Democratic Party's Low Polling Numbers Explained

[Ol Janx Spirit]

16. Both parties make the same mistake of thinking--or choosing to think--that voters...

...just put them into office based on their social platform--when in fact it is almost always only the economy that the swing voters that turn elections in one direction or the other care about. And when they get polled you can bet that the economy is what is on their minds.

The 2024 election should prove to us that the voters that swing the election in one direction or the other actually do not care one bit about Turnip or his crimes. They aren't salivating for Democrats to do anything to push back or punish--they just want more money in their bank accounts.

And while some Democrats may be looking for more fight against Emperor Tangerine, it is far more safe to assume that they are more frustrated with the perceived Biden/Harris botching of the economic message that led to his return in the last election. That and what seemed to be an almost complete lack of even trying to hold him responsible for January 6th.

But the parties also know that--unlike most swing voters--their bases do not turn out on economic issues alone. They need those social issues as a source of energy. Far fewer people are passionate about commodity prices like they are about issues of equality or abortion. And social issues are incredibly important: they make us who we "are" as a society.

But American voters do not make informed decisions about economic issues when they get to the ballot box. The fact that Republicans have consistently polled better on who voters trust on the economy despite having plenty of data on their actual performance proves that point.

For starters, while some other cultures see income inequality as a moral issue, our Indo-European roots as expressed in Americanism have not ever really been constrained in such a way. A lot of things would be different if Americans did see wealth distribution as a moral issue. But let's face it: when the real "American dream" is to become magically morbidly wealthy overnight without the constraints of social position imposed on people from other countries, most people don't want to pre-emptively limit their moral options on what to do with all that new-found wealth. Dream on Americans...dream on.

Money is the real god we worship in these United States of America.

A lot of more complicated realities spring from this basic fact, but the reality is that it makes it far too easy to create wedge-issues out of what should otherwise be issues of morality, equality, and basic humanity: a living wage, healthcare, retiring with dignity. Republicans have consistently convinced people without much that forcing the people with a whole lot to give them even a little bit more will leave them with nothing--and that has made the efforts of Democrats to help them out unpopular. The policies are quite popular, but somehow the efforts to implement them are generally not.

So, as usual, the next election will be won on economic issues--and as we saw in the last four years: voters need to see actual improvements in their economic reality to reward you with continued support. The fact that the economy was predicted to crash and you did a fantastic job of not letting that happen means nothing to the electorate. They never knew that anyway.

If Democrats want to poll well they will need to figure out how to improve the personal economy of voters in ways that they get credit for and then keep doing that. Republicans may very well reward them next year by following the Wizard of Snooze down the yellow brick tariff road, but what happens after that is going to be a lot harder than just throwing a bucket of water on the evil billionaires.