Trust Trump Will Handle the Economy at Your Own Risk

Economic Research: Eleanor Roosevelt visits Appalachian communities devastated by the Depression. Arthurdale, W. Va., 1933. Out of respect to the families of Appalachia the First Lady visited, there are few pictures. Image courtesy West Virginia & Regional History Center.

So much misinformation about the economy, so little time.

‘The economy. Stupid.’ is a turn of phrase repeated during the Presidential campaign of 1992 by James Carville, former campaign advisor to Bill Clinton, who defeated incumbent George H. W. Bush. (1) To grasp the significance of this phrase, consider that Carville and company seized on the recession to help Clinton, then Governor of Arkansas, defeat Bush, an incumbent President.

Carville’s epithet is misleading. First, “the economy… stupid” is always the case in garnering votes — proof that your opponent is dodging economic insecurity — no news there.

Second, which economy are we talking about? The “middle-class” economy or the “trickle down” economy? That voters drift from rationalizing one economy for the other testifies to the proposition that in voters’ minds both coexist — an economy which serves the middle class and an economy which serves the wealthy, an economy which seeks to expand opportunity and an economy which contains it for profit and privilege.

Post Democratic National Convention, presidential candidate Kamala Harris will be proposing to the American public her vision and program for a “better” economy. Not that things are all that bad, which they’re not (2) but that the public doesn’t agree that they are…