WOES TO WOWS

The fundamental reason behind Trump’s success was his ability to convert average Americans’ feelings of grievance into votes for him

- RAYMOND E. VICKERY, JR.

In the run-up to the 2024 elections, a large number of Americans felt that they were not as wealthy, safe, respected, or healthy as they should be. They had a feeling that these deficits were not their fault but were the results of something wrongfully done to them or taken from them. The genius of Donald Trump was to validate and exaggerate these fears and convert them into votes for himself.

For most Trump voters, the most important issue was the economy. Trump claimed that Biden and the Democrats had “destroyed” the American economy despite the fact that the Biden administration had engineered a proverbial “soft landing” coming out of an economically disastrous pandemic which he had failed to manage.

However, the political Achilles heel of this vibrant economy was inflation. The average voter had little first-hand knowledge of the positive aspects that made the American economy. They cared even less for these aspects when he or she had to pay more for groceries, fuel and housing. Trump was able to convert this inflation factor and Democrats’ attempts to downplay its significance into validation that the Biden administration, including Kamala Harris, had destroyed the American economy.