I'VE HAD IT!
The constant stream of political ads claiming this candidate is more focused on affordability than that candidate and that candidate understands making a dollar stretch more than this candidate has finally driven me insane. And to be fair, this was a fairly short drive ... ahem.
I doubt I'm alone in this.
The fancy-schmancy consultants, hoity-toity cable-news “experts,” and the people still getting paid to message about the economy all seem convinced the real problem is that we haven’t been lectured hard enough. One more talking point, one more slogan, and we’ll magically stop noticing that money isn’t going as far as we need it to.
Another ad about “kitchen-table issues.”
Another town hall where a senator explains, very slowly, that inflation is complicated and we should be grateful the rate of growth has slowed. (It’s not that complicated. Prices went up a lot. They’re still high.)
Another glossy spot promising that this time the party that’s been running the relevant agencies really means it when they say they’ll focus on affordability.
We’re not listening anymore, because it’s not complicated for us.
We just want our money to go further.
That’s it. Simple.
We can talk about world peace, or how much it rains in Spain, or whatever later. Right now it’s about how much we take home after taxes and how far it actually goes once it hits the account.
Period.
My grocery bill didn’t get the memo that “cooling inflation” means anything.
My house payment didn’t shrink because a focus group in suburban Virginia decided “opportunity” tested better than “cheaper eggs.”
And my paycheck still evaporates at almost the same rate it did last year, the year before that, and the year before that — right up until someone in a tailored suit tells me I’m experiencing a “vibecession” or whatever the latest therapy-speak is for “you’re poorer and you should stop noticing.”
Yes, that’s a real term. I’m not making it up. I almost wish I were, because it’s begging for humiliation.
The powers that be keep acting like the American public is a stubborn focus group that just needs better framing. If they can find the right slogan, the right celebrity surrogate, the right TikTok trend, we’ll suddenly decide that $8 ground beef and $4 gas are signs of a healthy economy.
They are not.
We are not confused.
We are tired of being told that noticing the gap between our paychecks and our bills is some kind of moral failing.
You want to win an argument about the economy? Stop promising “relief” that arrives as another tax credit six months from now after you’ve already spent the money on something else.
READ THAT AGAIN.
We just want relief. Now.
Stop running ads that treat us like children who can’t tell the difference between a press release and a price tag. And for the love of all that’s holy, stop pretending the people who keep electing you are too stupid to remember what a gallon of milk cost when you took office.
Look, I know we're still digging out from the inflation spike and price surges of the Biden years. I also know handing the keys back to the same party that spent us into that mess would only make the climb longer and more expensive.
But every elected official needs to start listening MORE and lecturing less.
It's the economy, stupid.
Everything else is just noise.