Dan Pfieffer is a former chief advisor to President Obama. He has ideas about the inflation situation that really ought to be seriously looked into; ht to Digby for the link
The best defense is a good offense. So instead of parrying these attacks with proof points about what we have done and want to do, Democrats should consider turning the entire conversation around inflation into an argument for populist economics. This is an opportunity to expose Republicans for siding with highly profitable corporations. There are two elements to this message. First, Democrats should grab onto the mantle of economic nationalism. Data for Progress recently tested several messages on inflation. The best testing one by far was:
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President Biden says that we need to bring back manufacturing jobs in the United States to drive down prices. Our supply chains need to be housed here at home, rather than outsourced abroad.
Making things in the U.S. and bringing jobs home is the top testing message in basically every poll I have ever seen in every campaign I have ever worked on. But it is also a point of contrast with the Republicans. The 2018 Trump Tax law rewarded companies that shipped jobs overseas. That fact is political kryptonite and gives Democrats the opportunity to punch back with an argument about how Republicans made the problem worse.
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Pushing hard against rapacious corporations is strong political ground for Democrats. Right now, polls show that most voters cite increased government spending as the leading cause of inflation. This is factually incorrect and politically problematic for Democrats. Therefore, we need to shift the blame in a more accurate and politically advantageous direction. In that same Data for Progress poll, the Republicans have an eight-point advantage over Democrats on whom the public trusts to control inflation. But Democrats have a nine-point advantage on “cracking down on corporate abuses and corruption.” Hammering corporations as part of a populist argument has the added advantage of exploiting the fundamental tension in a Republican Party with a working-class base and a corporatist agenda.
Under all scenarios, inflation will be a “liability in the midterms,” but going on offense is our best bet. In politics, you can either parry or you can punch. I vote punch.