Donald Trump would be on track to win a historic landslide in November ā if so many US voters didnāt find him personally repugnant.
Roughly 53 percent of Americans have anĀ unfavorable opinionĀ of the former president. And yet, when asked about Trumpās ability to handle key issues ā or the impact of hisĀ policiesĀ āĀ voters routinelyĀ giveĀ the Republican candidate higher marks thanĀ President Biden.
In aĀ YouGov surveyĀ released this month, Trump boasted an advantage over Biden on 10 of the 15 issues polled. On the three issues that votersĀ routinely nameĀ as top priorities ā theĀ economy, immigration, and inflation ā respondents said that Trump would do a better job by double-digit margins.
Meanwhile, in aĀ recent New York Times/Siena College poll,Ā 40 percent of voters said that Trumpās policies had helped them personally, while just 18 percent said the same of Biden. If Americans could elect a normal human being with Trumpās reputation for being ātoughā on immigration and good at economics, they would almost certainly do so.
Biden is fortunate that voters do not have that option. But to erase TrumpāsĀ small but stubborn leadĀ in the polls, the president needs to erode his GOP rivalās advantage on the issues.
Iāve been working for three decades. In that time, weāve had some legitimate financial crises such as 9/11, 2008, and COVID.
Those aside, what Iāve mainly witnessed is people who fail in business or lose their job via incompetence never say, āMan, I shouldāve hired a legitimate bookkeeper and stopped using my corporate card to cut rails in the strip club bathroom,ā or, āMan, maybe I shouldāve shown up to work more than twice a month and maybe I shouldnāt have slapped the receptionist on the ass when I did show up.ā
No. Itās always, āMy business failed and I lost my job because of the economyā
āThe economyā is some great catch all bogeyman scapegoat that has very little basis in meaning when used in daily conversation, especially as it pertains to personal finance.
We can talk about corporatocracies or consolidation of wealth or two tier justice because those things are real and should be addressed, but they are rarely what people are referring to when they blame āthe economy.ā