This Could Be a Historic Election—and Not for the Reasons You Think: Amy Richards, a 56-year-old from Texas, told the Associated Press that she used to be a Republican but has voted Democratic since 2016. She said that the president “thinks that the economy is doing well because he and his family have enriched themselves to the tune of several billion dollars.… He has zero idea what it is like to receive a paycheck and have to feed yourself and your family … and he doesn’t care.”
It’s not a surprise that the economy is often top of mind for voters; it usually is. What’s new this year is that Republicans have lost their advantage on the issue. And while on the surface that’s about gas and grocery prices, there are deeper shifts happening that could help open the door to a new economic era.
For decades, voters have trusted the GOP to keep the gross domestic product growing based on one misleading idea: They know that the GOP is the party of business, so they just assume surely the pro-business party is better for the economy.
But voters are turning away from that, and the reason why could mark a seismic change in American politics: Now, they aren’t so sure that what’s good for businesses is good for them. They’re looking for candidates with not just answers but different kinds of answers than they’ve heard before. If Democrats win next Tuesday and actually deliver next year, it could usher in a new era of policy that finally closes the door on the neoliberalism that has dominated for nearly half a century.
The idea that what’s good for the private sector is good for working people has deep roots in the GOP, but in our time, it comes from Ronald Reagan, whose economic policies pointed to government spending as the cause of inflation, claiming it crowded out innovation and cost workers jobs and opportunities. He slashed the federal government’s spending and said he would focus welfare programs on only “the truly needy,” the definition of which was always shrinking. He promised that public revenue would grow even as the tax rates that individuals paid fell, because of… https://newrepublic.com/article/217391/midterm-election-historic-defeat-republicans-economy