Nassour: Dear Washington, Stop Gaslighting American Families

It’s no wonder that the American people don’t trust politicians when they are clearly lying directly to our faces.

Exhibit 1: Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., is presented with a poll which says two thirds of Americans believe the economy was better under President Trump’s administration than President Biden’s.

Hakeem's response?

"That’s just not the case."

It’s indicative of the politics of the last 10 years especially, and the way politics have trended since the dawn of TV journalism.

Facts no longer matter.

Instead, the opinion with the loudest megaphone reaching the most like-minded people becomes fact.

I’m no fan of Trump but being so dismissive of the way Americans are feeling is frankly an insult to the American voter — and the biggest reason why Democrats can’t seem to pull away from Trump.

And President Biden wonders why he has to dismiss his poor polling to donors.

Just look at the numbers.

During the later years of the Trump administration, inflation sat at around 2%, but following the outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent spending, that shot up to 9.1% in 2022.

Wages outpaced inflation prior to the pandemic, and now they continue to lag behind.

I’m a single mother and I can tell you from experience that things just felt better in 2019 than they did today.

Neither Donald Trump or Joe Biden are responsible for a pandemic which gripped the planet, and sent the economy for a loop.

I will give both presidents credit where credit is due — the economy didn't go into a recession like so many people predicted.

That's a win, but it doesn’t change the fact that people are still feeling the impacts of an economic downturn that could have been much worse.

So please stop telling us what to think, Leader Jeffries.

The salary for a member of Congress starts at $174,000 which does not even begin to incorporate additional income that comes with simply being in the halls of power (and a topic of conversation for another day).

Meanwhile, the average American household income was $74,755 in 2022.

If I trust anyone’s feelings about how the economy is performing, it’s not the economics PhD’s in Washington or the talking suits in Washington. It’s the families across the country who wince when they see their grocery or gas bill.

A lesson for each and every candidate running for office this election cycle.

You can talk ad nauseum about how the economy is performing, one way or another, but don’t pretend that you can convince voters to change the way they are thinking about it.

Democrats can tell me until they’re blue in the face that the economy is outperforming expectations, but if I have to put off a vacation because my paycheck just isn’t going as far as it used to, that's a feeling those numbers can’t change.

It’s not a messaging challenge, Leader Jeffries and President Biden, it’s an ego challenge.

Take your heads out of the sand. Start listening to the American people.

Jennifer Nassour is the founder of the Pocketbook Project, host of the Political Contessa Podcast, and former Chair of the Massachusetts GOP where she rebuilt the party’s activist infrastructure leading the party to doubling seats in the Massachusetts House and a U.S. Senate race win.