Opinion: Biden has to do a whole lot more on inflation
From the second half of the 20th century onward, Republicans have used the issue of inflation to combat liberalism. If Biden doesn’t do more to address inflation, and if it doesn’t ease up by the time 2022 rolls around, we will see the GOP weaponizing this issue against Democrats and the liberal agenda once more — with great success, if history is any indication.
Facing off against Adlai Stevenson, who won the Democratic nomination after President Harry Truman decided that he would not run for reelection, Eisenhower produced the first-ever televised political ads, many of which focused on rising prices.
In a series of clips titled “Eisenhower Answers America,” the candidate responded to questions from Americans, many of whom wanted help with their daily costs of living. In a staged conversation, one woman complained that she had paid 24 dollars for a small bag of groceries that she held up to the camera. “You know what things cost today,” another older woman said, “High prices are just driving me crazy.” Meanwhile, Republicans blamed inflation on New Deal spending and other government programs.
The issue of inflation was front and center yet again in the 1966 midterm campaigns, when the conservative coalition of southern Democrats and Republicans hoped to rebound from their devastating losses in the 1964 election, which ushered in President Lyndon B. Johnson and the Great Society. There were a number of issues that conservatives used in the midterms to cut into Johnson’s huge majorities, with the prices of household items being one of them.
According to one internal White House poll, 76% of Californians gave the President unfavorable ratings because of the way he handled the cost of living. President Johnson said that in the 1950s it had been impossible for any politician to visit a home without being asked, “What do you think about McCarthy? In 1966, the inevitable question became: “What do you think about inflation?”
The Republican Campaign Committee seized the opportunity and sent out pamphlets that criticized “Great Society play money” and pictured Johnson with the sarcastic words, “Progress is a shrinking dollar.” Senate Minority Leader Everett Dirksen stumped for his fellow Republicans in the midterm elections, saying, “Every housewife who shops in a grocery store knows this. They are the living, breathing signs of this destructive burglarizing force.”
With the issue of inflation on voters’ minds, Democrats suffered substantial losses in the midterms. While Democrats retained control of Congress, the size of the conservative coalition grew substantially. Republicans gained 47 seats in the House and 3 seats in the Senate, well above what most pundits were predicting.
In 2021, inflation has once again become a topic of the national conversation, with widespread concern over supply chain disruptions, the price of consumer goods, and the potential for higher interest rates.
It’s not just that prices are rising — businesses and consumers alike have experienced the supply chain bottleneck firsthand. Unless conditions change soon, these problems are likely to become a key message of the Republican midterm campaign. This is an issue that hits home, and the GOP will have little trouble riling up voters against the current administration and its policies.
Regardless, inflation remains a serious political problem for President Biden.
For the sake of Democrats, the President will have to do more than say the situation is worrisome. He will need to forcefully address how he is dealing with these concerns and how his policies will help to alleviate, rather than aggravate, the underlying pressures causing Americans to pay more for their goods.
