'Chill The F**k Out': John Fetterman Urges Democrats To Stick With Joe Biden | The Pennsylvania senator reminded panicked Democrats on Friday that he too had a bad debate once, yet he went on to win his Senate seat.

[u/Murky-Site7468]

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-biden-debate-john-fetterman_n_667ea850e4b0415858d6a2f1

[u/GoodUserNameToday]

Yup debates really don’t matter. It’s all about bananas and gas prices and those are gonna keep trending down.

[u/pattydickens → u/GoodUserNameToday]

The problem is that the narrative won't reflect the downward trend or the strength of the current economy in the world. People will still parrot the talking points of inflation and recession regardless of reality. The summer travel season of Americans this year is one of the busiest we've seen in years. People who supposedly don't have enough money for bills are traveling in record numbers. Yet, the narrative is still that everyone is worse off. Facts went out the window long ago. The major news outlets are totally complicit in keeping this bullshit narrative alive. My neighbor bought 2 brand new vehicles in the last 6 months and insists that the economy is horrible under Biden. It's insane. People are insane. I see Trump winning the EC and losing the popular vote. It hurts to say it, but I'm not going to be caught off guard this time. It's better to prepare for the worst than to pretend everything is fine.

[u/Saintbaba → u/pattydickens]

I've been scratching my head about how to talk to people about inflation. Like we're within spitting distance of 2% inflation again, but people don't know that - or at least don't feel it and don't care - because all the crazy price hikes that occurred when we were at 12% inflation are still around. And they're never going to go down unless corporations quit it with the greedflation (ha very ha) or we achieve deflation which i'm given to understand would actually be bad.

So how do you win people over by telling them we've got this inflation thing nearly beat, but also the shitty high prices that we all hate are likely never actually going to go away and are just the new normal?

[u/LargePopsicles → u/Saintbaba]

It doesn’t really matter if the inflation is down if everything still feels too expensive for people. People aren’t okay with “well it’s getting a little better” when grocery prices are still up 25% since 2019.

Not to mention housing prices. You can tell people the economy is doing great and inflation is down all you want, but when rent is more affordable than owning in 90% of US Counties and housing prices continue to fly up with high interest rates as well, people aren’t going to be satisfied with how the economy feels.

[u/mom0nga → u/LargePopsicles]

I think a good analogy for this is that the economy is like the climate, while people's individual finances are weather. One's a big, macro-scale phenomenon that affects everything, but can be harder for the average person to notice or care about. The other is very obvious to the individual, but because it's more localized doesn't always reflect the big picture.

[u/TheMalarkeyTour90 → u/mom0nga]

This probably the most solid analogy I've ever seen for the economy.

The disconnect between the overall economy and people's sense of the general cost of living isn't even a new thing.

HW Bush is widely recognised to have flubbed any chance of re-election during the debates because he started hectoring voters in the audience about macroeconomic indicators when they raised concerns about their personal finances. Clinton, of course, understood intuitively that it didn't matter what the wider economic situation was if working people didn't also feel the benefits of that economy, and his responses in the debates reflected that.

It always concerns me when I see people unable to make the distinction. Hillary wasn't able to make the distinction in 2016. Trump wasn't able to make the distinction in 2020.

And if people are going to now start finger-wagging on behalf of Biden like they're HW Bush at the 1992 debates, then they aren't doing him the favour they think they are.

[u/LargePopsicles → u/mom0nga]

Solid analogy for sure

[u/ExpressLaneCharlie → u/LargePopsicles]

I totally respect and largely agree with your points, but wages have risen substantially as well. In fact, wages have risen higher than inflation for over a year now. The trend is that wage growth will likely decline, but remain higher than inflation for the foreseeable future.

[u/Joloven → u/ExpressLaneCharlie]

Yeah. My workplace is closing because theu expected 10% inflation 2 years in a row amd gave us 12%raises. Now they want us to relocste and take a pay cut.

[u/CalifaDaze → u/LargePopsicles]

Biden can't sell his accomplishments because he doesn't have the communication skills to do that.