Erick Erickson has been given the assignment of keeping the herd together. It’s about the only reason I can think of for continually reiterating all of the sins, excepting abortion, of the left. That latter decision shows Erickson has come realize that it’s an issue with staying power, a position that he, or his masters, didn’t initially take.
It’s notable that he had to admit the economy is doing OK, or even better than OK:
By every objective measure, the economic is defying expectations and is really good.
The unemployment rate is at 3.6%, which is virtually full employment. People 25-54 are working at a higher rate than any time in the last decade. The economy grew by more than two percent. Inflation has trended down. The Biden Team wants credit.
But most Americans do not feel it. They do not feel like the economy is benefiting them. They feel left behind. If you live in the corridors of power in DC, New York, or LA, of course you feel it. That’s where the Fortune 500 dwells. But out in the heartland, the middle class and poor of America do not feel the good times rolling for them.
And maybe they do feel left behind. An economy doesn’t function on a human-comprehendible scale, so if your corner of the country isn’t doing so well, sure, it makes sense that the personal impression of that person of the economy doesn’t match up with formal indicators. It takes an effort to get true impressions of how an entire country is doing. And the United States is awfully large.
But it is something to try to blame the left for the excesses of the right:
Build a business that is successful and thriving and watch how, when your business grows, the IRS pokes more, the regulators prod more, and the bigger competitors use their lobbyists to carve out protections from themselves. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, funded through an agencies out of reach of Congress, was designed to fight for consumers, but instead harasses small banks while ignoring the big banks. All of government is aligned against David in favor of Goliath. Goliath is now too big to fail and David needs to be stoned to protect Goliath.
The land of opportunity has become the land of oligopoly. Challenge it and get sued and regulated out of business. Challenge the cultural elite and they will use the media to crush you.
Monopolies are the product of businessmen who cut the competitive corner, and not only are most businessmen Republican, but most Republican politicians these days are laissez-faire, which is the polite way to say Regulation is evil! and popping the blood veins out on the forehead.
The Democrats haven’t pushed hard for anti-monopolistic prosecutions and laws, of course, but I do believe Senator Klobuchar (D-MN) has begun to push it.
So eventually Erickson must deliver the message of hope in order to keep the herd spirited, so here it is:
Again, this is not about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. This is about the rich getting richer by ensuring no one else can even try. They and their friends in the press have given up on the idea of an ever expanding pie for all Americans to share and have decided to restrict access to the pie by limiting educational opportunity, job opportunity, and innovation opportunity.
Someone somewhere could carry this message to victory. The man who tried in 2016 failed to fix the system. He and his best people were no match because he was too easily distracted and had no real vision. Perhaps someone else with real vision could try.
And that man with no vision is a product of the Party, along with most of the House GOP and probably half of the GOP members of the Senate, politicians who lived on the toxic team culture of the Republican Party, rather than some personal worthiness.
Unfortunately for Erickson, that’d discarding all of those Supreme Court Justice buying businessmen. Telling them that anti-monopolists are coming will not make them friends of yours. Now, Asa Hutchinson (R-AR) or Sununu or Hogan might be able to pull it off. But their is no evidence of them being popular with Republicans outside their state. Or even with Erickson.
