Summary
President Joe Biden’s economic achievements—lowering inflation, reducing gas prices, creating jobs, and boosting manufacturing—are largely unrecognized by the public, despite his successes.
His tenure saw landmark legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, CHIPS Act, and major infrastructure investments.
However, Biden’s approval ratings remain low, attributed to inflation backlash, weak communication, and a media landscape prone to misinformation.
Democrats face a “propaganda problem” rather than a policy failure, with many voters likely to credit incoming President Trump for Biden’s accomplishments due to partisan messaging and social media dynamics.
Opinion: trying to teach tens of millions of people enough basic statistics and economics so that they understand that Joe Biden wasn’t actually as bad as they think is not actually a serious strategy for defeating conservative populism in elections
I don’t think this is trying to teach tens of millions, I think this is a scaled equivalent of me just standing in my kitchen, looking around and saying to nobody, “God damnit… What the fuck!” Before I take a moment to figure out what’s next.
It’s very human. Many had a lot invested in the idea of a better future, that this all might be salvageable. Takes a minute to reckon with the reality here. We’re going to have to replace presidential debates with slap fights and primaries with Jello wrestling. For someone relatively younger with a family that they pictured hopefully supporting to grow to be good people doing good things in the world, just sucks to realize the “support” now means we need to start slapping them in the face as early as possible so that they have the most red and calloused cheeks possible to survive in the world we selfishly forced them into.
Raising someone to be decent today feels like he would be as valuable as raising them to be the best VCR repair person in 2024. You have a severely limited and likely permanently outdated skill set. You might be able to enter a few small rooms where your talent is appreciated and useful, but more often than not you’ll walk around in a broader humanity that has no use for you or those like you.