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The NY DA plays into Trump's hands while the current President undermines THE American love affair
If you watch MSNBC and their only-slightly-less vituperative mainstream media amigos, there’s no limit to their “orange man bad” messaging.
Not even hinting at the possibility, the desirability of The Donald’s pre-election demise is a bridge too far. Anything short of outright execution is not only fair game, it’s game on!
Especially but not exclusively the assertion that Donald Trump will be a dictator, like that famous dead guy with the funny mustache. Despite Trump’s record as, you know, President.
Meanwhile…
Fox News folks are convinced that their man is The Man. The umpteen legal cases against the former Prez have done nothing to ding their faith in his America First political agenda, and much to increase it.
Should Leticia James make good on her promise to confiscate Trump’s properties – to satisfy his non-jury trial adjudication for a victimless crime – Americans who support Trump will identify with him like never before.
Nobody likes bullies. Everybody loves an underdog! Donald J. Trump as the comeback kid!
Again, that’s for voters who don’t see the former Prez through the lens of the mainstream media. Whom they trust less than a Nigerian Prince seeking help with a money transfer.
Independents’ Day?
None of this takes into account the fence straddlers: the independent voters who will choose our next president.
According to a recent Gallup survey, some 38 percent of American adults identify as political independents. Around 49 percent of Americans from both parties view themselves as politically independent, regardless of party affiliation. FWIW.
The next presidential election will be decided by low-information voters. Any and all talk about infrastructure, chip manufacturing, China policy and saving the planet from the gas they exhale on a second-by-second basis is lost on them.
All these “swing voters” care about: the cost of living increases at the grocery store, gas pump, mortgage department, etc., and the border issue. The former helps Biden not one whit. The latter is a culture war conundrum.
Mainstream Americans view “newcomers” coming in illegally and setting-up shop as a betrayal of their own social compact. I pay taxes. My ancestors immigrated legally. I play by the rules. Why shouldn’t everyone?
Oh, I forgot. Biden’s age! For some reason, independent voters don’t want a mentally challenged not-to-say doddering President. The Republican campaign ads showing highlights of President Biden losing his shit will hit home.
Killer blow?
I’m not talking about the fentanyl-laced cocaine or pills killing kids. I refer to The Wall Street Journal op-ed Biden Is Coming for Your Truck.
This week’s Environmental Protection Agency tailpipe rule amounts to an imminent ban on gasoline-powered cars, never mind the soothing language of “incentivizing” a “transition.” Last year, 84% of all cars sold in America were powered by internal-combustion engines. By 2027, the government will restrict that share to 64%.
The High Price of Freedom
While Gen Z is automotively reluctant, petrol-powered cars, pickups, trucks, busses and delivery vans enable every aspect of Americans’ lives, from everything they buy to commuting to taking the kids… anywhere.
This personal mobility comes at price. Including fuel, maintenance and insurance, not including initial purchase price or depreciation. Bottom line: owning a car in 2023 costs an average of $12,182 a year ($1,015 a month).
According to the most recent U.S. Census data, 37.1 percent of Americans own two vehicles. Twenty-one-point-nine percent own three or more. So millions of owners pay double or triple the number above, a 14 percent increase over the last three years.
Against this unavoidable, wallet-straining backdrop, Biden’s Boyz at the Environmental Protection Agency have drawn a line in the sand: EV’s for you! Whether you like it, can afford it or have the infrastructure for it or not.
The Not-So-Hidden Costs of EV’s
Thanks to government intervention, there’s not a huge financial differential between running the two vehicle types.
According to Self Financial, the average EV dings your bank account $11,746 per year, compared to $8,281 for a gas-powered car.
That number includes purchase price, but not the cost of buying and installing a home charger. Which most Americans can’t do.
A 2022 Morning Consult survey estimates that only 36 percent of U.S. adults park their car(s) in a garage. Seventy-eight percent report there’s no charging access where they park their vehicle(s).
Then there’s the inconvenience of taking your EV “off-line” every night to juice-it-up.
Don’t leave home without doing it! A 2023 J.D. Power report found that one in five visits to a public charger ends without charging, due to outages and wait times.
Uncle Sam to the rescue, with all the efficiency and tax dollars he can muster. Eventually. As we wait for that, what about EV range anxiety?
The average gas-powered vehicle owner has none. The EV driver’s mobility lives or dies according to charge times and battery power.
Sacrifice relatively stress-free motoring over distances both short and long to stop global warming? Uh…
Americans Aren’t Buying It
So far this year, EV’s accounted for 7.6 percent of total vehicle sales. Thanks to a 506 percent increase in EV inventories from the previous year, they’re piling up on dealer lots. The current supply stands at 114 days, more than double last year’s.
The Biden Administration is pulling the EPA’s levers of power to juice those stats.
As stated by the WSJ, the new EPA regs mandate a 20 percent decrease in the percentage of gas-powered vehicles for sale in the U.S. in the next three years.
In eight years, the new EPA regs cap the percentage of gas-powered vehicles for sale to a scarcely credible 29 percent.
Free market that! Speaking of which, the new mandate will drive-up the cost of gas-powered cars, hitting Biden’s cherished middle class right where it hurts.
Radicalism Hits the Road
The WSJ reckons voters are none-too-happy about this undeniable example of government coercion (which isn’t enough to satisfy climate change activists). Columnist Kimberly Strassel sees the Biden Administration’s gas-vehicle ban as a “perfect summation of radicalism.”
True, but only if the impact of the EPA’s move gets in front of voters. Whether it’s EV’s or presidents, it’s marketing FTW.
If Donald Trump successfully “sells” his legal perils as victimization, if the Republican Party focuses on economic mismanagement, open border unfairness and shouts “they’re coming for your truck,” fence straddlers will ease The Donald’s path to the White House.
Unless the Presidency is really just a popularity contest determined by an uneducated, uninterested electorate. What are the odds?