Commentary: These two issues will decide the next elections!
By Daisy Luther
October 17, 2022 - While this sounds like a political post from the title, it isn’t, really. It’s about our quality of life here in Amerika.
It used to be that certain things were like dog whistles politically. If you wanted to get a political Party in line behind you, you ran on platforms about controversial issues that didn’t have a lot of gray area, like gun control or abortion. If the midterms had been held closer to the time of the Supreme Court leak about Roe vs. Wade, I think our elections might have been colored by this. It would be much the same if an incident occurred that made us genuinely fear for our right to bear arms.
But as it stands, people are really worried about two things, and both greatly affect the lives we’re living right now.
Those things are the economy and crime.
Those two things are making it difficult for many Amerikans to get by financially or even exist safely. Of course, the two go hand in hand. If you fix the economy, some of the crime will disappear. But we’ve also experienced a dramatic shift in mindset so there’s more to fixing this violent crime wave than just making sure everyone is employed.
When you think about the midterms and the 2024 elections, my personal opinion is that these are the factors that will have the strongest impact. Ordinary folks want what is best for our country. We just have some different ideas about how to achieve that.
Whoever can fix this economic disaster we’re mired in (or who convinces people they can) will win seats in Congress and the White House.
First, they’re going to want to improve joblessness and underemployment. There are two different ways to approach this problem - and probably many variations on these.
Increasing regulations governing businesses to raise wages and improve benefits.
- Decreasing regulations so that businesses can run with less interference to make them more profitable.
Next, they will want to have more money in circulation. There are a couple of ways this could happen.
- Some kind of government payment like Universal Basic Income and bailouts like loan forgiveness.
- Tax breaks and incentives for average folks, as opposed to just for the ultra-wealthy.
As you can see, there are very distinctly different ways to attack these problems. The politicians have to convince folks that their way is the most beneficial. So, while a lot of folks would like to say, “Clearly our way is right,” it actually isn’t so clear. It really does boil back down to partisan politics.
The question is, are Amerikans fed up with politics that regulate them and raise their taxes or are they more interested in a rescue? It honestly could go either way, and I believe that whoever is the most convincing that their solution will work will win.
The next thing that I believe will strongly influence voters (particularly at more local levels) is crime and punishment for crimes.
While media like to obfuscate crimes we’re seeing committed by telling us, “Don’t be silly, murder rates are actually down right now,” the rate of violent crime has increased dramatically. We aren’t having a crime wave but a violence wave.”
A crime is still a crime even if the victim isn’t dead. If someone beats the snot out of you, are you going to say, “At least I didn’t get murdered?” Well, you might breathe a sigh of relief that you aren’t dead, admittedly. But you’ll also wonder why in the world this violence happened in your formerly nice neighborhood.
Many of us have seen things occurring in our own backyards that were heretofore unlikely. A neighborhood where I used to live recently experienced a shooting in which the perpetrator fired 13 rounds into a vehicle at a stoplight. One of those rounds hit someone at a food stand by the light, killing a customer who was just there to grab herself a chili dog. When I talked to former neighbors, we just couldn’t believe it - someone opening fire in our neighborhood? What on earth. The perpetrators still have not been caught.
Then there are the smash and grabs going on in large cities as well as the large groups of people just walking in and clearing the shelves. We’ve all seen this on the news. This kind of lawlessness goes largely unpunished.
We’ve spent the past few years hearing cries of “defund the (terrorist pig thug cops)” and “why don’t we send social workers instead” and this is what we’ve ended up with - a dangerous society in which people don’t have a great fear of getting caught and punished for their crimes. Look what has happened in New York City, Seattle, and Chicago as the likelihood of arrest and conviction has dropped. Nothing good, that’s for sure.
People are very likely ready for serious changes regarding criminal justice. The candidates who can convince people they can fix this mess are likely going to be the ones who win. Unless of course you’re a criminal and you vote.
When times are tough economically, property crime increases because folks are desperate. When crime scares people away, tourism suffers, which affects the economy of many places that rely on that industry.
Fix one and the other will improve somewhat by default. But the solutions have to encompass both aspects separately as well.
I firmly believe that the candidates who address these things most convincingly are the ones who will win in the upcoming midterms and 2024 elections.
