Democrats tend to perform better on the economy, yet phrases like “socially I’m liberal, but fiscally I’m conservative” tend to crop up in common parlance. Why is your average layman led to believe that Republicans perform better when metrics testing for such are not indicative of this claim?
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Democrats tend to perform better on the economy, yet phrases like “socially I’m liberal, but fiscally I’m conservative” tend to crop up in common parlance. Why is your average layman led to believe that Republicans perform better when metrics testing for such are not indicative of this claim.
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Because stupid people and the uninformed are far more likely to believe simple talking points they’ve heard for decades.
People don’t like to pay taxes. They think that republicans are better for their own finances. Sometimes those people own businesses, so have the same stance on business taxes.
It’s easy to strawman “tax and spend” programs, because once you’re taxing everyone 100%, only the state is left.
Propaganda. Simple as that.
The general electorate doesn’t know crap about crap. They vote based on feelings. That’s prime breeding grounds for con-men to capture an audience and take control over the populace.
It’s two sided. One is business leaders have regularly backed Republicans for extra profits and the other is corporate Dems also regularly embrace them so delivering on policy or rhetoric built on criticizing the carcinogenic parts of capitalism are a big no-no. So what you end up with a situation is where greed is celebrated, and one party celebrates it more and that ain’t the Dems.
Because they tell people they are. Dems still don’t understand how to talk to people with 3rd grade reading levels.
Republicans aren’t seen as great with the economy. Stupid people think they are because that’s what Republicans keep telling them.
I’ve always interpreted “I’m fiscally conservative” more as “I don’t want the govt to pay for anything that doesn’t benefit me directly” and “I am against taxation” and not related to overall economic performance/metrics.
Is there actually a general perception that Republicans are great economically overall?
They talk in terms of simple solution populism that blame shifts and borders on televangelism. “Look at they did to you….with gods help we can fix it….tax cuts!!!…We need to focus on the family…bring jobs back…and the troops!”
Conservative voters believe in it. Bless their hearts
Dems focus on Ted talk policy lectures that put people to sleep.
People are fucking stupid. Every time we’ve had a Republican president since Reagan we’ve had a recession under Republican leadership. They don’t know shit about the economy.
Because republicans control the media and so have the media repeat repeat repeat that lie until it becomes the default assumption.
Stagflation in the 70’s was traumatic. Unfortunately, that bomb went off during a Dem administration.
Because tax cuts are popular.
It ebbs and it flows. When Democrats are in charge, voters (egged on my the Republicans) conclude that Democrats’ big-spending and regulatory overreach cause such high inflation and burdens to business that the economy suffers. Now that the Republicans are in charge, voters are seeing (egged on by the Dems) that Trump’s tariffs and proposed massive cuts will hurt the middle class and tank the economy.
People hate paying taxes. Republicans always talk about lowering taxes. That loan does a lot of the work for them.
Small business owners and people around them really hate government regulations Republicans constantly talk shit about government regulations and Democrats defend them.
But I think the biggest thing might be this. We can talk about how America is a nation of embarrassed millionaires in a snide way. But the reality is that Americans do admire success and entrepreneurship in a fairly extreme way.
I am far from the biggest Bernie Sanders fan in this sub, but one of the things he does very well is that he talks about the one percent and the billionaires and mega corporations. However, he doesn’t say business owners or genetically refer to the wealthy. I think a better version of that type of language would help address the part where Democrats seem to be opposed to success and not just excessive wealth.
Republicans have an economic playbook, they always use, and the results are always the same. Tax cuts for the rich, increased spending, de regulation and massive deficit spending. If the economy spends 3-8 years or so juiced up on the free money, which is what people remember, then collapses in on itself, at the end of the term. Democrats get left picking up the pieces and get blamed for the economic fallout, while republicans get to say “remember how great things were in 2018/2005? We will bring that back” as the next administration struggles to get the economy stabilized. Republicans win based on memories of the pre-crash times and the cycle starts over.
>yet phrases like “socially I’m liberal, but fiscally I’m conservative” tend to crop up in common parlance.
Most people that say this don’t really know what they are saying.
That said, Republicans have historically been viewed as more likely to try to lower taxes and reduce spending. The problem is that they have largely ignored the “reduce spending” part of that equation. They simply want to cut entitlement programs that benefit poor people or provide services that benefit everyone. In that regard they are for reduced spending, but they are unwilling to cut military budgets or interest payments on debt. The only expenditure they would be willing to cut that would make a major difference seems to be Medicare/medicaid. But those cuts are so unpopular they are in fear of action because they would get destroyed electorally.
A true fiscal conservative would be focused on eliminating deficit spending. Which would mean huge entitlement cuts including Medicare and Medicaid, and no actual tax cuts. Instead Republicans will cut some more superficial items, then do a big ass tax cut that favors the wealthy.
It’s just a talking point that they’ve made up. Trump is on video in the early 2000s talking about how the economy always does better under Democrats.
I dont see them that way in the slightest and do not know why… at all really.
so i cant answer, lol
Because Republicans have been brainbroken by 30 years of propaganda.
As long as you repeat something enough times people will believe it.
Lots of propaganda. It’s what Fox News was made for.
americans especially the gop side are stupid and/or corrupt.
We can beat the dead horse until the cows come home about how much of a propaganda apparatus the Republicans have, but at the end of the day I think the root cause is simply taxes. Americans hate taxes and have a very simplistic view of policy, so therefore the people cutting your taxes must be the ones good for the economy
Because they keep telling people they are great stewards of the economy and people believe it. And it was probably easy to say it when your whole thing is, “let’s stop spending money.” But it should be clear by now that they love spending money as much as Democrats – just on different things. And on top of that, Republicans always want to take in less money, as well. So all those deficit hawks are just lying when they say they care and vote Republican.
Because they say they are. Americans have next to 0 ability to vet information and the Republicans have a very powerful lie apparatus that the people are powerless against.
Because what is good for the people in power, who are the ones that make such declarations, is in direct conflict with what’s good for the majority of Americans.
Similar to when they say “the economy has never been stronger!” And “the stock market is booming!” while most Americans are being crushed with debt, unaffordable cost of living, and stagnant wages.
People choose to be stupid.
Uhhhh… Lies. The answer is lies.
The answer is obvious. Why is this a question?
They are only seen that way by themselves.
It’s a lot like asking why a narcissist thinks they are so charming despite all evidence to the contrary.
I hate the Democrats, but 100% propaganda. Republicans will always talk about lowering taxes and soap box about fiscal responsibility and the deficit, and that attracts voters.
I’m a higher earner and some of my colleague solely vote republican because they believe their tax burden will go down. Some of them still talked good about him (before the recent market shenanigans) because of his tax cuts in his first term. I didn’t live in the US back then, but quite a few people I work with seemed happy with his tax cuts.
Even back in the UK when I worked my first shit job I worked with an Eastern European immigrant that fiercely argued that the NHS should not provide healthcare services to anyone that doesn’t work. It was a uni summer job for me, and his real job to him. When I told him we were net recipients of government services because we paid very little tax (barely above minimum wage) his mind imploded.
Don’t underestimate the sheer number of people that solely prioritise how much of their cheque they can keep at the end of the month – irrespective of the cost. There are people who barely contribute to the system that see and buy into ghosts of everyone else ripping the system off.
Well this time trump ran on a message of regaining lost manufacturing from china. No such solutions were proposed from the opposition. For people that value American reindustrialization, they only had one option. Many Americans lived are more affected by job opportunities than the short term performance of the stock market.
It’s Republicans and other idiots who want to believe their own bullshit.
No one is recognizing that trickle down economics is bullshit but also thinking that Republicans are good at the economy. It’s the idiots who already believe in disproven bullshit because they want it to be true.
republicans are pro business, which they claim means their good for the economy. truth is they’ve only ever been good in the very short term sense, but people like tax cuts.
Decades ago, the two parties were not quite so polarized. You’d have people ‘crossing the aisle’ to vote for a bill that the other party proffered all the time. But the Southern Strategy over time pushed people away from the center and made them stick with their own party, and this effect increased over time. Each of the two parties had their list of characteristics that was supposed to, if not define them, at least encapsulate the bulk of their agendas. The Republicans were supposed to be for a small government that didn’t involve itself in your personal life, was skeptical of big changes, wanted to avoid raising taxes, and kept itself lean, but supported law and order. The Democrats were open to change because they saw systemic problems in the system, felt that the government was an instrument of making great and beneficial changes in society, strove for equity among Americans, and wanted to push for economic mobility (the ability to get out of poverty).
These themes were repeated ad-nauseum in campaigns going as far back as the 70s and 80s (maybe further). In practice, they haven’t quite proven to be true, but they are still the way the two parties like to portray themselves.
So the whole “steward of the economy” thing is the Republican party saying that they will keep taxes down, and foster economic growth. As others have said, that’s the propaganda that they put out every year. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if it holds water.
Beats me! I’m 54 and the last Republican president that did not leave the country in a huge disaster was checks notes Reagan, who left office when I was 18.
I mean, I guess it is the lower taxes and regulation platform which can sound attractive to businesses and the petit bourgeoisie despite its downsides, but that doesn’t couple well with the total insanity the party’s been agitating for since 2016.
“The economy” in this context has less to do with measurable economic indicators than it does the perception by affluent whites that the government is not redistributing their taxes or removing subsidies to the benefit other races or the poor.
It’s the short term sugar high of cutting taxes. The president signs a bill, your next paycheck is immediately bigger, thanks Mr President! Everyone’s at least a little happy to see less tax on their paystub, admit it, you are too, even if you’re against it in the big picture.
Then when there’s a massive recession later in their term, as is the norm for Republican presidencies, that’s due to a confluence of factors, and the president doesn’t control the economy, and the Democrats are radical leftists who want to flash your daughter in a locker room.
They bought all of the major media outlets.
Probably Because the baby boomers grew up under Eisenhower. Despite the fact that through most of his presidency he had a democratic controlled Congress And most of what he did was more in line with expanding new deal era policy.
They lie a lot too
Think about who benefits the most from Republican economic policies. Those people also tend to control vast swaths of the media and one of them took over one of the largest social media platforms on the planet. So, it’s pretty obvious why they’re seen this way isn’t it?
Democrats are graded on what they actually do versus don’t do.
Republicans are graded on what they talk about theoretically wanting to do.
Republicans bluster about “We need a balanced budget. We need to help workers. We need to improve jobs.” so they get credit for that even though every actual action they do hinders those goals.
Recessionists lie constantly. They speak more, they speak louder, and they speak more emotionally.
Democrats need to label them constantly, consistently, and correctly. And they need to match them word for word.
republicans say they are tough on crime
republicans say they are fiscally responsible
republicans say a lot of other things that are also not true. it is up to we, the people, to be smart enough to recognize the scam.
I’m gonna split hairs on this a bit. A person can say that they are “fiscally conservative”, and still acknowledge that for the last 25 years, Democrats have been much better at managing the economy.
Being fiscally conservative means you believe in fiscally conservative principles. The GOP has not pursued fiscally conservative principles at any time this century. There’s nothing fiscally conservative about taking on debt to finance tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the world.
Republicans are better at
propagandamessaging.