Democrats are treating the nation to a vague and confusing impeachment process and hours of mustn’t-watch TV involving law professors pontificating and grimly making fun of a child’s name. Meanwhile, fresh economic data out Friday left the country smiling — and starkly underscored the vast distance between liberal obsession and the concerns and aspirations of ordinary American life.
The economy added 266,000 jobs in November, shattering expectations. The jobless rate remains at a 50-year low, at 3.5%, with African Americans and Hispanics enjoying record-low unemployment (5.5% and 4.2%, respectively). Wages grew 3.1% year-on-year, manufacturing continues to expand and the lowest-income Americans are reaping the benefits.
Nearly three years since President Trump took office, it is no longer reasonable for Democrats to slough off this renaissance as a legacy of the Obama era.
Fact is, Trump’s policies are working, and they are working especially for Americans who hadn’t seen a bright economic day in a good, long while. This, notwithstanding hysterical predictions from liberals that Trump’s election would tank the economy.
Worse for Democrats, they have no reasonable — read: non-socialist — alternative to Trump’s conservative-nationalist vision. That vision encourages work, investment and job-creation but also seeks to protect the country from the predations of bad trade actors, most notably China.
Then there is their frontrunner. On Thursday, Joe Biden lost his temper at a potential supporter who raised questions about Hunter Biden’s lucrative Ukrainian grift. Ironically, as Trump’s approval holds steady against the impeachment barrage, the ex-veep can’t hide from his own involvement in the soap opera.
No wonder Democrats and their media allies want the focus firmly on their dubious impeachment push, even though it isn’t moving the political needle.
But the strategy isn’t without risk, since it allows Trump to argue that while House Dems waste the people’s time in a pointless attempt to remove him, the president is doing the nation’s actual business.
And business is good. As we move toward a likely Senate trial, which might keep at least two competitive Democratic candidates off the campaign trail, Trump can point to the best labor market in most of our lifetimes — and wait for his eventual acquittal.
The secret of Trump’s electoral success in 2016 was to appeal to mainly Rust Belt voters who feel left behind by an increasingly global economy and elites of both parties who didn’t lift a finger to help as towns de-industrialized, jobs disappeared, solidarity vanished and opioid addiction became the norm.
Trump pulled an Electoral College inside straight precisely by appealing to such voters. Democrats are keenly aware just how close those states were, and they have to be concerned about challenging the president who is so dramatically cutting down on the lines at the unemployment office.
There is perhaps a month or two more of impeachment sturm und drang for the American people to endure. But by the time we find ourselves in the heat of the 2020 election, Trump’s economy will be the keystone of his campaign. As he does his victory lap after Senate acquittal, no doubt claiming total exoneration, he will also be pointing to economic success that no fair observer can deny — and that Americans can feel in their pocketbooks.
The Democrats simply have no answer to all this. Neither the socialist and quasi-socialist wing of the party led by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders nor those in the moderate lane (Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Michael Bloomberg) can make a plausible argument that the country is on the wrong economic track.
As direct deposits drop into workers’ bank accounts, Democrats will be hard-pressed to express why any real change is necessary.
Is it still “the economy, stupid”? Trump is betting it is. Whoever emerges from the Democratic war of attrition probably has to hope it isn’t. But if past is precedent, the voters who matter most will care more about their bank accounts than Trump violating “norms” and annoying career officials. The president, then, has good reason to be confident.
David Marcus is the New York correspondent for The Federalist.