Republicans Cannot Blame Any Midterm Losses on Trump’s Economy

I’ve just learned for the thousandth time, most recently by consulting The New York Times that “affordability” is far and away the most important electoral issue motivating voters this year. The public, it seems, is infuriated about the high inflation, reflected in the cost of groceries, houses, and fuel. This (apparently justified) anger is said to be likely to result in a Democratic blowout because the Trump administration is allegedly hurting the average American economically.

Last week, I heard Mark Thiessen of the American Enterprise Institute express mild skepticism about this predicted blowout, mentioning the fact that the economy looked far worse in 2022, but Joe Biden and the Democrats did unexpectedly well in those midterms. The Democrats accomplished this feat with far, far higher inflation, about three to four times as much as what we now have. They also won while filling the country with 10 million to 15 million illegals, whose presence placed further strain on the economy. The reason Democrats tend to pull through so well in such unfavorable circumstances, Theissen said, is that Republicans insist on nominating awful candidates like Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and thereby hand Democrats unexpected victories.

Theissen is wrong. The major reasons the Democrats won then and are supposed to win now are the following: America’s corporate media, the handmaiden of the Democratic left, furiously played down the economic disaster of the Biden administration. They avoided mentioning it, or indicated that it was a temporary inconvenience caused either by Trump’s past presidency or the effect of an ordinary economic cycle. By contrast, the media has grossly exaggerated Trump’s supposed mishandling of the during his second term. The media also played up an allegedly failing economy last year before the spectacular victories in gubernatorial races of very left-wing Democrats, Abigail Spanberger in Virginia and Mikie Sherrill in New Jersey.

 Since then, there has been no indication that the economic pictures in those states have improved, but the media have stopped making affordability an issue at least for those leftist state governments. They also try to brush aside electoral fraud by the Democrats in New Jersey, reckless partisan spending by Spanberger, the relentless pushing of DEI in Virginia and New Jersey, and the persistent handicapping of ICE by Democratic state officials.