How Gas and Grocery Prices Shaped the US Election Outcome
There is every reason to be thankful for the Harris no-go last week, but also absolutely no case to get giddy about the prospects for a second Trumpian term, either. At best, what lies ahead is a wasted four years on the policy front, as Washington is likely to become embroiled in an even more acrimonious melee between the TDS and MAGA polarities of American politics.
Indeed, contrary to the excitement currently extant in many quarters of Team Garbage it needs be recognized that what happened was not the vindication of Donald Trump. There was no mandate for MAGA or some grand political realignment or birth of a new era of governance under which the people have taken back their government.
Ironically, all the realignment chatter is actually rooted in the reason the election was more likely a one-off dead-end. Proponents cite exit polls showing that Trump “outperformed” among Hispanics, blacks, young people, urban, union and working class voters and other left behinds, thereby suggesting a new governing coalition has formed around the Orange Man. Some even imagine it’s a Republican 1933.
But that’s just not so. These backsliding Dem constituencies voted against the soaring cost of groceries and gasoline, not in favor of MAGA or DJT as the savior of the American Way of Life. The inflationary whirlwind that hit the US economy in 2021 to 2023 was such a powerful economic shock to everyday Dem households that on the margin it pushed a considerable slice of them out of their customary lane in the voting. In effect, they checked the GOP box in answer to Ronald Reagan’s call of 1980 under parallel circumstances, when he asked whether you are better off today than four years ago.
For instance, pump prices had been running about $2.00 per gallon thru almost the exact moment of J6, and then it was off to the races for the next 18 months. By June 2022 the national average gas price hit $5 per gallon. Given that the average US household consumes about 650 gallons of gas annually, that $3 per gallon shock drilled a $2,000 per year hole in family budgets.
Yes, prices have partially retraced, but the shock is still fresh and gasoline bills have remained upwards of $1,000 per year higher than before.
Likewise, grocery store prices after January 2021 shot upward like a bat out of hell, reaching a +11% annualized increase by June 2021 and +17% by March 2022. Again, the 20% cumulative gain through December 2022 amounted to $1,200 per year against an average household grocery bill of $6,000 per annum.
Needless to say, gas and groceries are purchased virtually every week by most households. The soaring green line above and the leaping purple line below caused millions of ordinarily Dem coalition households to scrimp, squeeze and sacrifice in the months immediately after they had already suffered through the disruptions and hysteria of the pandemic and lockdowns.
Accordingly, the economic trauma was too severe and too fresh to be extirpated by White House bromides about the alleged roaring success of Bidonomics. Yes, according to the crooked reports of the BLS the US economy was booming along at Full-Employment, but even a steady job did not pay for the soaring cost of everyday living in these backsli
Article from LewRockwell
LewRockwell.com is a libertarian website that publishes articles, essays, and blog posts advocating for minimal government, free markets, and individual liberty. The site was founded by Lew Rockwell, an American libertarian political commentator, activist, and former congressional staffer. The website often features content that is critical of mainstream politics, state intervention, and foreign policy, among other topics. It is a platform frequently used to disseminate Austrian economics, a school of economic thought that is popular among some libertarians.
