It’s the economy, stupid!
It was the 1992 presidential campaign when Bill Clinton took over the throne from incumbent George H. W. Bush. “The economy, stupid” is a phrase coined by James Carville in 1992. It is often quoted from a televised quip by Carville as “It’s the economy, stupid.” Carville was a strategist in Bill Clinton’s team. His phrase was directed at the campaign’s workers and intended as one of three messages for them to focus on. The others were “Change vs. more of the same” and “Don’t forget health care.”
It was not a coincidence that the phrase brought success to Mr.Clinton. Figure.1 shows the scatter chart of the study of Niemi, Mueller, and Smith. After WW2 the American society was clearly thinking the foreign affairs were the most important issue. The study shows during 60', due to social turmoils, rising anti-war protests, etc. the number of people who thought “social control is the most important” raised. However, after the 1972 oil crisis, Americans have cared only one thing: “it’s the economy, stupid”. Therefore, nobody questioned trends in public opinion since it was so obvious.
Today about 30 million Americans are unemployed. Polls have a small turn for Mr.Trump, probably as a result of his often quote “Law and Order” when he targeted the protestors. However, if something, anything, will not change the importance of the economy for the people his chance looks low to me.
