The Only Issue Voters Care About

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What is your number one issue in politics? Is it abortion? Is it guns? Is it racial reconciliation? Is it healthcare? Is it education? What's your big issue?

Now, let me clue you in on a dirty little secret. Voters don't care. Guns and life issues are two of my big issues. Voters, they don't care. Do you know what voters care about? Voters care about the basics. If your big issues are jobs and not getting mugged voters really care about that. When there are wars, voters care about, "Will my kid be called up to go die on a battlefield?" When there are no wars they care about, "Will my kid get a job? Will I get a job? Will I have a job? Will I be able to make it to retirement? Will my 401K be okay? Will my IRA be okay? Will my pension plan be fine? Will I be safe? Will people break into my home?

People care about the basics, they don't give a rip about your critical theory, intersectional, transgender, lesbian, education platform. They really don't. They don't care about your pro-life, pro-gun pro-America platform. They don't. Now I know given the way campaigns run, you think they care because all of politics is designed to make you think people care. People don't. People do not care. Do you know what they care about? "What am I going to have for dinner tonight? What am I going to have for lunch? What's in the bank account? When's my next paycheck? Oh my gosh, a gallon of milk. Have you seen the price of it? I got to go to the grocery store. Can I drive? I can't afford the gas."

People care about that stuff. "Erickson, how do you know?" Well, I ran campaigns for a very long time, quite successfully. Not only that, I know how to read the data. I know how to read the exit polls, and I talk to people, and this is the problem. Many of you are wondering, "Why is he wasting your time here? We all know this." You know it. The politicians don't. Neither do the political classes that run the elite institutions of the country and set up the editorial policies in most of the newsrooms. They really do think that these big single issues matter.

As I mentioned, Hillary Clinton lost in 2016 when the Supreme Court political leanings, partisan leanings, ideological leanings, were literally in the balance, a four-four split. Scalia's seat needs to be filled, and Donald Trump won, filling it with Neil Gorsuch. Voters care about day-to-day issues. And more and more voters care about the parties and how they're controlled, and this is a problem for the Democrats right now, not the Republicans. Republicans have problems oftentimes with this, but right now it's the Democrats. The problem is so much of the media is obsessed with only topics voters really don't care about. Right now, voters are worried about their job and economy.

There's great economic news for Joe Biden today. Weekly jobless claims have fallen to 184,000, the lowest level in more than 52 years. We haven't seen this few jobless claims filed in a week since September 6th, 1969. Continuing claims, which run a week behind, increased 38,000 to just shy of two million. That underlying number there is problematic. What this means is that fewer people have been laid off and in search of work in the last week than at any time since 1969. The problem is there are still a lot of people out there who are looking for jobs. But even that number, at least it's trending in the right direction.

People care about jobs. Moms and dads care about their kids' education greatly. In the suburbs, in particular, they deeply care whether their kid is going to get indoctrinated or educated. They care about that. It's why parents show up at school boards around the country, but the media is obsessed with one topic. Do you know what that is?

Trump.

The media is obsessed with Trump. The media is convinced that Donald Trump wants to foist upon us an anti-Democratic regime that steals the election. And by the way, given the number of people who believe the lie that the election was stolen, given the number of people out there who are very adamant that we need to put people in place who won't certify elections unless it goes their way, there's some concern there, but it's not the concern voters care about. There's a website I use called Memeorandum and it aggregates all of the major news stories out there. The stuff that more people are talking about than anything else in the news, it aggregates. Let me read you headlines there:

The Washington Post - New York Attorney General Seeks Trump's Deposition As Part Of Civil Fraud Investigation.

New York Times - New York AG To Subpoena Trump.

Axios - Inside Trump's Hunt For Disloyal Republicans.

Reuters - Georgia Republicans Purge Black Democrats From County Board Of Elections.

Washington Post, -David Perdue Confessed He Would've Aided The Coup.

The Hill - Graham Warns GOPs About Trump's Wrath.

CNN - McConnell-McCarthy Divide Grows As Trump Aims To Keep His Grip.

Huffington Post - Tucker Carlson's January 6th Agent Provocateur Is A Big Tucker Fan And An Amateur Cardinals Mascot.

You get down further and everything is still about Trump. They're concerned about Trump. You know what? In Virginia, they made it about Trump and the Democrats lost. Why? Because voters are worried right now about the economy. Inflation is at a 40 year high. People are struggling to make ends meet. Their kids are coming home from school and the white kids are being told they're oppressors and the black kids are being told that they will always be oppressed.

And now you got math is becoming racist. Did you know is math? Two plus two equals four is apparently racist now. This is the latest turn in schools around the country. USA Today has this whole thing about schools embracing progressive mathematics. What is progressive mathematics? Well, it takes into account children of color, girls, and low-income students. Math is supposed to be inclusive. How are numbers inclusive or exclusive?

Parents are concerned about that. Michelle Goldberg is a progressive writer of the New York Times. She's one of those writers who is obsessed with Donald Trump and the insurrectionists. She hates them. She's outraged because it turns out that her kids' school is requiring students to eat lunch outside in the cold, where it is snowing in New York, or sit on the floor, not at tables. Why? For COVID. This is her tweet.

"Most days they sit on the ground to eat outside, but parents were recently asked if their kids had permission to eat inside when it's too cold. My kids are double vaxxed. I said yes. In addition to not being allowed to sit at tables, they're not allowed to talk to each other."

This is happening in schools in New York City. They're sitting on the floor to eat. This is a reply to her tweet, "Found out my vaxxed son has to eat outside three days a week. They aren't allowed to bring their jackets. It was 37 degrees today. If they don't get a seat, they sit in the dirt."

This is happening with progressives in charge of education. This is what parents care about. They don't care about the Dobbs decision of the Supreme Court. They really don't care. They couldn't care less about abortion. They don't know anyone who had an abortion. They don't care about your guns and whether you can carry them openly or not. The only thing they care about is can they get one to protect themselves because the police can't show up anymore because there aren't any. They don't care about your pet issue. They don't. The voters care about jobs and education, their 401K, and will they get mugged? And the party that understands this is the party that's going to win. That's the truth of the matter. The Democrats, as they've been hijacked by progressives, are absolutely ideologically predisposed to ignore all of those things and think those things are part of white supremacy, but there's a problem for the GOP as well.

As the GOP gets hijacked by an angry group of people who want to re-litigate 2020, they're not talking about the future. They're not talking about ideas. They're not talking about the pocketbook issues people care about.

People do not care that you think the election was stolen. They really do not care that you think the election was stolen. They don't. They probably didn't even vote for him. They probably sat that race out. A whole lot of them did. If they voted for him, they only voted for him because they didn't like the other guy. You know what they care about? Their 401K. Look at the stock market, it's doing pretty well. But look at inflation. The stock market growth is being offset by inflation. Look at their kids in schools. That's what they care about. Who cares what you think about 2020? It's not 2020 anymore. It's 2021. In a couple of weeks, it'll be 2022. The sooner everybody gets that in their brain, the better off everybody will be.

The Republicans are understanding this more quickly than the Democrats. This explains why the polling forecast is so bad for the Democrats, the Democrats are stuck on stupid. I'm just trying to be helpful here. It's in the data. I know how to read the data. But people have gotten so emotional, people care passionately about their issue and no other issue. Your average voter doesn't care about your issue. Voters are stupid, but they know when they're being played by a bunch of arrogant people in politics who have focus-grouped a line that has no bearing on their life. They understand this. Intuitively, they understand it. And right now here's what they understand. The Republican Party may have problems. The Republican Party may be stuck on 2020 and re-litigating it. But the Republican Party is not forcing their kids to divide between oppressors and oppressed. The Republican party is not responsible for inflation. The Republican party is not responsible for the crime wave. The Republican party was never out there condoning the people marching through the streets, burning down small businesses.

As long as the Democrats are tied to that, they're not going to be competitive. That's just the data. The data is not mean. The data is not partisan. The data is truth. There's a lot of truth there. The question is whether or not people are mature enough to accept the truth of what the data shows.