Eatspancakes84

As you rightfully note the relationship between federal economic policy and economic outcomes is complex and it’s not easy to tease apart cause and effect. Having said that Democrats have through history presided over MUCH better economic outcomes than Republicans, and Biden is no exception. Yet, voters consistently believe that (generic) Republicans are better for the economy than generic Democrats.

Inflation is really one of these things where people find out much later that the problem is fixed. For instance, Biden inherited a high inflation regime which baked in about 10-15 percent price increases before he could do anything to stop it. By the time he brought inflation down, prices had increased by something like 20 percent. Inflation has now been brought down to 2-3 percent, but most people will simply observe that prices are 20 percent higher than when he started.

Another big issue is counterfactual reasoning. US inflation was lower than in other developed countries, but people only notice that it was higher than they were used to.

In a nutshell, policy is really complicated. You do not feel the consequences of good policy in your bones.

I have never heard of this in the context of ibuprofen. I know it’s bad on the stomach which means you shouldn’t take it for long periods of time (unless prescribed by a doctor). However, when the source of the pain disappears it’s pretty easy to kick the habit. Very different from opioids that are addictive beyond their painkilling ability.

Also between European countries the price of otc painkillers differs tremendously, and my impression is that European pharmacies generally only sell small packages in an effort to maximise profits.

I don’t think the issue was targeting the wrong states. There was simply so much money that it was impossible to spend it only on battleground states. The bigger issue is the continued focus on traditional media. To win an election you need an army of online trolls not an ad on tv.

Just a few years ago this generation was walking out of schools to protest our lack of action against climate change. The shift is crazy.

I would be very interested in understanding how boys are treated differently now then when I was young (millennial here). Why are gen z men so upset?

That’s rich. How could one ever think in this election that Kamala was the emotional one. She made one joke about his crowd size and he went completely off the rails.

But the issue is that Democratic representatives get punished for the actions of a tiny subset of their voters.

Let me be more clear: the votes aren’t there. You would like to believe that you as a progressive who is frustrated with Dems for not being progressive enough is a large enough constituency. I would like that to be the case as well. Unfortunately, almost all progressives voted on Kamala (and on HRC before that), and it’s just not enough.

The electorate has clearly shifted right. That’s why this time the right side won, whereas last time the left side won. I hope (but am by no means certain ) that a high quality left-wing candidate can help to shift the electorate back to the left.

Which is what exactly? So many captain hindsights here.

Seriously, why didn’t Truman push this through?? What a difference that would have made!