If you can’t figure out the common element there, you’re really not paying attention to what’s actually going on.

It’s cost of living. Under Biden inflation skyrocketed. Now, that wasn’t really his fault, it was mostly a byproduct of stuff that happened before he got into office.

But what was his fault is how he tried to sweep it under the rug. Biden and Harris ran a campaign centered on how great the economy was. They trotted meaningless statistics and promised to change absolutely nothing. Trump, meanwhile promised to change everything.

People dying of cancer will frequently try all sorts of phony miracle cures, because why the fuck not? On the staggeringly unlikely chance that it works, you’re saved. And if it doesn’t work, so what? You were fucked before, you’re fucked after. What have you lost?

They voted for Trump because what did they have to lose? The last four years destroyed their ability to support themselves, and Biden / Harris essentially promised that the beatings would continue. “What would I change? Not a thing.” So fuck it, vote for the idiot lunatic. Maybe things will get better? How can they possibly get worse?

I’m not calling this a good decision. But it’s a decision they made for reasons that really aren’t that hard to figure out. They voted for Obama because he promised to make things better. They voted for Bernie because he promised to make things better. They voted for Trump because he promised to make things better.

We’re seeing the same play out today. Those same voters are sick of Trump’s bullshit, and they’re voting in people like Mamdani.

It’s not some ineffable mystery of the universe. It’s cost of living, plain and simple.