Talking About Wine Tariffs Might Be the Best Thing We Can Do
Because our fellow citizens are not responding to much else.
Recently I read - and whole-heartedly agreed with -
’ post:
Stevie put into words what I was feeling myself: why the fuck should any of us care about increaed prices on French bubbly when people were being sent to Salvadorean prisons on specious accusations without an ounce of due process or evidence? When research on cancer vaccines has been halted just as it was nearing an endgame? When trans rights and reproductive rights are being rolled back by 50 years or more, education the same, health care the same, the list simply does not stop?
But then I watched this informative (though depressing, be forewarned) Ezra Klein Show episode where he spoke with David Shor, the head of data science at Blue Rose Research, a Democratic polling firm, which does an enormous amount of surveying of the electorate.
Best to watch this on YouTube to see all the charts/graphs they talk about:
At one point in the clip, it’s mentioned that all polls showed the economy as the key issue in most voters’ minds. Those Democrats that stuck to economic issues tended to win or at least perform strongly, while those - including the Kamala Harris’ campaign, that kicked off talking about the eeconomy but then switched to issues of democracy and rights, did not.
Ezra asks Shor why the focus veered away from the economy, and Shor said:
Look, I’m sympathetic to the people who had these jobs and had to make these decisions, because it just feels wrong. I have a situation, I mentioned this before, I have donors who will email me and say “Oh, look at this crazy, absolutely evil thing, this terrible thing that Trump is doing, we need to test it, we need to tell the voters!” And you test it, and it really doesn’t work, people want to hear about eggs, you know. And it’s easy for me to say that because I’m not directly in charge, but it just feels very wrong, when you’re in the moment, it’s very hard to shift direction just because data tells you one thing.
It really does feel wrong to talk about $$$ when so many batshit horrible things are befalling legal citizens and legal residents on a weekly if not daily basis. But it’s quite possible that harping on the economic fallout of anything the current administration does will be key in convincing most Americans that they can’t trust Trump and his people with the government - because they can’t trust him on the economy.
Another point made in the above video is that most Americans still trust Republicans with the economy more than Democrats, by a large margin.1 They trust Democrats more with issues involving social justice and rights, but only fractionally more than Republicans.
It’s extremely hard to talk about the economy - especially the economy of luxury goods like wine - at a time like this. But let’s also consider that not talking about it is the same mistake made during this and previous election cycles.
So, you know what? Talk about wine tariffs. Talk about all the effort going into avoiding them or suriviving them and the choas of will-he/won’t-he. Talk about all the businesses harmed, especially the smaller ones. I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to bring myself to do the same after this post, but I wanted to post this for those who, like me, are feeling lots of feels right now.
We should still talk about injustice, authoritarianism, the stripping away of rights, Constitutional crises - let people know they aren’t alone and that some of us recognize the threat and care. But also let the more business-minded amongst us ring all the alarm bells they want about $$$. It might just be the most critical thing to end this horror show sooner vs. later than anything else we write about or say.
I don’t know why this is, precisely. It could, in part, be because Democrats continue to inherit bad economies after Republican rule, whereas Republicans often inherit strong(er) economies after Democratic administrations. I also suspect that a key reason is because Democrats consistently work with Republicans to govern - government functions under Republicans because Congress functions, for better or for worse. Ever since Gingrich and the rise of the NeoCon, Republican Congress has approached Democratic administrations as illegitimate, and so a scorched earth philosophy was enabled - allow nothing to get done, no legislation passed, no roles filled if they have any say in the matter, etc. Not that Democrats don’t get mean or obstructionist at times, but even now, they won’t let government shut down, they won’t vote down most cabinet nominees regardless of their lack of qualifications, and so on. Most Americans do not follow politics, they don’t know why something did or did not get done. They only know that it did or it didn’t.