American Voters Are So Ignorant, It’s Almost Funny |
American Voters Are So Ignorant, It’s Almost Funny
That is a public-relations failure on part of the GOP, yet also a shortcoming of American voters in identifying the clear facts of their reality.
Joseph Ford Cotto | September 30, 2026
The latest national poll I collaborated on with Patrick Basham of the Democracy Institute (DI) should leave any serious person angry.
Among 1,500 likely voters surveyed Sept. 21–23, 46 percent trust Democrats to better control inflation. Only 42 percent trust Republicans. Blame for high prices split 47 percent toward President Donald J. Trump, and 47 percent toward President Joe Biden. Asked whether Trump and Republicans have done their best on the economy, 51 percent said no and 44 percent said yes. If prices on everyday items plummeted, 53 percent said they would be more likely to vote Republican and 43 percent said no.
Those numbers are accurate, but absurd.
Consumer prices rose 21.5 percent over Biden’s full term from 2021 to 2025, against 7.8 percent over Trump’s first term. The 12 months ending June 2022 hit 9.1 percent, the largest such jump since 1981. That is not a close contest. It is a wreck. Tying Trump and Biden on prices, or handing Democrats the inflation edge, means a large slice of the public is not really tracking what happened to their grocery bills, rents, and paychecks.
I do not pretend every price has fallen. Any inflation means prices are higher than they were. Compared with the Biden-Harris years, the record in Trump’s second term is a genuine improvement.
Weeks ago, Federal Reserve Gov. Christopher Waller said the labor market was in satisfactory shape. Unemployment had fallen to 4.1 percent in July. Payroll gains had broadened. Real gross domestic product was expected to grow a bit more than two percent in 2026. Real private domestic final purchases rose a strong three percent in the first half of 2026, despite inflation and geopolitical shocks.
That is about as good as Trump’s administration could have done under the wreckage it inherited. Most Americans still do not see it. They look at Republicans and see a bad economic brand. That........