Believing their own spin

Republicans convinced themselves that the country wanted Trump's America when most people don't even know what that is.

It’s like Republicans believed their own spin. For two years leading up to the 2024 election, they bashed the economy, calling it one of the worst in history. In fact, it was chugging along but struggling with disturbingly high inflation. By the time of the election, though, inflation was largely tamed. Republicans got to take advantage of the malaise that high prices put over an electorate that wanted lower prices.

They could have easily taken control of Congress and the White House, done nothing, and taken credit for a humming economy and lower inflation. Instead, they chose tariffs, restructuring government, and uncertainty, leaving people in worse financial shape than when they took power. It was a self-inflicted wound born of a delusion that a healing economy needed fixing.

When Joe Biden left office, the unemployment rate was 4%. More people were employed than before the pandemic. GDP grew by 2.8% in 2024. Biden brought down inflation from 9% to under 3% without causing a recession. Gas prices were about $3.15 when he left the White House. The United States had weathered the post-pandemic era better than almost every other western country.

Still, people were grumbling about high prices and consumer confidence was down. They chose Trump largely because of their angst about the economy and an influx of migrants. They wanted the pre-pandemic economy that Biden had largely delivered but that had not yet taken hold in the public consciousness.

After the election, Republicans didn’t need to do anything but let the painful cures Biden and the Federal Reserve imposed on the country and economy take effect. With a few symbolic measures, they could have declared victory, claiming that inflation was falling, the economy was growing, and gas prices were dropping. They could have focused on the border and claimed they were fulfilling their campaign promises. They could have been conservatives.

Instead, they decided to hand the country over to Trump and abandon their oversight role. They let him spike inflation with a crazy tariff regime. They watched passively as Elon Musk and DOGE caused massive uncertainty with a chaotic restructuring of government. They refused to restrain foreign policy as Trump and his warmongers started a war with Iran that drove gas prices to more than $4.50 a gallon. Today, they own an economy that’s growing anemically, a job market that’s deteriorating, and an electorate that blames them for an overall malaise in the country.

And they did it all to appease a grifter who is looting the government. It’s probably the dumbest, most incompetent administration in modern history and Republicans have nobody to blame but themselves. They spent so many years lying to their base that they started believing their own spin. They abandoned conservative values for populist ones proposed by their would-be dictator who perpetually contradicts himself while enriching his cronies.

When the party desperately needed a truth-teller, nobody stood up. Our Senator, Thom Tillis, thinks he’s filling that role, but he’s a few years too late. If he really wanted to make a difference, he would have been saying what he’s saying today in the middle of a re-election campaign. Instead, he’s saying it on his way to political oblivion.

I suspect the 2026 midterm will be to Republicans what the 2010 midterm was to Democrats. They are about to get wiped out. They either misread the electorate or mistook their MAGA base for the general public.

Regardless, the middle is not demanding massive change. They are demanding a return to stability. They want some kind of certainty and a belief that their children still have a bright future and opportunities. They don’t really believe that right now.

The lesson for Democrats is that people want stability, not change. In the past 18 years, we’ve gone from the Great Recession to overhauling our health care system to the pandemic to inflation, all while watching a surge of immigrants alter the demographic makeup of the country. The change people want is stability — a healthy economy, available jobs, pay that keeps up with inflation, affordable housing, and a safety net that ensures people who worked hard and played by the rules don’t die in poverty. They also want time for the new immigrants to assimilate like every other group that has come here. We’re closer to all of those goals than either side will admit. We can achieve them with tweaks, not burning down the house.