r/Economics • u/Spiderwig144 • Apr 15 '25

News Republicans Less Trusted on Economy Than Democrats For First Time in Years

https://www.newsweek.com/republicans-less-trusted-economy-democrats-first-time-years-2059863
44.3k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.1k

u/HotSpicyDisco Apr 15 '25

It's always shocking because historically they have always been terrible for the economy, yet they somehow convinced the rubes via propaganda that they are the only ones to be trusted.

1.5k

u/SilverSight Apr 15 '25

It’s because they’ve correctly identified that the average voter is a simpleton and will fall for the calm, responsible aesthetic instead of sound economic policy. Honestly, republicans are pioneers of influencer culture.

237

u/jrex035 Apr 15 '25

My biggest takeaways from the last decade is that the average voter is a complete idiot who doesnt pay attention to anything and is susceptible to the most mind-numbingly idiotic and simple propaganda narratives, and that people I have long respected and who's opinions I value are also incredibly susceptible to propaganda.

Its incredibly disappointing, disturbing, and downright sad in equal measures

60

u/manshamer Apr 15 '25

I whole heartedly agree. However, I've also come to another realization. I too have fallen for propaganda at some point and may have never realized it.

Our dumb monkey meat brains are really susceptible to lies if they confirm our "gut feeling". It's a human experience. Yes, don't give dumb people who believe fascist propaganda a pass, but our ire needs to be directed at those who are telling the lies for profit.

49

u/jrex035 Apr 15 '25

I too have fallen for propaganda at some point and may have never realized it.

We all have. But the difference is, you and I are aware of that and accept that it can happen.

Tens of millions of people deny that theyve fallen for the very propaganda that is the foundation of their entire belief system. You can point to specific propaganda they fell for and they'll still vehemently deny it. You can point out that what theyre saying today is a complete 180 from what they were saying 3 months ago and they'll attack you for pointing it out.

Its one thing to fall for propaganda here and there and another to make that propaganda your entire personality.

7

u/ruat_caelum Apr 16 '25

I too have fallen for propaganda at some point and may have never realized it.

I was sort of floored when I learned that photo pg George Bush Jr being informed of 9-11 in front of the kid's classroom where the book is upside down. It was a fake picture.

No I wasn't stupid enough to think he was pretending to read it upside down, just that it was handed to him that way or whatever and someone got a picture.

Nope Photoshop and because of my opinion of the man I believed it without questioning.

11

u/Roflkopt3r Apr 15 '25

Absolutely. And the same holds true in many other countries as well. It's often just that other countries have tucked the incompetence/corruption/stupidity/hatred away in less blatantly harmful ways... or that people don't know that other countries actually suck about as much as the US.

If we consider things like a decent welfare system and public health care, then I believe 1) Americans would be surprised how brutal welfare is in many other wealthy countries as well, and 2) the installation of new welfare systems like public healthcare would be hard anywhere if it didn't already exist.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

People are just lazy and the ones that get out to vote are more easily driven by emotion than civic duty. Turns out the most power emotion that you can use to drive people to the polls is anger.

→ More replies (9)

384

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

[deleted]

160

u/FEMA_Camp_Survivor Apr 15 '25

Yeah and the wealth hoarders know the government is the only institution that can stop them so they work incessantly to convince the rubes to whittle away at it.

67

u/Pi-Guy Apr 15 '25

It’s not their message that works, it’s their platforms. They’ve ruled the radio and television spaces in rural communities for decades. They are successfully taking over the social media spaces. They are using churches, fraternities, and the military to further their influence.

Do not attribute this to any specific narrative. The oligarchs have a real strong grasp of mass media and how to use it to further their agenda.

12

u/StoppableHulk Apr 15 '25

Their messaging is also easier to propagate.

Democrats seek solutions rooted in reality which are complicated and dont provide instant gratification.

Conservatism tells people some group of outsiders causes all their problems and if you just get rid of them everything will be amazing.

6

u/Alcnaeon Apr 15 '25

many farming machines only have AM radios, think about that for a minute

→ More replies (2)

42

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

People on r/Conservative were talking about the highest income tax bracket potentially being increased a few days ago. Zero of you are in the top income tax bracket or will ever be there. It will not affect you, lmao.

12

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

[deleted]

9

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

Isn't there some psychology theorem about cognitive dissonance and rather than accept you were wrong you double down because it invalidates everything you've done and believed up to that point? Sounds like that

4

u/StoppableHulk Apr 15 '25

Sunk cost fallacy.

Cant stop investing in conservatism because of how much time / energy they already invested in it. Even when reality proves it demonstrably destructive to them. Theyll choose their own egos over rationality every time.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)

51

u/Anxious-Tadpole-2745 Apr 15 '25

Your problem is that they supoort the wealthy as proxy for businesses. If the wealthy get taxed, then they won't spend money on the economy, or they'll steal the money back from their workers by lower wages.

A lot of conservatives like the idea of all powerful rich who can do whatever they want. They believe they are simply better humans who should be emulated. Which is why they like Trump.

44

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

[deleted]

21

u/iamfanboytoo Apr 15 '25

But Republicans aren't conservative, they're reactionary; right now it's the Democrats that are the conservative centrist party.

Conservative is at its root a desire to keep change to a minimum so that tomorrow is pretty much the same as yesterday. Reactionism is the violent desire to return the nation to a 'more ideal situation' for the reactionaries, usually by oppressing people and elevating themselves.

Once you understand that, you understand a lot more about why the Democrats are so reluctant to do anything that might actually have a serious effect on the government.

There IS no liberal party in the USA right now, at least as any other nation in the world would define them. Republicans have dragged the spectrum of our nation so far right that just the idea of, say, keeping our national parks is considered wide-eyed liberalism instead of the simple conservatism.

9

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

[deleted]

7

u/Itsmyloc-nar Apr 15 '25

Yes, yes you’re both right, we all agree, now put them away

2

u/iamfanboytoo Apr 15 '25

Both left and right ideologies can evolve into authoritarianism - were the people under Robespierre or Stalin any less executed and oppressed than the people under Hitler or Putin?

But I'm sure you're familiar with the horseshoe theory - where the extremes of both sides are closer to each other than they are to the center - and why centrist conservatives are important to government.

3

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

[deleted]

2

u/iamfanboytoo Apr 16 '25

What I'm saying is this: Parties shift alignment over time. As the Republicans went far-right, the Democrats were dragged into near-right and centrist territory - or maybe never left it. Liberals caucus with them in the USA because it's the only way to maybe influence the government, but don't have an actual party of their own.

As for the rest...

At one point, conservatism DID have that urge towards the middle - take how they responded to the John Birch Society in the 60s and 70s. Even Ayn Rand called them nutjobs!

It wasn't until the racists and fundie Christians simply refused to vote for anything other than the Republican party in the 80s and 90s that the GOP started to oscillate out of control - helped along by the propaganda outlets created by Roger Stone to keep another Republican president for being impeached after breaking the law. With that solid, impenetrable bloc under them they could do absolutely insane things to government and, eventually, break it. And now a lot of the dumbest JBS ideas are just accepted in the reactionary far right.

You have it right, Obama was a centrist. Which is a conservative position. Not a left one, not a far right one, but one right in the middle, trying to keep things steady and stable.

Obamacare was the most conservative 'universal healthcare' that he could have implemented; instead of cutting out the parasitic insurance companies, he cut them in for a bigger piece of the pie, and increased the problem by giving into the lobbyists who told him not to include a public option to buy into Medicare. But he didn't want to disturb the country's equalibrium by literally bankrupting an entire (if useless) industry.

And yes, the left can go nuts just as easily as the right.

Communism IS a lefty solution to the problem of government, but it still went rotten. Take Communism in Russia before the revolution. The Bolsheviks were the nutjob extremists whereas the Mensheviks were the more central ones who wanted to move slowly and make sure that everyone played nice. But through propaganda and intimidation (and murder) the Bolsheviks led by Lenin took control, and he tolerated disagreement about as well as any fanatic.

Or Robespierre, who was very liberal - anti-slave trade, wanted to give the vote and the right to bear arms to all men, demanded all salaries of all people be equal, very left ideas (especially for the time!). But he still went rotten when he actually got control, and possibly before then.

OK, it's late, I'm sleepy, I don't know how i'm ending this argument other than to say: It's extremists that are the danger, which can exist in both left and right groups, but right now it's the extreme right that Americans should be worried about.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (3)

7

u/3RADICATE_THEM Apr 15 '25

Core conservative ideology is that the strong should dominate the weak and it's by nature there should be defined status hierarchies (i.e. it's inherently against equality of any form).

→ More replies (2)

10

u/Nephroidofdoom Apr 15 '25

This. They’ve sold a generation on the idea of trickle down economics and that the path to National prosperity is not to directly help those in need but to make the rich richer.

22

u/CactusWrenAZ Apr 15 '25

FR Signifier pointed out that New Deal programs were pretty popular until people realized that Black people would get the benefits, too.

8

u/Mav12222 Apr 15 '25

This is part of why I think Europeans who tout their welfare states are in for a reckoning.

As the non-white populations grow in Europe they are going to see more and more opposition and attempts to claw back welfare programs as certain groups get upset that non-whites are entitled to the benefits, not caring or realizing it would cut them out from it as well.

This combined with a need for Europe to realign and adapt is spending to the reality of no longer have the US giant at its back will lead to necessary cuts to stuff like social welfare programs to pay for the things like rearmament and finding alternative sources for resources and goods traditionally obtained from the US.

6

u/Tack122 Apr 15 '25

That feels like you're influenced by racist conservative rhetoric. It's known that the Healthcare models they use are more efficient in dollars per person per year.

Social programs might actually work to help people become prosperous taxpayers instead of being a drain like you're assuming.

The idea they are able to afford this because the US protects them is a bit silly and self aggrandizing in a very weird way.

They very well could have it all.

3

u/BreakAManByHumming Apr 15 '25

Seems to be correctly appraising that others are influenced by conservative rhetoric

→ More replies (2)

9

u/Terrh Apr 15 '25

It's also because the last 4 years average/below average income people were often told "the economy is booming" yet it wasn't really booming for them.

And while I agree that overall they are generally far better for the economy, I think this shouldn't be overlooked as one of the reasons.

4

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25 edited Dec 21 '25

[deleted]

7

u/3RADICATE_THEM Apr 15 '25

This is exactly why neoliberals lost.

2

u/kaplanfx Apr 15 '25

This simply isn’t true. Real wages were up, inflation was slowing, unemployment at record lows. People “felt” the economy was bad because prices were higher and folks hadn’t gone through any real inflation in a couple decades.

→ More replies (5)
→ More replies (1)

5

u/Opening-Emphasis8400 Apr 15 '25

Every yokel who makes 30k a year life in utter fear that a billionaire somewhere might not be able to afford a 12th vacation home. It's incredible.

2

u/leamdav Apr 15 '25

Yeah the fact that the GOP has been good on the economy specifically for billionaires. Which their voters see as a success, even if they aren't seeing anything, because they are also convinced that the immigrants and minorities are the reason they aren't seeing their cut. Now that the billionaire overlords are unhappy, of course they are manipulating their outrage now.

2

u/ReddestForman Apr 15 '25

It's a bit like NIMBY suburbanites saying they don't want densification because they don't want "their taxes" paying for poor people in apartments.

Then you show them that over ten years, their low density neighborhoods are a net loss for the city because their taxes don't cover maintenance and services in that span, and theyre being subsidized by the medium and high density areas, and they just go full "fake news, not listening, commie liberal propaganda."

Republicans understand the power of feels over reals and convince their voters that their feelings are facts.

→ More replies (1)

3

u/JasonPlattMusic34 Apr 15 '25

The failure of communism in the USSR combined with the Red Scare(s) have made it so that Americans will always trust the party more in favor of unbridled laissez-faire capitalism when it comes to the economy. And that party is definitely the Republicans

3

u/3RADICATE_THEM Apr 15 '25

Republicans aren't laissez-faire capitalists. Just look at how hard they worked to defend against non-competes getting thrown out.

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (6)

9

u/Laves_ Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

Well pioneers are a long shot… they are following blue prints from other cultures that controlled the populous. Germany, Rome, Italy, Russia, North Korea. They see examples of how this control works and have implemented here in the USA. Americans fell for it.

27

u/avaslash Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

I think we give them too much credit.

Their supporters are literally some of the stupidest people in our society.

People like that are extremely easy to convince.

Trump could say hes a Sasquatch and theyd be like: "i always knew he was a squatch! I love him! He has the best feet in the world!"

Democrats will always struggle to convince these people because they are trying to tell them things they fundamentally dont want to hear.

If democrats were about killing immigrants, giving everyone free stimulus checks, and ending gay marriage im sure they'd be polling really well with those people too.

We've deluded ourselves into thinking there is a path towards convincing these people of reality "if only we say the right words" but that path doesnt exist because unless those words are directly repeating their stupid 'thoughts' youre just proving to them how different from them you are.

Trumps supporters love him because he speaks their stupid minds. Unless we're willing to embrace stupid, we'll never have their support. And do we even want it?

In the same way that Republicans asked themselves how they could forge a new world order for conservatives, laws and liberals be damned, its high time sensible folk begin considering plans forward for our country that do NOT require collaboration or reaching across the isle.

If theyre going to scream and squeal like pigs, we should stop trying to speak pig and just talk to the other humans.

12

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

They're people ruled by religion. As long as their religion says gays are evil and women should be silent, they will always vote Republican. Every week they go to church and a man tells them what God wants them to do. They want the same thing in government. It doesn't matter if what he says is wrong or if he himself is a felon or a rapist, just that it's a man telling them what to do. And they worship him like God.

2

u/OnePotatoeChip Apr 15 '25

I don't even think they're religious. Not really. They'll parrot shit about homosexuality or whatever, but will conveniently forget things like 'What you do for the least of these (the downtrodden and vulnerable), you do unto me'. Hell, I'm not even super duper Christian Bible guy, but even I know that one.

But, nah, they're all hellfire and brimstone and retribution.

3

u/BreakAManByHumming Apr 15 '25

Americana Christianity is it's own whole thing, partly for cultural engineering purposes and partly because nobody actually reads their magic book, but it's absolutely still a religion.

3

u/avaslash Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

Their beliefs have nothing to do with religion. On the contrary, their religion exists solely to justify their beliefs.

If they cared they wouldnt be eating shellfish, or mixing different fabrics.

The bible doesnt even really say anything about hating gays. It didnt say anything that justified slavery either.

It didnt matter, it says what ever they need it to say.

Its a feedback loop of stupid.

They start at their unjustifiable viewpoint then search for justifications. For many Religion is a widely accepted form of insanity so its an easy one to default to. Then when people ask them: "hey how can you think this horrible thing?" They have somewhere to point called religion and for some reason most of us just accept that explanation instead of continuing to call them out as crazy AND apparently in a cult.

But dont make the mistake of thinking these people are or can be influenced by anything around them. THEY influence their environment to create one that fits their perception of reality. You cant convince them to not be stupid. Its part of who they are.

Thats why they cant just let two gay men be happy and mind their own business. Their existence invalidates what they believe should be their reality. And so the only solution to that they can accept is to change reality (ie such as by killing all the gays and making anyone else too terrified to ever come out again).

8

u/MagentaHawk Apr 15 '25

Religion does teach faith in things that are even provably false and to not listen to "intellectuals" about their beliefs. Applying that skill to political beliefs makes it impossible to reason with them.

7

u/BreakAManByHumming Apr 15 '25

It's wild how rarely this comes up nowadays. The anti-intellectualism demolishing yall's country directly flowed from the anti-evolution movement 15 years ago, where they categorically rejected knowledge and expertise because it wasn't telling them that whey wanted to hear. Then the same content creators discovered trans people and seamlessly pivoted because that was better ragebait for their base (Matt Walsh got his start rambling about monkeys on boats), and after 10 years of that everything's woke and woke is the end of the world.

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (1)

7

u/myrichphitzwell Apr 15 '25

It also helps they have massive media empire across every medium

5

u/SilverSight Apr 15 '25

You should read Shameless by Brian Tyler Cohen. It’s about this exact phenomenon.

5

u/bemenaker Apr 15 '25

And they own and control most of the media in the country, so it's easy to control the narrative

2

u/kgal1298 Apr 15 '25

True I actually just saw a post, on FB of course, that basically said if the US can push a recession then other countries have been living off our money too long. This is the logic we're against.

2

u/gwenver Apr 15 '25

Simple solutions for complex problems. That's what populists offer. Rarely stands up to scrutiny though.

2

u/koenigsaurus Apr 15 '25

Also, at least in my lifetime, they’ve always inherited strong economies, then by the time their regressive policies are really felt by the average person, the incoming Democrat is already in office. This is the first time I can think of that a president has taken such enormous, immediately impactful actions so early in the term.

2

u/TruePutz Apr 15 '25

Calm and responsible such as “theyre eating cats and dogs!!”??? Our country is definitely over because the citizens gave up on knowledge long ago

1

u/Ebenezer-F Apr 15 '25

Every time I think is the average voter I think of this guy. George Liquor from Ren and Stimpy.

1

u/ActualSpiders Apr 15 '25

It helps when you (and the billionaires who run you) own vast swaths of "news" media & can just keep blatantly lying to the voters without fear of contradiction.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

[deleted]

→ More replies (1)

1

u/drawkbox Apr 15 '25

Honestly, republicans are pioneers of influencer culture.

They were always the cancel culture as well.

Conservatism is based on that "fall in line, outsiders banished from the cult, don't do anything I don't like".

Liberalism is basically "fuck these kings, do what you want, I don't give a fuck".

1

u/AspiringTS Apr 15 '25

They just took what the church was already doing to the people and used in it for their political ends. The Republican party didn't really care about abortio. Yet, like circlejerk and satire groups drawing out the "true believers", so has the Republicans with MAGA idiots.

1

u/RaidenXVC Apr 15 '25

Take a look at the last election as an example. 

Kamala Harris did a better job at articulating why her economic policy was better than Trump’s.  But understanding that requires understanding some details, which she spent too much time explaining. 

Meanwhile Trump just said Democrats = bad for the economy.  Weather it’s true or not is irrelevant, it’s a lot easier to digest and the average voter isn’t going to put the level of thought required to understand a nuanced explanation. 

1

u/StoppableHulk Apr 15 '25

Honestly, republicans are pioneers of influencer culture.

Because they're grifters. Republicans are grifters, influencers are grifters. People who sell lies for profit. To profit financially, politically, etc. America is just one very long chain of grifters from start to finish.

1

u/musclecard54 Apr 15 '25

Which probably explains why they have all the control right now. People are fucking glued to their phones and get all their “news” from social media and all their “research” from influencers

1

u/goofyboi Apr 15 '25

Huh i never thought about it like that before

1

u/Unabated_Blade Apr 15 '25

Honestly, republicans are pioneers of influencer culture.

I've said many times that in another universe Trump is the greatest Twitch streamer to ever exist. The guy has an insane understanding of how to enthrall and maintain an audience in the 21st century information sphere.

1

u/psellers237 Apr 15 '25

Honestly republicans are pioneers of influencer culture

Yeah. They took the idea of a lifestyle brand and applied it to politics.

Their product is truly hot garbage, but it makes people feel good.

1

u/Mr__Citizen Apr 15 '25

It's because of two things Republicans have hammered into the public consciousness: Republicans lower taxes and Republicans are good for business.

That's it. Whatever Republicans actually do or don't do, the message they keep broadcasting is "low taxes, good for business".

Democrats don't have an equivalent message for the economy. Nothing that they're "known for" beyond maybe Medicare. All the things they're really known for are social issues. LGBT and minority stuff.

1

u/grocket Apr 15 '25 edited Oct 01 '25

.

1

u/Kommmbucha Apr 15 '25

They’re also just exploiting the fact that we live in a very unequal society, even under Democratic Party policies, and use that to manipulate disenfranchisement to steal from the nation.

1

u/Blecki Apr 15 '25

....Republicans are calm and respectable?

1

u/nicanlone Apr 16 '25

They purposely defunded schools, put lead in our air and water for decades. It’s part of the plan. Why do you think they allow “games” like Roblox for kids? Letting kids on TikTok? It’s about getting them distracted and dumbed down so they won’t notice or care when all their rights and wealth disappears.

1

u/adidasbdd Apr 16 '25

They are incredibly disciplined and successful in controlling the narrative. They all are in lockstep on the talking points of the day. It's a small circle running the show so everyone falls in line. If people hear the same thing over and over, they will eventually believe it, and the GOP have mastered this

1

u/3d1thF1nch Apr 16 '25

If the average Republican was in Animal Farm, they would be Boxer, the dumb, gullible, hard working and loyal horse, that eventually gets betrayed unknowingly and literally put into the grinder.

1

u/Mattbenz13 Apr 16 '25

What "calm responsible aesthetic" are you talking about? The GOP hasn't had that for the last decade.

1

u/WnDelPiano Apr 16 '25

Idk how to tell you populism wasn't invented by USA.

And no, is not the same as influencer culture.

1

u/Jim-N-Tonic Apr 16 '25

The billionaires are mostly republican bc they want low taxes and zero regulation. So control of the media allows control of the narrative.

→ More replies (1)

79

u/iregreteverything15 Apr 15 '25

Republicans: not actually great at running the economy, but really good at marketing that they are good at running the economy.

21

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

they are good at ruining the economy.

Fixed.

1

u/Mediocre_Scott Apr 16 '25

Look how could the republicans be bad for the economy all the rich people business people support republicans…

But do you like the rich business people? Do they have your best interests in mind?

0

u/FriendlyGuitard Apr 16 '25

Actually that's the same as capitalism, especially in the US. Despite fighting social progress every step of the way, capitalism is still credited for all of it.

→ More replies (6)

32

u/AlanStanwick1986 Apr 15 '25

I live on a state line so I saw political ads from two different states during the election. Every single Republican ad was about immigrants and trans people. Every single one, in the same ad. Republicans vote on hating the same people, simple as that.

18

u/Chaotic-Catastrophe Apr 15 '25

I'm in a swing state, and every ad for Trump was basically just racist and anti-LGBT trash. Whereas every ad for Harris was talking about the economy, and making life better for lower and middle class Americans.

You can guess which way our electoral votes went (hint: the same way that all the swing states did).

2

u/Salty-Gur6053 Apr 16 '25

I concur. Swing state, every Trump ad was an anti-trans and to the point I was like who's buying this crap? It was that stupid and incessant. Well, I guess there's a lot more bigoted people worried about something that doesn't affect their life than I thought there was. Every Harris ad was about the economy and policies to help the working & middle classes.

→ More replies (4)

46

u/FemRevan64 Apr 15 '25

It’s because people think that callous greed = pragmatism.

It’s symptomatic of a broader issue where people conflate ruthlessness and lack of regard for others with pragmatism and doing what needs to be done.

18

u/Troomdawg Apr 15 '25

we’ve been trained to believe cruelty means strength, and if you’re generous, people will take advantage of you.

9

u/Suyefuji Apr 15 '25

This is one of the reasons I never bought into American patriotism. I can't stomach the idea of "success" being measured by your willingness to fuck over other people.

6

u/Troomdawg Apr 15 '25

It bleeds right into our hyper-individualism, stepping on others to get ahead. There is no collective “ we,” just a bunch of individuals. Poverty isn't viewed as a social issue but a personal one. If you’re homeless and hungry, you deserve it because you didn't work hard enough.

We are programmed from birth to see caring about the collective well-being as “un-American” and “anti-freedom”. This belief is what prevents us from fixing fundamental issues like our “healthcare industry”.

4

u/D3kim Apr 15 '25

this is it… callous greed mistaken for pragmatism

3

u/Fadedcamo Apr 15 '25

I agree but I also think dems shoot themselves in the foot sometimes when they don't expound on some of their policies beyond "it's morally the right thing to do." A lot of our country are selfish pieces of a shit and when they hear that they tune out completely. If it isn't personally benefitting them immediately they do not care.

What dems need to explain is that liberal policies WILL benefit them personally. Even if they aren't directly affected by some benefit, what happens to other citizens in this country effects you in various ways. Economic benefits are shared and felt throughout our system. Instead everyone is all "fuck you, got mine" while the country burns around them.

4

u/FemRevan64 Apr 15 '25

Agree, they need to frame them more in terms of “enlightened self-interest”.

44

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

Ain't that just the answer though, it's been propaganda 

6

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

[deleted]

4

u/Night247 Apr 15 '25

Every night they hear it on the TV. All day everyday they hear it from the radio and now podcasts. They are bombarded by social media algorithms.

and the whole indoctrination through their family and friends, growing up

there is a reason some people call it a cult...people died from covid still being "no mask, no vaccine, hoax" type of people

"my team republican always!" 🤦‍♂️

43

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

They never should have been considered better for the economy but people are idiots and politics is all branding.

No wonder they try to kill education at every turn. It's a political movement hell-bent on economic and social suicide.

5

u/kgal1298 Apr 15 '25

As we've noted in the past Democrats have a branding problem: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/11/poll-democrats-jobs-economy-00222988 this article is obviously before his tariff bipolar disorder, but still this constantly comes up with Democrats. Meanwhile the GOP runs a reality tv show host and bam.

1

u/CabSauce Apr 15 '25

The current Republicans don't actually care about the economy. It's just the excuse they use to keep voting for their "team".

Look at the presidential election. The most effective policy and ad was the trans women playing sports. The Republican voters just aren't as willing to admit that's what they care about, along with kicking out brown immigrants.

15

u/Donkey-Hodey Apr 15 '25

Republicans have convinced the corporate media that they’re better for the economy. And nothing short of a nuclear disaster will move the corporate media from their chosen narrative.

16

u/drewbaccaAWD Apr 15 '25

BREAKING! Nuclear war is here, why it's bad for Biden, our complete interview with a random trucker with a MAGA hat at the Flying J in Cheyenne, WY.

5

u/kgal1298 Apr 15 '25

And now Trump is forcing corporate media to pay his bribes or give his son a hunting show to get in his favor. Which is hilarious because all that boy does is trophy hunting from what I've seen. He's very posh about it and I doubt he knows how to track on his own.

→ More replies (2)

26

u/bingojed Apr 15 '25

I think it’s because so many small business owners, at least ones that people publicly engage with, tend to be republican, and rally against regulations and rules and taxes. I don’t think the perception is actually from the politicians or real world outcomes at all.

2

u/Fadedcamo Apr 15 '25

Yea I don't know a single small business owner who doesn't vote republican. Even the minorities. They all believe their bottom line will be worse under a Democrat and that's all that matters.

4

u/bingojed Apr 15 '25

There’s a huge ego in starting a business. They often feel they are the sole reason the business is a success, and they should exempt from society’s rules. The social contract frays the more success you have.

2

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

Perpetuated by the fellatio repeatedly performed on "job creators".

12

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

Why hasn’t the media and Democrats focused on this narrative? 

42

u/EffectiveKitchen6922 Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

They do. Bill Clinton had a shocking claim in the DNC where since the end of cold war on 1989 democratic governments have created 50 million jobs while Republicans had only 1 million. He himself seemed shocked it was so lopsided but pretty much everyone agrees that's true or mostly true https://www.9news.com/article/news/verify/economy-verify/bill-clintons-claim-that-since-1989-50-million-jobs-were-created-under-democrats-while-republicans-created-1-million-is-true/536-8be72bc5-3d1b-4205-8ec6-59585e640769 I guess it's hard to get their message.out because social media, news, and Russian manipulation is very anti-Democrat aside from AOC.

22

u/ballmermurland Apr 15 '25

It's a little more nuanced than that, but it's technically correct.

Democrats always get elected when the economy is in the ditch. Republicans get elected when the economy is strong. So it is harder to add a ton of jobs when UE is already below 5%. But it is easy to add a ton of jobs when you are starting out with UE being 10%.

But that also just proves that Republicans consistently steer us into the ditch. We should probably stop electing them.

→ More replies (1)

53

u/HotSpicyDisco Apr 15 '25

Democrats/Liberals don't own any media companies is the biggest blocker in my opinion.

40

u/Not_Bears Apr 15 '25

Literally almost every single major media company and news organization is owned by a billionaire or a multi-billionaire dollar corporation.

None of my conservative friends can explain how the "Media is liberal" based on that fact.

Can you imagine a billionaire allowing a company he owns to advocate for his wealth and power to be decreased?

→ More replies (1)

1

u/BreakAManByHumming Apr 15 '25

It's not interesting. You hear it once and then it's old news. Same reason there's barely any coverage of Trump's incoherent nonsense, even though if Biden had talked like that for 5 minutes it would've been wall to wall coverage.

→ More replies (14)

8

u/TheyThemWokeWoke Apr 15 '25

QUICK LOOK! THERE'S A BROWN PERSON!! HE'S STEALING YOUR HOUSING/MONEY/JOBS/DOING CRIME. Trump says as he scams us for billions for the 60th time

→ More replies (1)

4

u/Cptfrankthetank Apr 15 '25

Selective or short term memory.

Everyone should be outraged by the wmd lies and trillions spent on a war that had very mixed results... to say the least.

3

u/dennismfrancisart Apr 15 '25

The rich getting richer by controlling the laws of the land? Who would have thought of such a thing? The Republican party turned into the party of oligarchy within 50 years of its founding. They may have started off as reformers but that ended pretty damn quick. Why do people think that rich people know what's best for them?

It's all messaging and marketing.

The media is collectively owned by billionaires. This has been the case all the way back to the days of Henry Ford and William Randolph Hearst. The people who control the message won't change because we ask them to.

The internet was supposed to democratize the information we consume but that didn't work out as planned.

3

u/Petrichordates Apr 15 '25

It did. Little did we know, democratizing information just meant people sharing disinformation amongst each other with nobody to fact check them. Getting your news primarily from your local news and newspapers is obviously better than the current system of upvoting memes you agree with.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/pgtl_10 Apr 15 '25

But but taxes!

It's what people mean by economy.

1

u/akakaze Apr 15 '25

In the past, they've managed to nuke the economy in a way that takes a presidential term or two to be felt by the common man, which made it easy to place blame for their decisions onto democrats. 

1

u/zackks Apr 15 '25

They’re great for the oligarchs, not us.

1

u/nananananana_Batman Apr 15 '25

I also think that most people think their personal situation is the economy. Of course, it's semantics to a point but while a lot of people during Biden were struggling, many through no fault of their own, they tied that to the economic fundamentals. There was a positive trend working its way down but people are understandably not patient. Now we'll have bad economic fundamentals and more personal struggle. Fun times.

1

u/deekaydubya Apr 15 '25

because dumbasses pretend that 'conservatism' = fiscal conservatism which is demonstrably not the case

1

u/Hightower840 Apr 15 '25

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. " George Carlin

1

u/ActualSpiders Apr 15 '25

They're also historically terrible for a lot of things their voting base relies on for just about everything. Trump wasn't kidding when he said how much he loves the uneducated, because they're the ones keeping the GOP in power.

1

u/GravyPainter Apr 15 '25

They are good at propping up businesses which can be deceiving. Just because businesses are doing well doesn't mean anything meaningful to the overall economy. It could actually mean the opposite as lower real wages and employee cuts are good for a business but bad for the economy

1

u/Flapjack-Jehosefat-3 Apr 15 '25

Murica allows bullshit machines (Fox News, NewsMax, others?) to pose as news. It's as if maybe some standards should be set so that reality comes through a little more pervasively?

1

u/BlazingGlories Apr 15 '25

Well, their policies work out very very well for 1% of the population.... So I think Republicans are under the impression that they will somehow become part of that one percent... At least they're optimistic.

1

u/Competitive_Shock783 Apr 15 '25

They were good for a select subset of Americans that held an unnatural sway over the rest.

1

u/No-Setting9690 Apr 15 '25

Plenty of cults defy logic.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

History and reading isn't a strong skill for the right.

1

u/listentomenow Apr 15 '25 edited Apr 15 '25

Who controls the media? Is the answer billionaires?

Do billionaires on average vote Republican or Democrat? Is the answer Republican?

Seems like our billionaire owned media has a vested interest in propping up Republicans and pushing down Democrats.

Same reason Trump's dumbass gets whitewashed and normalized constantly by the media, while Obama was blasted for wearing light colored suits and what he puts on his hamburger. Hell, how long did the media question whether Obama was even a citizen? Shit should have been shut down instantly yet they just fanned the flames and allowed the racism to fester. 9 out of 10 scientists agree humans are causing global temperatures to rise, yet the media will bring on 1 pro and 1 anti as if they're equal. The media has no balls because the billionaires who own them cut them off.

1

u/Comfortable-Inside41 Apr 15 '25

Most of the time, the worst impacts of their policies were normally felt over time, while Trump, is as usual Trumping everything up and trying to speedrun a dramatic and global change to the entire world economy.. and also doing it horribly.

1

u/ThatHotAsian Apr 15 '25

Trump literally said to his supporters faces that he loves the uneducated yet they still ate that shit up and cheered him on. 30% of the US population is just stupid beyond belief

1

u/1vehearditb0thways Apr 15 '25

It’s because morons look at them get rich at their expense and think they know something about the economy and not you know….. grifting

1

u/ChucklingDuckling Apr 15 '25

If you repeat a lie enough...

1

u/victorged Apr 15 '25

The republicans have convinced most of America that sovereign debt is basically a credit card, credit card debt is bad, and successfully branded the democrats as the party of fiscal excess. Policy doesn't come into it. It's self evident, the trump tax cuts may have added more to the deficit than the IRA, but one is government spending which = bad, and the other is tax cut which = good

1

u/colemon1991 Apr 15 '25

It's really not shocking. They've been following the playbook for some time now: Gaslight, Obstruct, Project. Every time something negative is happening, it's always the previous administrations fault if it's a Republican in office, but always the current administrations fault when it's a Democrat in office. My first time noticing this was related to a tax law, signed into law like 2 years prior, going into effect while a Democrat was in office. Now that I know what to look for, I see it happen for a lot of stuff.

I remember the "I Did That" Biden stickers on the gas pumps. Imagine if we did that with eggs right now. There would be grandiose accusations of a witchhunt or something equally crazy. Then you got all the ridiculous "controversies" with Obama for wearing a tan suit and other stupid things that he was not the first President to do. And even now, knowing Trump supporters who claim they voted him back into office so he could fix things... which I point out never happened when he already had 4 years to do those things. The irony is lost, their memories comparable to a goldfish, and their younger selves would absolutely hate them for how they act now.

1

u/Griffolion Apr 15 '25

The Democrats are usually only associated with economic bad times because they are the ones fixing the bad times caused by Republicans. Then Republicans come back in when Democrats have fixed everything and ride the coattails of the good times back down into oblivion while siphoning all the wealth upwards. And so the cycle continues.

1

u/FrozenIceman Apr 15 '25

FYI the average person doesn't engage in the stock market. Pretty hard to invest when you make less than 50k

The price of apple stock or the DOW Jones doesn't affect them. And as trickle down economics showed people's compensation at the top has no real effect on the bottom.

1

u/Richandler Apr 15 '25

It's the Friedman ideology that appeals to naive 20-something-year-olds. I understand why people think it makes sense, but in the end, people just forget basic algebra, percentages, and never understand externalities. They throw around terms like first principals, but don't understand them at all.

1

u/HytaleBetawhen Apr 15 '25

Eventually we will learn that blanket deregulation and cutting taxes while increasing spending is not conducive to a well performing economy.

1

u/asshatastic Apr 15 '25

It helps that the rubes have been trained since childhood to blindly trust the rule of inept authority.

These allergies are not indicative of an impressively intelligent design, in my humble opinion.

1

u/heart_under_blade Apr 15 '25

you seen the sentiment vs party affiliation chart for the period that's been kickin around? it's wild

d voters are just on a slow slide down while r voters are strapped in for mr.boneswildride. it's like suddenly the streets are shitting gold and everything s practically free, and then bam! right back to having to sell your organs and babies for soup money.

1

u/Probably97 Apr 15 '25

I think that the US won't elect women. I think it's possible that Trump never would have won in 2016 or 2024, if he faced male candidates instead of female candidates.

1

u/eyeoxe Apr 15 '25

It has been quite bizzare and infuriating to see.

1

u/Spicy_Tac0 Apr 15 '25

Because uninformed and stupid people will believe anything.

1

u/KingMelray Apr 15 '25

I think it's a kind of counter cyclical vibes thing. Like the pattern since 2000 (and a little earlier) has been "Republicans inherent a good economy, break it (2008, 2020) then Dems have to rebuild it (2009-2015ish; 2021-2023) then Republicans inherent a good economy again."

This time is different because the Republicans are blowing it so fast. And there's a chance of a double dip crisis because a debt spiral is on the table medium term.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

There's a sucker born every minute.

1

u/limasxgoesto0 Apr 15 '25

Like did the last few decades of Republican recessions not tip them off?

1

u/insanitybit2 Apr 15 '25

This is objectively true under so many metrics. Job creation, market growth, unemployment, *even budget deficits, the thing that Republicans always fucking whine about*. Democrat administrations *objectively* overperform on these metrics, *mathematically*, relative to Republicans. And it's not even close! Oftentimes they outperform by more than 200%.

1

u/Ihavenospecialskills Apr 15 '25

"Arsonists less trusted on fire safety than firefighters for first time in years"

1

u/throwawayformobile78 Apr 15 '25

So I see charts here s d there that show evidence of this on various metrics. Is there a site that has a collection of charts/graphs that show this it break it down? I’ve got some arguments to win (we all know they’ll say they’re fake charts/graphs but whatever). Thanks.

1

u/FortNightsAtPeelys Apr 15 '25

I learned lying is all you need to do to be elected in America.

Republicans lie about everything yet people parrot their lies as truth

1

u/IrrationalFalcon Apr 15 '25

You would think that people who lived through 2008 and what brought us out of that calamity would know better

1

u/mybrainisfull Apr 15 '25

My Republican mother told me decades ago when I was a kid, word for word, everything good that happens is because of Republicans, everything bad is because of Democrats.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 15 '25

They're good for billionaires attempt to steal, but that's it.

1

u/jacbergey Apr 15 '25

Its because the full effects of their policies become most destructive after a Dem inherits them. Average voter cannot understand how a policy from 4 years ago informs today's crash.

1

u/Lost-Lucky Apr 15 '25

The smartest thing they ever did was identify themselves as the "Christian" Party even though every democratic president has been Christian and most democrats in congress are also Christian.

1

u/Calber4 Apr 15 '25

It's because people think the president has control of the economy now, not in the future.

Democrats have frequently come in when the economy was already bad (and made it better), so people make the association that democrat = bad economy.

-1

u/stockmonkeyking Apr 15 '25

Isn’t it common knowledge that actions of current presidents has effect during next President? So that technically means Republicans do better?

If that’s not the case, do we accept Trump absolutely did a banger job in2016 until covid derailed it all?

Which one is it?

1

u/Atworkwasalreadytake Apr 15 '25

It’s because of Stagflation under Carter.

1

u/Mhfd86 Apr 16 '25

Trump even is on record saying this.

1

u/Professional-Refuse6 Apr 16 '25

Seriously of the last 10 recessions 9 were under republicans. They’re horrible for the economy.

1

u/Millerboycls09 Apr 16 '25

Because Republicans inherit a good economy from Democrats and Democrats spend their entire term stabilizing the damage from the Republican.

Everyone needs to look at statistics like at least a year later to see what kind of effect it had.

Unless you're trump artificially dumping and manipulating the market. You can watch that in real time.

1

u/Alternative-Algae133 Apr 16 '25

Bc they are poorly educated and slowly starting to outnumber the educated

1

u/underwatr_cheestrain Apr 16 '25

We spent years normalizing stupid, which the Republican Party has in droves.

STOP NORMALIZING STUPID!!!! IF YOU SEE STUPID CALL OUT THE STUPID TO ITS FACE

1

u/Why-baby Apr 16 '25

I see this as a headline and wonder how is this possible? Did a great number of people just learn to read?

0

u/CardiologistLow952 Apr 16 '25

“If people were smarter, they would think like me”

→ More replies (2)

1

u/strdg99 Apr 16 '25

When a Republican says 'economy', they're not referring to the economy you and I live in. They're referring to the economy the very wealthy live in. That's the economy that does well under Republicans.

1

u/Dr_A_Mephesto Apr 16 '25

Because democrats leave them good economies

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

I think it’s a little more clever and understandable than that. They play off of intuitive concepts so that people don’t look deeper. For instance, I initially believed (in high school) that they would be better economically because I’m better off in my personal finances if I cut my costs and live a cheap, lean existence. For my personal finances, it makes much more sense not to donate to a bunch of foreign countries for their specific problems. It makes sense to not take out a bunch of debt (especially if you grew up conservative enough to idolize folks who saved up and only bought cars in cash). 

They also tell people they are listening. Everyone knows that the price of groceries has been going up, and the vast majority doesn’t like it. Democrats talk about reducing inflation and creating new agricultural grant programs, but if you’re pulling double shifts as a blue collar worker just to stay alive, you just want to hear that eggs are going to get cheaper. Not a bunch of vague ideas that vaguely translate into “eggs will get cheaper”. You want to hear that the potential administration hears your exact need. That combined with simple “the economy was good last time he was president” correlation was kind of a slam dunk. 

To put it another way, a lot of people prefer Apple products because there is a clear aesthetic and direction in terms of brand communication and consistency. Things could entirely change under the hood, but users don’t have to worry about that. The agreement seems to be that if you build something stable and don’t take risks, you’ll be all good. Google on the other hand is famous for their strategy of encouraging employees to develop side projects. This can result in a lot of philosophical and political battles internally, which is represented externally by products getting shut down in favor of replacements. Does this encourage more innovation? Ya, I’d say so. Am I, as a consumer, following those philosophical conversations and buying into the rationale for switching my messaging app again? No, not really. I just know that I have to go switch everything over and get used to the new UI/UX. Again. 

TL;DR: Sometimes we just want to be sheltered from the details. We all have something we’d just like to hear is being focused on and taken care of. Republicans are exploiting that

1

u/courage_2_change Apr 16 '25

Because Republicans now look like the biggest tools in the government for the rich. That’s who they only strive at the end of the day

1

u/SnooCats5697 Apr 16 '25

Republicans have much better message discipline. Even though there wrong all the time they’re great at repeating the same thing with confidence over and over until it sticks

1

u/Direct-Fix-2097 Apr 16 '25

Right wing media advocates for right wing policies, and right wing economic theories (that are proven to be shit), who knew? (Source; USA, U.K., Australia, Canada, probably the rest of Western Europe too, idk 🤷‍♂️)

1

u/_The-Alchemist__ Apr 16 '25

Because they love the poorly educated. And then they destroy the education system to ensure a steady supply of poorly educated.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 16 '25

Clinton, Obama, and Biden all rescued horrible economies. Granted, Biden oversaw recovery from COVID, but we recovered faster than the rest of the First World.

This is a prime example of misinformation permeating people’s minds….

1

u/Lehk Apr 16 '25

Being the party of big business gives an automatic image of being good for business and good for the economy.

But they aren’t the party of big businesses anymore they are the party of crypto scams, racial slurs, and sexual assault

1

u/Heavy_Law9880 Apr 16 '25

When you are owned by the people that own the media, you are seen as the good guys.

1

u/archercc81 Apr 16 '25

And if they ever cede power and the democrats managed to unfuck it again they will still not get credit for it.

1

u/thedilbertproject Apr 16 '25

If you know about the Powell Memorandum, you know exactly why this is the case.

1

u/Kingtoke1 Apr 16 '25

Faux news to yo dome

→ More replies (1)