Another downside of this strategy is that a political faction not currently perceived by voters as ‘in power’ has an incentive to use any power they do have to actively worsen the lives of voters, who will blame their opposition.
Yeah, and another strategy is to manufacture fake/exaggerated stories about supposed problems. To the extent that the whole notion of “am I better now than 4 years ago” is becoming quite broken, increasingly follo ing the political affiliations rather than reality, and the “am I better off” (more reality-v\based) vs “is the country better off” (more perception-based) are increasingly disconnected...
Another downside of this strategy is that a political faction not currently perceived by voters as ‘in power’ has an incentive to use any power they do have to actively worsen the lives of voters, who will blame their opposition.
Yeah, and another strategy is to manufacture fake/exaggerated stories about supposed problems. To the extent that the whole notion of “am I better now than 4 years ago” is becoming quite broken, increasingly follo ing the political affiliations rather than reality, and the “am I better off” (more reality-v\based) vs “is the country better off” (more perception-based) are increasingly disconnected...