A day after levying steep new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China, President Trump acknowledged what economists, members of Congress and even some of his own aides — in their previous lives — have been saying all along: Americans may find themselves paying the costs.
They have been uniquely open about their plans to make economic experience worst for most people, but even so, I still suspect it will end up badly for them. We might say “hey the voters were informed” but a.) they almost certainly assumed that it would not be them who felt pain and b.) the voting public as a mass consciousness tends to operate on fairly simple stimulus-response dynamics, and the most important of those dynamics is the “feel bad about economy> vote out incumbent” pathway. So basically just, you can be honest about nuking the economy and promise some promised land on the other side, but if said promise land does not materialize well before elections, you’re probably cooked.
They have been uniquely open about their plans to make economic experience worst for most people, but even so, I still suspect it will end up badly for them. We might say “hey the voters were informed” but a.) they almost certainly assumed that it would not be them who felt pain and b.) the voting public as a mass consciousness tends to operate on fairly simple stimulus-response dynamics, and the most important of those dynamics is the “feel bad about economy> vote out incumbent” pathway. So basically just, you can be honest about nuking the economy and promise some promised land on the other side, but if said promise land does not materialize well before elections, you’re probably cooked.