Expect Kamalamania to Chill as Voters Are Reminded, “It’s About the Economy, Stupid!”

By Blake Fleetwood, The Kennedy Beacon

Kamala Harris is having quite the honeymoon, but how long will Kamalamania last?

The recent stock market volatility reminds me of what Bill Clinton’s political advisor and guru, James Carville, famously noted, “It’s the economy, stupid.” This is just as true now as it has always been. The economy is always at the top of voter issues. Politics boils down to, ‘What’s in it for me?’

Traders are worried about the volatility. They don’t like uncertainty. A recent Wall Street Journal poll asked voters who they thought would handle the economy better, Trump or Kamala. Trump won 52% to 40%.

In another recent poll, by ABC News/Ipsos, 90% of respondents said that the economy is the most important issue in determining who gets their vote in November. We live in a divided land. The economy right now is good for an elite section of wealthy voters but pretty bad for the average American. 

The Democrats hope to win by telling people how good things are. The stock markets have been up for the last two years, and inflation is coming down, but your lying eyes fool you every time you go to a supermarket. The average voter sees that prices are 19% higher than they were two years ago.

This Fourth of July was more expensive than ever. Burgers were up 15%. Relish up 49%, barbecue sauce up 10%.

The rich don’t care…..Nvidia is up more than 100% for the year. 

But it is a different story for most of America. 

The Uniparty of Democrats and Republicans has allowed our politics and our economy to be hijacked by rich corporations and a military-industrial complex that has roped us into endless wars. As Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pointed out many times, this has led to a nearly $35 trillion national debt that we can never pay off. Kennedy says that number is increasing by a trillion dollars every 90 days.

Thirty years of globalization, automation, and technological advances have caused the middle class to lose 30 million jobs. The standard of living and average wages for the 62% of Americans, who have not graduated from college, has dropped from forty years ago.

The American Dream no longer exists. The U.S. is the least economically mobile country in the developed world. 

America is collapsing like Rome while the Democrats and Republicans have been fiddling and waddling.

The biggest problem Harris and Trump are facing is that both have been supporting a broken dystopian system for the American majority, who can no longer afford decent healthcare, a college education, mortgages, rents, and jacked up prices at the grocery store. 

How did we get into this predicament? Economist David Stockman blames the mad-money printers in Washington for running up the deficit, which has directly led to high inflation and high prices everywhere.

Those responsible for the money pumping include the Bushes, Clinton, Trump, Pelosi, Biden, and Harris too.

This same phenomenon is happening all over Europe. Voters are protesting the status quo and throwing out the old leaders. Obama was elected on a populist protest vote. Throw the bums out. Trump’s election in 2016 was also a protest vote. Voters expected this crazy non-politician to solve our problems, but he only made them worse. 

The economic collapse of the middle class is the fundamental basis of Kennedy’s campaign, which seeks to unite a populist base of blue-collar workers, farmers, small shopkeepers, and rural Americans. 

Kennedy has said, “The Uniparty has abandoned average Americans and the people have to take their country back with a peaceful revolution.” 

Harris carries with her all the Biden baggage –– inflation, forever wars, the humongous national debt, and a chronic disease epidemic. She is a vote for the status quo, not a vote for change. 

In order to have a chance of winning, she has to be the candidate of change and break from Biden, particularly in Israel and Ukraine. She has to put out a plan to end these bloody wars and come out against the corporate takeover of Washington.

In 1968, if Hubert Humphrey had turned against the Vietnam War, which he wanted to do, he would have been elected president. But President Lyndon Johnson prevailed and Humphrey lost by a tiny margin. A Humphrey presidency would have changed the course of history.

But there is little chance that Harris will break with Biden.

Like it or not, Trump has positioned himself today as the protest candidate, as he did in 2016. He has made vague promises about ending the war in Ukraine and the war in Gaza. Voters have short memories and forget he did nothing to alleviate the undemocratic structural inequalities that have been baked into our political process for four decades.

One recent ominous note is that the U.S. might be heading into a recession. The number of new jobs added in July dropped almost 35% from June. One of the best recession predictors is the “Sahm Rule,” which holds that when the unemployment rate rises to at least half a percentage point above its low point in the past year, a recession has begun. Developed by former Fed economist Claudia Sahm, the Rule has proved to be right more often than not.

Today, this indicator is flashing a warning sign for the United States. It doesn’t indicate a recession will definitely happen soon, but it is an important wake-up call. In early August, Trump said that the economy was on “the verge of a depression.” “TRUMP CASH vs. KAMALA CRASH!” Trump wrote in all caps in Truth Social.

When people start losing jobs, they cut back on spending, which in turn causes more job losses. This summer, 800,000 more people are unemployed than a year ago. In the end, voters will cast their ballots by deciding who/what is best for my family. Who/what is best for me?

According to the New York Post, GOP strategists predict a Harris boom-and-bust cycle, established the only other time Harris ran for national office.

With the economy on voters’ minds, Kamalamania may well be on its way out.

Blake Fleetwood was a reporter for The New York Times and has written for The New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The New York Daily News, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Village Voice, The Atlantic, Scheerpost, The Hill, and Washington Monthly. Blake can be reached at jfleetwood@aol.com.