Debate Hangover: Are We Better Off? Reflecting on the Past Four Years of Pandemic, Politics, and Progress
Four years ago, was the middle of the Trump/Fauci Covid plan…are you better off than you were four years ago is a tricky question. It’s not 1980.
Last night Donald Trump debated Vice President Kamala Harris. I warned in a previous Substack post that she was not a pushover. I think it is fair to say she raised her stature and lowered Trump’s. Saying she won the debate is not an endorsement, it is looking at how it played out. Republicans today are pivoting to the question of are you better off now under Biden-Harris than you were last time, at the end to the Trump-Pence administration. Shouldn’t that have been answered by Trump last night? That was his case to make. Either way, I think the question is not as simple as they would like.
The question “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” is now GOP lore. First posed during Californian Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, the Gipper made voters reflect on their personal and national circumstances after four years under then-President Jimmy Carter, a Democrat from Georgia. (A Republican from California versus a Democrat from Georgia. Those were different times, indeed.)
At the time, the United States faced high inflation - familiar-, a sluggish economy, and an energy crisis, making the answer for many a resounding “no.” Americans were still psychologically damaged from Vietnam. So because it worked then against an incumbent Democrat, Republicans love to deploy it. They also love to use the question when a GOP president is the incumbent, hoping the voters answer “yes!”
However, in 2024 this question feels far more complex and nuanced, and a bit out of place. So four years ago huh. Alright, in 2020, the world was in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and former President Donald Trump, alongside Dr. Anthony Fauci, led the federal government’s response. That Fauci. As much as the GOP dislikes Fauci, Trump was the actual president with the power to act. Fauci was effectively an employee for the guy who likes to say, “you’re fired.” Okay, then Trump should have fired Fauci, according to his base. Trump did not fire Fauci, so who is to blame for issues during Covid?
