Miami Herald (Sunday)

Democrats fret over Jan. 6, while the rest of us worry about the high price of milk

- BY NICOLE RUSSELL Nicole Russell is an opinion writer for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

Democrats have always purported to represent — and to work for — the working class. When it comes to politics, they are the ones that are really “for the people.”

Sometimes this facade works, but rarely has it failed more than this moment, just weeks before midterm elections in November. In fact, Democrats are proving yet again just how much they are the party of progressiv­es over working-class concerns.

Real life is hard right now for a lot of people: Inflation is over 8%. The price of plane tickets has increased nearly 40% in two years. The price of unleaded gas has doubled since 2020. Fruits and vegetables are up more than 10%.

According to a new Harvard-Harris poll, Americans are most worried about inflation, the economy, jobs and immigratio­n. And most said they perceive that Republican leaders share those priorities.

Where are Democratic leaders in all this?

They continue to care about only what their farleft, progressiv­e base gets riled up over. They’re obsessed with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, mostly because they’re driven to hit back at Donald Trump almost as much as he is to be in the limelight.

A CBS News poll showed that abortion, one of the main priorities of Democrats’ campaign efforts, has fallen to seventh on the issue list for everyone else. Oops.

As for immigratio­n, we’ve seen that it isn’t a problem progressiv­es really want to deal with.

Crime isn’t high on the list, either, of Democratic concerns — that’s a problem for low-income neighborho­ods, not the wealthy, leftist elite.

The Biden administra­tion seriously seems to be living in denial about the state of our economy. At a recent press conference, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that it “remains resilient, bolstered by President Biden’s economic plan.”

Recently, a reporter asked Biden if he was worried about the currency.

“I’m not concerned about the strength of the dollar,” he said as he enjoyed a chocolate chip ice cream cone at a Baskin-Robbins in Oregon. “I’m concerned about the rest of the world. Our economy is strong as hell.”

Has the entire administra­tion been living under a rock?

Republican­s make plenty of mistakes when campaignin­g, the most common that they have yet to sell conservati­sm well. But Republican­s are at least in touch with the economy because fiscal responsibi­lity, or some semblance of it, is usually a priority.

The Jan. 6 congressio­nal committee’s most recent big hearing ended with an attention-grabbing vote to subpoena Trump. On the same day, the latest consumer-price report showed inflation remains stubbornly high. Where are the hearings to address that?

Most conservati­ves, including myself, don’t support what happened

Jan. 6 whatsoever. We should get to the bottom of what happened, who knew and who was responsibl­e. It is an important investigat­ion. But in real life, what matters more is that groceries cost one-third more than they used to, and road trips are out of the question because of the price of gas and plane tickets to see family for the holidays look nearly impossible to afford.

Jan. 6 matters, but realistica­lly, making ends meet is what keeps people up at night.

This is not to say any political party should cater to the poll of the moment and shift focus on whatever the people care about, but the entire point of politics in America is to represent the people’s concerns.

If Democrats are rallying about abortion and people are just trying to afford milk and beef and they see conservati­ves trying to come up with ways to make groceries affordable again, conservati­ves will come out ahead — both in terms of optics and philosophy.

Democrats are proving once again that they’re the party of the progressiv­e elite and care most about a small set of issues that don’t affect much of the rest of Americans.

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