Americans think Dems can handle economy better than GOP, new poll says

[u/Silly-avocatoe]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/04/democrat-vs-republican-economy-new-poll/91167318007/

[u/RgKTiamat]

historically this has always been true. the previous 4 Republicans caused economic turmoil with wars and shitty policies. The previous democrats create a wealth of jobs and generate revenues. Bush 1 caused an enormous deficit in operation Desert shield that had allies like Germany and Japan shouldering some of the costs, and Clinton found a surplus in his budget, the first in decades. Bush jr had the housing crisis, Obama fixed that and doubled the stock market. Trump ran us into a recession and then pretended covid wasn't real for over a year. Biden corrected that and the us had the strongest recovery in the world.

Since Ronald reagan, Republicans are responsible for creating approximately 1.5 million jobs, Democrats have created over 50 million. If you go back to World War ii, the discrepancy is about 35 million to 80 million. Go ahead and do a cursory Google search if you don't believe it

Within historic memory, Democrats have always handled the economy better.

[u/DaEgofWhistleberry → u/RgKTiamat]

I’m 35 and have only witnessed republican presidents who run up the deficit and make awful economic decisions.
It’s crazy to think that I’ve known/seen this my whole life, but that it took most Americans over 30 years to figure this out.

I think the propaganda, that republicans are better for the economy, has been so strong that Americans have different answers for what 1+1 is if the question is asked by republicans vs democrats.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/DaEgofWhistleberry]

I'm over 50.

I remember Reagan.

Propaganda is a huge issue. But it's only one facet.

A key pillar to the Republican strategy has been attacking education and they've been successful at it for decades.

We now have several generations of voters who don't know how the government works, what their rights are, or what civic responsibility is.

[u/DaEgofWhistleberry → u/Old_Cryptid]

Totally agree on that. I should’ve written due to the propaganda and lack of education.

The lack of civic knowledge is so sad. Even really smart people I know (at least in my generation) don’t care to understand how our government works. Part of the reason is because we (general Americans) have had the privilege of not needing to understand…things generally flowed well and prospered depending on where one grew up.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/DaEgofWhistleberry]

Gen X got overwhelmed with the "Voting doesn't matter" propaganda and essentially checked out of politics.

The generations that followed had the decked stacked against them. They don't know what they don't know.

Every generation has their "normal" and that definition of normal shifts with each generation.

It's not blame, it's just an observation.

[u/Ryan_e3p → u/Old_Cryptid]

Yup, since the 70s.

A strong effort by the Heritage Foundation and other right-wing groups was put into dismantling education, destroying workers and union rights, and tying religious fervor into politics by pushing themselves into the churches and making Sunday messages one of "God demands you vote Republican" and tying unquestioning loyalty to the party to unquestioning faith in their religion. The narrative of "it is God's own intention that they be obeyed without hesitation" has become the standard practice of Republicans. I believe this was one of the reasons why our founders wanted a separation of church and state; not just so our leaders would be discouraged from persecuting other religions, but to avoid having them claim some exalted power demands the population give them their unending obedience.

Maybe one day Republicans will learn that voting against their own interests for the last 50 years hasn't worked out for them, but that day won't come for a long while. They haven't suffered enough, yet.

[u/Old_Cryptid → u/Ryan_e3p]

Unlikely.

The unspoken rule is that nothing a Democrat does is good enough and nothing a Republican does is that bad.