{"id":184379,"date":"2025-08-29T10:59:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/184379\/"},"modified":"2025-08-29T10:59:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T10:59:12","slug":"contributor-only-grocery-prices-can-salvage-the-american-experiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/184379\/","title":{"rendered":"Contributor: Only grocery prices can salvage the American experiment"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Toward the end of her 2024 campaign, Kamala Harris made a big mistake. Having gained traction by talking about \u201cjoy\u201d and \u201cfreedom,\u201d<\/a> she panicked and reverted back to apocalyptic warnings about Trump.<\/p>\n

Today, those warnings<\/a> read like a prophecy. But \u2014 and this part is key \u2014 she still lost.<\/p>\n

The lesson? Shouting \u201cdemocracy is on the ballot\u201d isn\u2019t a cheat code for winning elections.<\/p>\n

In fact, in 2024, many voters who claimed democracy was their top issue pulled the lever for \u2026 Donald Trump<\/a> (which is sort of like saying your top priority is dental hygiene, and then brushing your teeth with a Hershey\u2019s bar).<\/p>\n

This, of course, brings us to current events. Trump is working overtime to prove Harris was right. He has federalized and militarized the Washington police, deployed the National Guard and threatened similar action in Chicago and Baltimore.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s FBI searched John Bolton\u2019s house, and he floated reopening the \u201cBridgegate\u201d \u2014 because nothing screams strength like digging up a 10-year-old scandal to punish Chris Christie for being mean.<\/p>\n

He also signed an executive order against flag burning \u2014 complete with talk of a one-year mandatory jail sentence. Because, you know, free speech.<\/p>\n

Trump cut a deal giving the U.S. government a 10% stake in the chipmaker Intel. Because socialism is now apparently good.<\/p>\n

And ICE? They detained Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Again. Last time, he was deported to El Salvador. This time, they\u2019re trying to ship him to Uganda. Next time? Maybe outer space.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Trump fired Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook, a move that seems aimed at pressuring the Fed to cut interest rates.<\/p>\n

And just in case the \u201cNorth Korean dictator\u201d optics weren\u2019t already obvious, the Labor Department unfurled a huge banner featuring Trump\u2019s head.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s frustrating to watch the systematic and never-ending erosion of American norms and institutions while most Americans collectively yawn. But the truth is that most voters don\u2019t clutch their pearls over this kind of stuff.<\/p>\n

To Joe Sixpack, deploying the National Guard sounds like fighting crime. And having your home searched by the FBI feels like the kind of thing you only have to worry about if you\u2019re an elite \u2014 and probably deserve it. (Hell, half the electorate probably thinks John Bolton is that guy who sang \u201cHow Am I Supposed to Live Without You.\u201d)<\/p>\n

To everyday people, this all feels abstract, and abstract doesn\u2019t resonate with most voters. Indeed, it turns them off.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the paradox. Lean too heavily into liberal democracy, and Democrats sound like out-of-touch hall monitors. Ignore Trump\u2019s power grabs, and they look complicit or spineless to their base. Either way, they lose.<\/p>\n

So what\u2019s left? The same thing that\u2019s always mattered the most to the most voters: the economy.<\/p>\n

In 2024, Trump turned inflation into a cudgel. Americans obsessively worried about the cost of eggs<\/a>. Not the Constitution. Not norms. Not Trump\u2019s promise of retribution or talk of being a dictator for \u201cDay One.\u201d<\/a> Eggs!<\/p>\n

And boy did it work. After the election, a whopping 32% of voters said the economy was the most important issue<\/a> that influenced their vote.<\/p>\n

Now, the script has flipped. Trump promised lower grocery prices \u201con Day One.\u201d Instead, prices are up again<\/a> \u2014 and his tariffs and immigration policies will only push them higher. (Ditto forcing the Fed to lower interest rates, a move that is likely to spur inflation on all sorts of consumer items.)<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the opening Democrats have needed.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t just take my word for it. While Trump was busy running amok, Democrat Catelin Drey won a huge double-digit special election victory for an Iowa state Senate seat previously held by a Republican.<\/p>\n

And what was Drey\u2019s election about? \u201cThe main frustration point that I am hearing is that we have an affordability crisis,\u201d she told the Des Moines Register<\/a>. \u201cAnd folks are really feeling that in their pocketbooks and in their spending decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

The big lesson we can take from Drey\u2019s victory and Harris\u2019 defeat isn\u2019t that \u201cdemocracy doesn\u2019t matter\u201d; it\u2019s that you can\u2019t lead with a civics lecture. Lead with groceries and rent and child care.<\/p>\n

So don\u2019t just say Trump is eroding democracy, say he\u2019s eroding your savings. Don\u2019t just say he\u2019s breaking norms, say he\u2019s breaking the bank. Don\u2019t just talk about Trump\u2019s empty promises, talk about empty shelves, empty wallets, empty refrigerators.<\/p>\n

Because here\u2019s the dark truth about the current state of America: You won\u2019t save democracy by talking about democracy or by calling Trump an authoritarian. The only way to save democracy is to prove it\u2019s better \u2014 and cheaper! \u2014 than the alternative.<\/p>\n

Matt K. Lewis is the author of \u201cFilthy Rich Politicians<\/a>\u201d and \u201cToo Dumb to Fail<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toward the end of her 2024 campaign, Kamala Harris made a big mistake. Having gained traction by talking…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":184380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[103626,1582,276,7837,71953,8988,12783,266,27593,18044,2961,224,5337,103630,103629,103628,103627,12850,5399,277],"class_list":{"0":"post-184379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-american-norm","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-democracy","12":"tag-egg","13":"tag-election","14":"tag-fbi","15":"tag-inflation","16":"tag-kamala-harris","17":"tag-kind","18":"tag-la","19":"tag-los-angeles","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-many-voter","22":"tag-most-americans","23":"tag-most-voter","24":"tag-only-grocery-price","25":"tag-promise","26":"tag-talk","27":"tag-trump"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115111708375055241","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}