Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Elections 2024 2024 Election Forum

They agreed with the propaganda of poor handing of economy ... they agreed with the propaganda Biden caused inflation ... they agreed with the propaganda that the conflated illegal and legal immigration was the cause of all their problems (a la Hitler). The standard metrics of an economy indicate we have as good or better economy than Trump did and yet the Biden administration couldn't communicate those facts. Inflation was the simple result of the classic macro-economic equation shortage in supplies with a high demand => high prices (inflation) or capitalism in action, and yet the Biden administration couldn't convey that lesson in economics to the masses, as well as the administration efforts to lower the inflation rate while the fed took aggressive actions to rein in what could have been really devastating inflation, and still maintain employment, while the rest of the world suffered with much higher rates of inflation. Immigration is, was, and has been a problem for many years spanning every administration, both Republican and Democrat. That Congress is at loggerheads dealing with the issue is a function of conservative Republican refusal to compromise. Democrats have been more than willing to forego salient agenda items in order to write a commonsense bill which would appeal to Republicans. We have had bills in the past 15 years with the help of conservative Republicans only to be shot down by the extremists and now with Trump. Apparently Trump believes it is better to deport people who have entered legally seeking asylum rather than spending the money to reinforce border security and additional judicial help processing filings.

It will be problematic if the economy remains on the same trajectory, which began during Obama's administration, if Trump imposes arbitrarily high tariffs on all imports. This will be further exacerbated by removal of a large number of people who contribute to the economy, who will have no replacements, and thus leading to higher unemployment, lower revenues, and high prices. As far as asylum seekers is concerned, the rates have been cut in half, already. This will probably continue. Trump will claim he did it. Trump will probably stop all asylum seekers from entering the US, thus imposing a large burden on Mexico and increasing an already dangerous environment on the border.

Basically I agree with you. There is a reason the administration couldn't address these problems effectively .... we have an electorate too ignorant to care about the facts. And I haven't even typed about the real issue ... Death of Democracy. Do any of those issues matter if there is no Democracy????

I’m not an economist or a financial guru. But I have always believed the economy is like the weather, its going to do whatever it wants to do. That presidents and governments can play around the edges of the economy, but the economy is in control of its own trajectory. Much like man can play around the edges of the weather, example like cloud seeding. But I think that is it. If presidents, government could control the economy, we’d have all good times, all ups and no downs or bad times.

The problem which I don’t blame the masses is previous presidents have all taken credit for a good economy, they shout from the mountain tops that it was their policies that achieve a good economy. When the economy goes south, turns sour the party out of power, the challenger always blames those in power ala like blaming Biden. This has become ingrained, embedded into the publics conscious. This is a political reality. People always either blame or give credit to the one in charge whether or not the one in charge was responsible or had nothing to do with what they’re being blamed for or credited for. That too is political reality.

Maybe if Biden had a more outgoing or forceful personality, he could have gotten what was being done to address inflation, immigration, etc. Like FDR with his fireside chats during the depression, Reagan with his TV appearances or even Bill Clinton use of the media. But Biden like to basically stay hid. To stay out of the limelight. I don’t think Biden was able to communicate or connect with the people, to make them understand what is going on and what is being done. At least not in the style and effectiveness of an Obama, Bill Clinton, Reagan or FDR.

The coming Trump stuff is interesting. In the past he has made claims as to what other countries are going to do. Mexico was going to pay for the southern wall, China was going to pay for the new Tariffs, etc. Never happened. Now he has said that Mexico, China and Canada are going to pay for the tarrifs that HE is going to make on everything coming from those countries (and they are going to pay for them). Then there are other problems as well as stuff that comes from China, Mexico, and Canada are, apparently, necessary for stuff being created in the United States. Without those things they are dead in the water. Now add in one other little thing. Apparently the plan is to charge these nations a 25% of the value of whatever is coming into the United States. Since those are the three biggest trade partners we have there might also result in those countries not particularly liking the United States as well. I guess we don't need any friends? One thing is true. Trump WILL do as he says he will so we can bank on that one. The problem becomes are those he says will pay actually do pay. I am holding my breath on this one.

Its gonna get more and more interesting and, I suspect, not in a nice way................

It doesn't matter to his 49.9% of the voters. Even if prices triple, and he starts WWIII, put us in to Marshal Law, everything that hurts us all, not one person that voted for him will ever admit that they made a mistake in voting for him. EVER!

I don't know about the 49.9% but certainly for MAGA, they will continue to support and defend the Son of God, Savior of America, and other appellations which point to Trump's greatness.

Its really quite simple. Trump is going to take over pretty soon and then he will begin to do what he has said he is going to do. Then we get to wait a bit more to see if he upsets anybody. I think that if bad things happen then there are going to be people who will be unhappy if they are experiencing bad things. I am not convinced that the true believers are going to be real happy if they have no food, no place, no nuthin. I can remember the last Trump presidency. He was not exactly loved by a lot of people.

I think what happened, this time, is that there were a lot of people who were just sick and tired of the whole thing and wanted a change, ANY change! Now they will watch that happen. Trump may actually do well and make folks happy! We just really do not know. Since there is little choice I am going to just stick around and see what happens. I had thought to move but, actually, I'm a little old for moving around and have lived in the same house for about 70 years now and one gets a bit attached over time.

I do, however, wish us all well. I realize some are more concerned than others. All I can say about that one is "So? Watcha gonna do?" The real answer is pretty easy - "Not much I can do but wait". All that being said I also suspect that the best thing to do is just carry on as best as possible, keep their heads down and their mouths kinda shut. I am really sick of my own whining and the whining of others. The TV, for instance, seems to be insistent that we can do nothing, we are going to all have a terrible time, and so we are to just whine, cry, pray and be miserable.

In other words I would suggest we all back off, think kind thoughts, hope and just survive.

I wish us all good luck!!!

I agree with jgw, the election is over, it’s in the books except for one lone House race and several recounts which probably won’t change a thing. Time to move on. Yes, it was change that was wanted this election. Any change that may improve the economy and stop prices from rising. MAGA probably makes up a quarter of the electorate, the true, avid Trumpers. Yet MAGA was only half of all the votes Trump received. The other half in my opinion came from those who were dissatisfied with the job Biden and his administration had done, they wanted change as jgw said. When 57% of all Americans disapprove of the job being done by a sitting president, he’s a goner. Or in this case, his replacement as history has shown. The fact Harris made this a very close race, losing by 1.6 points is a testimony to her and probably says more about Trump than Harris, Biden and the all the rest.

Idiot Trump’s tariffs are only going to increase prices - especially car parts and produce,

True Rick. Many of Trump’s cabinet nominees give me a sense Trump is out to destroy government as we know it today. Most of those who voted for Trump, at least the non-MAGA types, the non-Trumpers voted for him to improve the economy, reduce, eliminate inflation and rising prices, secure the border, stop illegal immigration. But none of this other stuff Trump seems set on doing.

For some reason democrats didn’t turnout out to vote this year as they did in 2020. Democrats made up 37% of those who voted in 2020, but only 31% in 2024 whereas republicans made up 35% of those who voted in both 2020 and 2024. This difference is even more puzzling when one considers the democrats had a 3-point advantage in party affiliation this year. The old political adage about elections being all about voter turnout certainly applied to this election.

How economic concerns and low voter turnout in Democratic strongholds helped Trump win

https://www.businessinsider.com/2024-vs-2020-election-trump-harris-biden-president-2024-11

And if things go south, as we expect it will, I will be reminding those that voted for Trump, MAGA and non-MAGA alike, that they are the ones to blame for the outcome! Them and them alone!!