Is it smart (and accurate) to boil this down to "A great stock market doesn't mean people are doing well. How many stocks do YOU own?" Because honestly, that's kind of where I'm at on this. I'm short on patience with people right now, so the pithier the better. Because I gotta tell you Dan, when someone tells me how great the economy is, and I KNOW that 1) they make 9 bucks an hour and 2) can barely afford gas to get to a job that 3) definitely has not provided them with a 401K, I want to punt them into the sun.
In 2016 the focus on his appalling character allowed his pretense of economic ability to remain intact. The great frustration of the past 4 years has been the lack on a period of intense focus on (1)what is an objectively poor performance and, more importantly, (2)the crushing inequality of Republican policies - meaning that however much the economy grows the majority will get screwed.
In international terms it is really unusual for a party with the policies and record of the Republicans to get such a consistent vote from groups which they so directly disadvantage. Yes the culture war and racism angles have been driven dramatically by the GOP, but there is no other example of such long-term dissonance between core perceptions ("the system always ignores us, we struggle while the rich get richer") and voting for the people who implement the policies you hate.
The picture of Mitch Romney at Baine with money flowing and the 47% controversy is really the only time in decades where Democrats have made this point aggressively.
Something which has been missing in this campaign is enough hard advertising on the 2017 tax cut and the $750.
"it is really unusual for a party with the policies and record of the Republicans to get such a consistent vote from groups which they so directly disadvantage"
The greatest trick the GOP ever pulled off was convincing poor people that other poor people are the reason they can't get ahead. I still can't understand how they managed (and continue to manage) it.
Couldn’t have said it better about the GOP. They are the con party, and have been damn good at it for some time. Just another reason Trump is a logical extension of this corrupted organization. A wretched man to usher in a new era for an increasingly wretched party.
Is there merit to tying this to individual stories? Instead of framing it as “3% GDP drop is still bad” since most people don’t know what that means, talking about it as exact fields?
Restaurants failing, small businesses collapsing, Museums selling off things to stay afloat, the entertainment industry in free fall; the ways people can feel it in their lives.
Or Is the bigger picture with stats and gdp data more valuable?
I’m biased (I’m in entertainment) so I don’t know.
Dan, thanks for these talking points! I keep a doc open of the last set of tested messaging you shared when I’m calling voters and it really works! Especially being able to share new information they didn’t have already.
I'm making lots of calls to AZ and this is the number one sticking point I have to deal with in the few undecideds that I'm talking to. THIS IS PERFECT! Thanks, Dan!
Dan, thanks for the great article And insights, as well as the very helpful graphics. I’m both a words and “picture” person, so find the graphics useful. I’m wondering whether it would be helpful to put together a graphic showing GDP growth over time during Trump’s presidency. He always takes seemingly other-worldly credit for the “recovery” metrics, but all of these 3Q aren’t we great numbers are coming after the disastrous late 1Q and 2Q numbers. It seems few in MSM use the broader context over the course of this year to rebut Trump’s claims that the economy is well on the way to “again” becoming the self-proclaimed greatest economy ever.
Ok. Rant over. Thanks for listening. Keep up the great work!
I am actually profoundly stupid about economics; is it accurate to say that the only reason the numbers have gone UP so much is because they bottomed out while Trump was fucing up the pandemic, so there was a lot of room for improvement?
Exactly right from my perspective. It's easy to look at a snapshot or narrow view of a single statistic and claim victory, when the broader perspective shows a very different story. Pardon the sports analogy, but to me it's like a coach of a football team saying we won the 4th quarter 14-0, but failing to acknowledge the team was losing 49-0 after three quarters.
Is it smart (and accurate) to boil this down to "A great stock market doesn't mean people are doing well. How many stocks do YOU own?" Because honestly, that's kind of where I'm at on this. I'm short on patience with people right now, so the pithier the better. Because I gotta tell you Dan, when someone tells me how great the economy is, and I KNOW that 1) they make 9 bucks an hour and 2) can barely afford gas to get to a job that 3) definitely has not provided them with a 401K, I want to punt them into the sun.
Just me? Anyone? LOL
In 2016 the focus on his appalling character allowed his pretense of economic ability to remain intact. The great frustration of the past 4 years has been the lack on a period of intense focus on (1)what is an objectively poor performance and, more importantly, (2)the crushing inequality of Republican policies - meaning that however much the economy grows the majority will get screwed.
In international terms it is really unusual for a party with the policies and record of the Republicans to get such a consistent vote from groups which they so directly disadvantage. Yes the culture war and racism angles have been driven dramatically by the GOP, but there is no other example of such long-term dissonance between core perceptions ("the system always ignores us, we struggle while the rich get richer") and voting for the people who implement the policies you hate.
The picture of Mitch Romney at Baine with money flowing and the 47% controversy is really the only time in decades where Democrats have made this point aggressively.
Something which has been missing in this campaign is enough hard advertising on the 2017 tax cut and the $750.
"it is really unusual for a party with the policies and record of the Republicans to get such a consistent vote from groups which they so directly disadvantage"
The greatest trick the GOP ever pulled off was convincing poor people that other poor people are the reason they can't get ahead. I still can't understand how they managed (and continue to manage) it.
Couldn’t have said it better about the GOP. They are the con party, and have been damn good at it for some time. Just another reason Trump is a logical extension of this corrupted organization. A wretched man to usher in a new era for an increasingly wretched party.
Is there merit to tying this to individual stories? Instead of framing it as “3% GDP drop is still bad” since most people don’t know what that means, talking about it as exact fields?
Restaurants failing, small businesses collapsing, Museums selling off things to stay afloat, the entertainment industry in free fall; the ways people can feel it in their lives.
Or Is the bigger picture with stats and gdp data more valuable?
I’m biased (I’m in entertainment) so I don’t know.
Dan, thanks for these talking points! I keep a doc open of the last set of tested messaging you shared when I’m calling voters and it really works! Especially being able to share new information they didn’t have already.
I love messaging and infographics that I can share. Thanks!
I'm making lots of calls to AZ and this is the number one sticking point I have to deal with in the few undecideds that I'm talking to. THIS IS PERFECT! Thanks, Dan!
Can we get a data source for the three years of job creation obama v trump?
Found this from Forbes - conservatives are more open to Forbes, right? https://www.forbes.com/sites/chuckjones/2020/02/07/obamas-last-three-years-of-job-growth-all-beat-trumps-best-year/?fbclid=IwAR1HO2-c8T3bAlqeJ1OQqBR2SIMzK6WSAIiVL9zOfXuGM5xYYxoRFkvQs-Y#66044a386ba6
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/obama-created-more-jobs-trump/
^^ Lots of data there
Dan, thanks for the great article And insights, as well as the very helpful graphics. I’m both a words and “picture” person, so find the graphics useful. I’m wondering whether it would be helpful to put together a graphic showing GDP growth over time during Trump’s presidency. He always takes seemingly other-worldly credit for the “recovery” metrics, but all of these 3Q aren’t we great numbers are coming after the disastrous late 1Q and 2Q numbers. It seems few in MSM use the broader context over the course of this year to rebut Trump’s claims that the economy is well on the way to “again” becoming the self-proclaimed greatest economy ever.
Ok. Rant over. Thanks for listening. Keep up the great work!
I am actually profoundly stupid about economics; is it accurate to say that the only reason the numbers have gone UP so much is because they bottomed out while Trump was fucing up the pandemic, so there was a lot of room for improvement?
Or like Andrew Yang said earlier, "If you go down 33% and then up 33% you're still down 11%."
Andrew Yang for the win!
Yeah, love that guy.
Exactly right from my perspective. It's easy to look at a snapshot or narrow view of a single statistic and claim victory, when the broader perspective shows a very different story. Pardon the sports analogy, but to me it's like a coach of a football team saying we won the 4th quarter 14-0, but failing to acknowledge the team was losing 49-0 after three quarters.