Despite Iran, ICE, Epstein, and rampant corruption, the issue that Americans really care about this year is their own cost of living. While progressives love to answer public concerns with promises of specific legislation, that’s not the solution here.
James Carville famously framed a presidential election with the phrase, “It’s the economy, stupid.” And, in fact, that’s true of almost every national election. But the central issue this year is more focused. It’s not about the whole economy, it’s specifically about how most Americans can afford to live their lives day-to-day.
83 percent of Americans say their cost of living has increased in the past year and 50 percent say it has increased by “a lot.” The same poll found Americans are worried about being able to afford health care (66 percent), food/groceries (57 percent), utilities (57 percent), rent/mortgage (52 percent) and gas/transportation (52 percent).
About 60 percent of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, more than 40 percent couldn’t pay for an unexpected expense of $400, many credit card holders are carrying huge negative balances, and students are leaving college tens of thousands of dollars in debt.
There is no specific legislation to counter all of this. By all means, point to legislation (like today’s featured bill, the Fair Competition in Residential Rent Act) as examples that can hold down the costs of housing, utilities, transportation or education. But it is not credible to promise that you can lower the cost of living.
Rather, use this as an opportunity to decry “greedflation,” that is, the long-term effects of letting the ultra-wealthy skim off increased productivity generated by all American workers. This has been happening since the Reagan Administration. The U.S. economy creates wealth and, instead of workers receiving a fair share, the rich take nearly all of it.
The classic conservative defense is – the market did it. It’s a matter of supply and demand. The rich are innocent.
But Americans don’t believe that anymore. They are convinced that businesses have stopped competing on the prices of goods and services, and instead, charge the highest price they can get away with.
Typical Americans understand that they have been cheated. In important ways, their families are worse off than their parents and grandparents were some decades ago, and somebody is to blame for it.
This topic ought to be a slam-dunk for our side. But most Democrats have been unwilling to criticize the wealthy individuals and corporations who are actually at fault. We should say something like this, but rarely do:
Say… The corporate owners and operators who raised your prices by 25 or 30 percent or more are overwhelmingly ideological conservatives. They fund officeholders who make them richer. If you care about affordability, you must understand that the wealthy and their right-wing helpers are not on your side.
Trump and MAGA understand that people are hurting and want someone to blame. So they have, quite successfully, blamed people of color, immigrants, low-income workers and their “woke” allies. Not coincidentally, this right-wing diversion of responsibility away from the rich is funded by – the rich!
For at least a decade, virtually every poll has shown that, if they hear the following argument, persuadable voters will agree that the billionaires and wealthy corporations deserve blame. It absolutely works.
Say… For most working Americans, our economy is broken. To fix it, our policies must benefit all the people, not just the richest one percent. Our system works when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone gives their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.
Persuadable voters believe in a series of stereotypes about Republicans and Democrats. In economic policy, they like the conservative concepts of low taxes and free markets but they also believe that Republicans favor the rich rather than the middle class. At the same time, persuadable voters like a progressive who fights for economic fairness, but they also tend to believe that Democrats favor the poor over the middle class.
Obviously, in 2026, we need to emphasize that our opponents support the rich while we support the middle class.