River News: Our View

It doesn’t take much to grasp a simple fact about America’s ruling class and about their globalist counterparts: They think we’re really, really stupid.

That’s the very heart-and-soul presumption underlying the administrative state: You are really too dumb to live your life responsibly so we are going to dictate how you live.

You’re too dumb to take an experimental, inadequately tested vaccine — which only became a “vaccine” after we redefined the term — so we are going to make you take it. For your own good, of course.

You’re too dumb to responsibly educate your children, so we’re not going to give you any choice about how they are educated. We’ll do it for you. For your children’s own good, of course.

You’re too dumb to limit your shower time to a conservation-approved three-and-a-half minutes, so we’ll constrict your water flow. For the good of the environment, of course, if not for your hygiene.

You’re too dumb to use firearms responsibly, so we want to take them away from you lest you shoot the oppressed innocents of the earth just because they are armed and carjacking you.

You’re too dumb not to vote for Donald Trump, so we’re going to make sure you can’t one way or another — either by jail or by ballot disqualification.

The whole idea behind the progressive left is that people are just too stupid to leave their lives in their own hands. Their experts always know what’s best. 

There’s a parallel to this worldview when it comes to making political pitches. That is, government and corporate elites believe that if they tell you the economy is good, then the people will believe the economy is good, no matter what their bank accounts are telling them.

The people are stupid, in other words.

See?! the mainstream media screams these days about the inflation rate. It’s down from 9.1 percent in June 2022 to 3.4 percent now. Bidenomics is working! You fools out there better get with the program!

Never mind that, as we report in today’s edition, the average household is spending more than $1,000 a month more to live than they did when old Joe first doddered into the White House (with the help of a political walker, aka, the hijinks of ballot harvesting and other election shenaniganery). 

Never mind that inflation soared because the Biden regime went into overdrive spending federal dollars to prime the economy, bribe the underclass, and pump demand in an absurd and temporary way. All the while shutting down our own energy production, which not only served national security but kept energy prices lower.

Never mind all this. Now Biden, as he runs for re-election, points to the good numbers — the return to normal of an inflation rate that had roared off the charts. The thing is, it’s a new normal the president wants you to accept — a normal in which prices will remain forever higher than they were prior to his pandemic spending, and a new normal in which a desired rate of inflation will also be higher.

Specifically, on the latter question, the Fed likes to keep inflation at 2 percent but privately bankers say they now consider an inflation rate of 3 percent as acceptable. What they are really saying when they admit this is they now consider a lower standard of living for all Americans to be acceptable.

Except for the elites, of course.

The politicians and those who work at The Wall Street Journal (Tweedledee) and The New York Times (Tweedledum) say that voter recognition of Biden’s greatness is right around the corner. Consumer confidence is up, they say, and many more consumers now believe they will be better off next year than they are now.

Inflation is whupped, don’t you know.

But what those surveys don’t tell us is whether voters think they will be better off next year — or, in the next four years — than they were four years ago under Donald Trump. And they don’t tell us which calculation the voters will view as more important when they head to the ballot box.

Maybe the latter is the better question because it is virtually impossible that things will be better than in 2019. Biden’s inflation, his ruthless regulatory schemes, his bullying of consumer appliance manufacturers, his dismantling of American energy production — all can be undone by Trump but not in a year. Not by a long shot.

Will voters fall for it? Only time will tell, but there are a couple of important points to make.

First, things aren’t actually getting better, they are only getting worse at a slower pace. The rate of inflation is down, but prices are still going north, and so is the monthly budget bill. 

The real bad news is that core inflation is still racing: groceries, except for the past couple of months, and housing. And it’s not clear that lower interest rates will do anything but heat the rest of the economy — along with prices — while failing to impact housing and other core consumer indices. 

Indeed, we hear that the Fed might reduce interest rates if inflation remains contained. Well, you heard it here first: Interest rates will be lowered no matter what because it is an election year and the administration needs a boost. The Fed will make sure Biden gets it.

However, there’s an old saying in politics that politicians can spin a lot of things, but they can’t spin reality. They can’t turn water into wine, they can’t magically transform a dangerous experimental drug into a safe vaccine overnight, and they can’t make people believe things are getting better when their bank account and job tells them something different.

Voters know when the politicians are putting lipstick on a pig. At least that’s what we believe.

Second, politicians don’t give voters so much credit, and so election year economic manipulations abound. That’s what Biden’s cancellation of so much student debt is about. That’s what the Federal Reserve’s manipulation of interest rates will be about, too. But in the end, all the manipulations are a salve on a deep wound simply to make voters feel better until November. None of it will actually heal the wound..

The worst part is, if Biden is re-elected, the floodgates on spending will be opened once more and the second Biden term will be one of wash, rinse, and repeat. If you think prices are high now, just wait.

We don’t believe voters are stupid. They may well get distracted from inflation as the most important issue if the inflation rate flatlines, but it won’t be because they think core inflation will actually get better. They know better than that.

The only possible distraction would be the southern border and the invasion of the U.S. that is taking place. That could be a big distraction but not one in Biden’s favor. A foreign crisis, or the administration’s hatred of the constitution and civil liberties could also pull attention away from inflation, but again not necessarily in a good way.

In the end, it really is all about the economy, stupid. When that line was first used, the shot was aimed at those who could not grasp such a simple reality.

Today those elites have stood the phrase on its head. They believe the American public can’t grasp their own reality of sinking financial fortunes and widening wealth inequality.

To the elites, the slogan is not “It’s the economy, stupid”; it’s “The people are stupid.” 

We disagree, but time will tell. For if the American people can re-elect a man who caused historic inflation and normalized a new definition of it; a man who launched us into yet another forever war to support a thug and a dictator; a man who opened our borders to a catastrophic invasion by those who have no claim here and who include those who detest the United States; a man who tried to oppress with vaccine mandates and taking away other medical choices; a man who would take away our gas cars and gas stoves, who would take away our guns and efficient washing machines, if we can re-elect a man like that, well. 

If we can re-elect a man like that, we still won’t be stupid. But it might be said in that case that we are very, very gullible.