it, states are trying.
To add insult to injury, the billionaire Elon Musk in charge of Trump's current thinking about cutting "duplicative and unnecessary agencies" has just targeted the recently instituted the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. (CFPB)Unnecessary for whom? Certainly not necessary for a billionaire. Duplicative of what agency? It was set up to do what other agencies had failed to do or had the power to do. Per Google AI, The FTC's Bureau of Productions for Consumer Protection ICFstops unfair, deceptive, and fraudulent business practices by collecting complaints and conducting investigations, suing companies and people that break the law. developing rules to maintain a fair marketplace. I spent over 20 years as an executive with consumer protection agencies, one similar to the CFPB on the local level, and a credit counseling agency (non-profit) , dealing with debt, foreclosure, and local, public, and private agencies attempting to help consumers deal with these kinds of financial problems. However, when we attempted to alert the Federal Trade Commission about a pattern of civil fraud, there was no easy way to do it nor was there a focus at the FTC to deal with consumer complaints. Musk does not have a clue of how important the Bureau is. Per the bureau:
- 4 million+ consumer complaints received responses
- $20.7 billion+ in financial relief as a result of CFPB actions
- 205 million+ people eligible for financial relief and their current target: credit card and bank junk fees.
For simplicity in messaging, Democrats can paint the GOP (the Trump version) as the party of billionaires while the rest of us sacrifice what makes our lives easier in order to enable their tax breaks and deregulation. Perhaps, as others have called this, we could tag this as government by an oligopoly or use the Russian term oligarchs. Trump is still in charge, however, and he sees a benefit to his ego, the measure of his own wealth and influence. to be part of this peer group, and he owes them for important financing of his 2024 campaign.
If there is one policy issue that will cause a backlash by everyone, this is it. High tariffs equal high prices. Such inflation caused low-information voters to switch to Trump. It could also cause them to switch back to Democrats. Trump's campaign promises of reducing costs of living for those on a budget are doomed to failure if he makes prices higher and he sabotages what the middle class has taken for granted, access to affordable health care, consumer protections from corporate greed, and social security and Medicare for those who retire.
. In my early adulthood, the middle class could own a home, send kids to college, mom could be a stay-at-home one, and even maybe take a vacation. The income dad bought home was sufficient. Their buying power permitted it. Since the 1970's the trend to keep that going slowly died off as tax and perk policies, money (now dark, thanks to Citizen's United) from corporate and individually wealthy billionaires have flowed into the political system, sucking the middle class dry with their favoritism and self-interests. Now, they are the ones, yes, like Elon Musk, whispering in the ears of Trump. So long as Trump delivers on his promise to lower grocery prices, the stock market remains bullish, gas at the pump remains at under $3 and the cost of what the middle class buys becomes cheaper, no one cares if the oligarchs get richer.
Trump is now doubling down on tariffs on even our largest trading partners: Mexico and Canada, in addition to Asian countries, policies guaranteed to make nearly everything middle-class buys more expensive. If he continues with that insanity, the backlash will be more than palpable, but Democrats have to be able to seize the day, putting the blame where it belongs, and then make the case in simple terms they can make life better. They failed to do that in 2024. Saying and doing the same way over again won't work. They need to get their messaging methods and content retooled and refocused on what the electorate is feeling at the time.
The Democrats ' answer should be a return to their roots and re-establishing their historic posture of the party of those who are struggling to make ends meet. The history of the Democratic party used to be as a champion for those left behind. There is no hypocrisy here and plenty of credibility. Democrats can make the case in the next four years that rule by the ultra-rich on behalf of their corporate interests may talk the populist grievances and say "they feel your pain," but the walk they walk is just making themselves richer.
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/elitists-v-simple-speakeducation-is.html
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/11/trumps-achilles-heels-
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2024/10/democracy-has-oligarch-problem.html
https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R42615/6#:~:text=The%20Consumer%20Financial%20Protection%20Bureau%20(CFPB)%2C%20which%20formally%20started,the%20Dodd%2DFrank%20Act).
ttps://www.newsweek.com/will-trumps-tariffs-drive-inflation-1995274
