OPINION:
The typical Thanksgiving dinner may cost 14% more this year than last, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. And don’t even get started on the price hikes to gas, which AAA reports has jumped from $2.12 per gallon of regular a year ago to $3.41, on average.
But Democrats say not to worry. It’s all good. It’s all a sign of a positive flowing economy.
As for those who disagree?
Well, as MSNBC’s finest, Joy Reid, recently argued, that’s the stuff and nonsense of Republican talking points.
“So Republicans want you to believe the economy isn’t doing well, that it’s terrible,” Reid said. “Unemployment is at the lowest point since the pandemic began. Prices are higher, which is never good, but Americans are spending a record amount of money that was pent up during the pandemic, which economics 101 will tell you drives prices up, aka inflation.”
Translation: Nothing to see here, folks. Go home.
Reid also said this, as Fox News noted: “The economy isn’t bad. People are mad because everything is late and things cost a little more.”
Translation: Quit you’re whining.
Such rhetoric — and resistance to reality — isn’t doing the Democrats any good with voters, though.
“Inflation and voter perceptions about the economy are emerging as serious problems for Democrats,” Business Insider reported earlier this month, citing a recent NBC/Marist poll that found voters trust Republicans by an 18 percentage point margin over Democrats to do well by the economy.
Translation: Democrats are socialists who don’t know how to manage money.
Look at these facts: A year ago, a gallon of mid-grade gas cost $2.47 per gallon and of premium, $2.74. The current average for the same? As AAA reported, it’s $3.77 per gallon for mid-grade and $4.04 for premium.
And this, from the AFBF’s 36th annual survey on Thanksgiving dinner costs: “On average, a Thanksgiving meal for 10 will cost $53.31, or $6.41 more, then last year’s average of $46.90,” The Press Herald wrote.
That may not mean much for Democrats on Capitol Hill, who use tax dollars to fill their tanks.
That may not mean much for elitists in the media who are highly paid and have no need to budget at the grocery store.
But trust on this — for the average voting American, a few dollars more here, a few dollars more there means plenty. Combine that with empty store shelves, ridiculous continuing crackdowns on freedoms due to randomly selected coronavirus policies, forced face-masking, forced vaccinations, the government-pushed weaponization of the free market against private citizens, the loss of civil liberties, the demise of the middle class due to government’s COVID-19 shutdowns — and what results is a dissatisfied voting population.
Thus, President Biden’s dismal poll numbers.
If Democrats and their water carriers in the media think they can simply wish away those realities by pretending they don’t exist — and fool America into believing the lies — they better think again.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Socialists Don’t Sleep: Christians Must Rise Or America Will Fall,” is available by clicking HERE.
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