It was certainly a tumultuous weekend. People taking to the streets to protest recent decisions from the US Supreme Court. Politicians getting in front of any camera they could find to either promise to fight those rulings to the death, or to do everything they could to enforce them. Pundits filling countless hours of airtime and even more keystrokes to bemoan the further “division of our country”. But for the vast majority of Americans, life went on with absolutely no changes and no greater concern.
Well, there is concern, but its not about abortion access, carrying concealed weapons, or prayer on football fields. Instead, as it has always been, the main thing that Americans think about is their pocketbook. The first poll on the top midterm issues that voters will consider as they head to the polls this fall remains overwhelmingly, the economy. The Politico/Morning Consult poll was conducted over the weekend, hours after the Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Mississippi abortion law case, and while people were lining streets to protest. It found 42% of those polled still plan to base their votes on how the economy is doing. Running a distant 2nd with 12% of the responses was Medicare and Social Security policy. Border security and foreign policy can in 3rd at just over 11%–while abortion was slightly behind that in 4th place. Education, health care, and energy issues rounded out the top responses–all in the single digits for top concerns.
For Millennials–the group we blame for all of the “wokeness” in our society today–the gap is even greater. 51% of respondents in that category put the economy as their top issue–and abortion at 12%. GenXers went 47% economy, 7% abortion. And Baby Boomers were 36% economy, 23% Medicare and Social Security, and 8% abortion. Just GenZ–the youngest of those able to vote–showed any major concern about abortion, with that at 32% with the economy still tops at 35%. Even by party affiliation, the economy is tops in all categories: Republicans put it first 53% of the time, Independents 47%, Democrats 30%. You will also note that gun control and the January 6th insurrection is not anywhere on the list.
James Carville is the one who famously coined the phrase “It’s the economy, stupid” while running Bill Clinton’s two successful runs for the White House. But Carville’s advice is no longer sought in Democratic circles–in large part because he constantly criticizes the party for getting distracted by non-economic issues that it thinks are of greater importance–but that the vast majority of Americans care little about. And care even less about when their personal economic situation is not great.
Legal abortions do not lower the price of gas that is needed to get to work. Abortion access will not make food cheaper at the grocery store. Nor will it put baby formula back on the shelves in needed quantities, get the chiller parts needed to keep the air conditioning on a hospitals, increase the number of workers available for employers, or fix the disaster that is currently air travel in this country.
And it’s the same when you consider having “the first” of all genders, non-genders, races, and religions in Cabinet positions, or on special task forces, or in parent/teacher organizations, because that has no bottom-line effect on the day-to-day lives of those with the same genders, non-genders, races and religions. Nor does it help to have inclusive instructional materials in all classrooms, when 20% of the kids who are now “included” can actually read and comprehend the materials.
You are likely familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It’s the five-tier pyramid of human development that is anchored by Physiological needs, built upon with Safety needs. In a political sense (the Carville Hierarchy of Political Success, if you will), those levels are made up of money in your bank accounts, availability of goods and services, reduction in crime, and job security. And unless you are out on the campaign trail talking about those issues this year, your words are going to fall on deaf ears. Especially when you consider all of the stuff that might be in the levels above those, people have already made up their minds on that stuff–and you aren’t going to change them.
