Anywhere else he’d be a chump… If there’s one thing that characterizes this election season so far it’s the fact that the country remains as polarized as it’s been these last few years and both sides are very upset. But nobody seems to be able to figure out exactly why. Is it inflation or the media or the pandemic or too much doomscrolling or something else? There are plenty of theories but no consensus, at least not yet. The most common explanation is that the economy is bringing everyone down. It’s hard to explain why people are so negative about it since the numbers are actually quite robust with the job market being the best it’s been since the 1960s and wages rising rapidly, especially for the people in the middle and working classes. For the first time in decades the gains in this economy are flowing to them instead of the upper 1%. Here’s Sen. J.D. Vance lying about this on Fox News along with a graph showing the reality (which Fox viewers will never see.) Inflation is often cited as the main reason for Americans’ dissatisfaction, mainly because only the older folks have ever experienced a sharp rise in prices before (the last time was in the late 70s and early 80s) so it came as a shock when the pandemic introduced it. People seem to have expected that when inflation eased prices would go back down to where they were before but that’s not how it works…