like, it's just in the nature of things that it's very difficult to fully fix everything all at once. Even when you implement good policies, they can take a while to take effect.

if we can't talk about things getting better when they get better, how do we keep moving towards better?

I agree that even at its best, many people are suffering and in poverty, and that that is not acceptable.

If we use that as an excuse to throw out pols who are taking steps to make things better, it's unclear how we ever move forward though.

part of what happened in 2022-2024 was that working people made substantial gains in comparison to the wealthy, esp because there was major labor success and a real effort to enforce antitrust.

this is why billionaires lost their shit and went full fascist.

debt went down. lots of people (esp disabled people and Black men) saw levels of employment we hadn't seen in decades. employment is probably the single biggest booster of income.

I don't think it has much to do with biden being good or bad at messaging. unless you think that every incumbent party on the globe was bad at messaging; they all basically got crushed.

voters just have really short memories.

yep.

it happened to obama too. anger at the economic collapse hit big in 2010 midterms, even though it was bush's fault, not obama's.

so...just really don't know. I think you just advocate for better policies and redistribution and hope that the backlash to trump gives us some space to move towards better things?

I don't think telling people they're fools or that they're motivated by bad faith group think sways people; like it generally just makes them double down.

and...everyone swung against Ds, not just old people.

it's complicated. in general, wages were up over inflation, at least in the last year and a half. and people in general acted like it. (consumer spending was way up; travel was way up. that includes old ppl.)

it's very bad that people now think that high inflation is worse electorally than high unemployment, imo.

I don't really know what to do about it though.

I think it's still fucking people up. (I mean, I know it is.)

like, the way that people just erased covid from their memories in the 2024 election is...not a sign that covid had no effect on the election, imo.

will seems to think that the best way to deal with this is to yell at people and insist they're arguing in bad faith which...I don't think that's super helpful.

(for instance, lots of longtime restaurants and businessed collapsed, even if new businesses started; schools and hospitals, were messed up long term in a lot of, etc.)

I think high inflation sticker shock really angers people...and I think there were a lot of traumatic covid dislocations that made people feel like things had never returned to normal.