Republican strategists are frustrated that gas prices are falling so quickly

That’s because political reporting is, thankfully, almost entirely fact-neutral. The only expertise required is the ability to ask professional politicians for their advice, which can be torturous, of course, but doesn’t require knowing the intricacies of international energy markets, or how long it takes to increase production at a given refinery level, or the effects of Chinese shutdowns on the delivery of huge steel pollywaggles. It is therefore the default frame of reference for all national histories. Gas prices, climate change, pandemic policies, interest rates, infrastructure needs; everything.

Currently, the Greenland ice sheet is slowly rolling into the sea, which means that the state of Florida will, for the most part, disappear. On the other hand, the ridiculously big vehicle you just bought because you loved its height and its ability to transport several market hogs at once, if have you ever found yourself in a position where it was absolutely necessary to transport several market pigs without making two trips, costs a fortune to refuel because the world markets are currently reeling from several uncertainties at once, and it’s quite shocking! Very upsetting! Will the violent putsch party be able to capitalize on this consumer irritation? Now there is a story!

Sigh. OK very good. Let’s do this. I’m going to give this Politico story a pass on the policy implications of rapidly falling gasoline prices, and that’s only because the whole outfit is called “Politico” and it stands to reason that it’s journalism devoted almost entirely to asking how every latest event and data point plays out from a purely “political” standpoint.

When The Washington Post Where The New York Times repeat the same thing week after week it’s bogus because you don’t necessarily expect these big media with much broader theoretical public duties to focus endlessly on political shenanigans at the expense of research actual causes and, if desired, solutions. But as far as I’m concerned, any outlet that has ever humbled itself by claiming that it only look for the political turn, and only talking to political hacks and lobbyists to get it, already put the warning label on the package.

You sell consumers a box labeled “dead bees, may also contain mealworms,” ​​and no one seems surprised when they find one. You sell a box to consumers labeled “important global news”, but consumers still find it to be about 80% dead bees mixed in with an assortment of sports tallies and market charts, so yes. People will go crazy.

Anyway, the principle of the Politico version is simple: Oh no! Gasoline prices used to be high, but now they’re coming down! For the party of (ongoing) violent coup attempts, this reverses one of the most effective political strategies available to divert attention from two years of hoax-fueled betrayal!

“It appears gas prices have peaked too early to remain the deadly Republican campaign weapon they seemed to be a month ago,” Politico said.

“’If the market continues to react as it has and returns to prices of a year ago, that will certainly dampen criticism’ on inflation,” grumbles a professional politician.

Oh, and there’s a bunch of reasons why this happened, and the Biden White House wants people to know gas prices are falling again because they did, and the truth real is considerably more confusing because the conventional wisdom of pundits from previous years and previous histories is that individual administrations have far less control over inflation and recession and the prices of consumer goods than those trying to blame or praise.

Again, even this conventional wisdom seems to be on thinner ice these days. The last Republican administrations seem to have shown us that while good governance can only tinker around with such problems, bad governance can mess things up quite quickly and effectively! Tap on a new round of steel tariffs or pull smug faces through over a million pandemic deaths, and damn it, it turns out these things can really flip an economy.

Think of it this way: if you want to make your home more fire resistant, there are lots of little things you can do, but very few of them, other than a complete concrete rebuild, will really provide fire safety. total. But if you want to burn your house down, it’s easy. Call Donald Trump and ask him to make you a cheese sandwich.

Alright, maybe I’m getting punchy here, so we should probably cut things short. Gasoline prices are now down more than 70 cents per gallon from their previous highs, and unless something new clogs the markets again, they should be back to about normal before the halfway. The question of the day is whether your average Americans will remain so resentful of pandemic and war-fueled fuel spikes that they will vote for those who run for party-approved sedition, a sweeping restriction of all (! ) Civil rights and fascist dystopia.

People love their SUVs, you have to admit. Do they love their SUVs more than they love, say, health care no questions asked for their own daughters? It probably depends on the state. Seems like a good probing question, though.