Food for thought; thought for food

I’m man enough to admit — not brag — that I am the one who does the grocery shopping in our family, because Half-Pint works at a real job, while I entertain the world with my blog.

My basic shopping list is about 10 staples, and I don’t know what anything costs, other than the sliced turkey, which is marked with weight and price.

When I buy salad fixings, for instance, I have no idea what I am paying for lettuce, or tomatoes, or peppers, and so on. 

I buy exactly the same thing every week, and it doesn’t matter what it costs, because I can afford it. 

Some weeks I supplement the basics with some other items that need to be replenished every other week, or once a month.

Last year, the typical bill was under $100.

Now it is over $100.

As I said, I can afford it, but many people, the low-wage earners, can’t.

On the other hand, while my costs were up, my savings were down. I noticed my 401k took a beating last year to this year.

Fortunately, I don’t need that money right now, and the value will go back up eventually.

But eventually will be too late for the Democrats in November.

Inflation, which hits the lower classes hardest, will be a great killer for Democrats. The impact of the ailing stock market, which hits the middle class hardest, will be smaller, but will still cost votes.

Crime hits relatively few, but produces wide-reaching anxiety. Every prosecutor who doesn’t prosecute is a Democrat, and voters notice.

Add to that the coming chaos at the border, which may not bother the Open Border drudges, but will raise hackles on everyone else.

Remember when the Biden Administration refused to use the word “crisis” for the border?

They can’t avoid it now.

The icing on the cake is a four-letter word.

Woke.

There was that famous Democratic National Committee memo that warned leadership that the public — you remember those slugs? — were disenchanted with the party’s rapture with race, gender, pronouns, guns, thought control and inability to keep criminals in jail. Voters think Democrats are looking down on them, while ignoring them.

Warning alarms have been sounded by strategists such as James Carville, and former knee-jerk liberals such as Bill Maher who no doubt regrets having given $1 million to the Democratic Party.

But that was a different Democratic Party, Maher says, echoing what I said 20 years ago, echoing what Ronald Reagan said 50 years ago.

Core Democrats haven’t changed that much, but the direction of the party is increasingly controlled by the Looney Left (as Republicans are by the Trumpster Right). The fringes have taken the reins, even though most Americans are centrists. That’s why neither party can achieve a permanent majority.

When they are in power, they usually go too far.

That’s why Trump got the boot, among other reasons, such as his lying and paranoia, and why — likely — Joe Biden will be a one-term president. 

A bad economy + high crime + high inflation + culture wars forecasts the U.S. turning away from the Left.

The only question is how far will Americans turn?