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Broke for the Holidays
Inflation slows, but struggles persist as the Holiday season begins.
“It Is Far Too Early to Start Freaking Out About the 2024 Election,” cautioned Walter Shapiro for The New Republic on August 29, 2022. Advising his fellow progressives to take “Calming Breaths,” Shapiro chastised the Democratic Party donor class in particular: “Is Biden running? Is Harris ready? The Democratic donor class needs to chill, baby, chill.”
Of course, in the fullness of time, all would be revealed. Was Biden running? No. Was Harris Ready? No. And it turns out the Democratic donor class wasn’t worried enough about the 2024 election.
Now that Donald Trump is about to become the 47th President of the United States, the Democratic Party is taking time to reflect on what went wrong for the Harris campaign.
One key finding? The economy.
As the holiday season kicks off, American families are tightening their belts instead of loosening them. While inflation has cooled from its red-hot peak, the financial scars of soaring prices remain. Essentials like groceries and utilities are still markedly more expensive than they were pre-pandemic, leaving millions of households scrambling to stretch paychecks.
Retailers are bracing for a frugal holiday season. Discount stores are seeing a surge in traffic, while…