In the latest sign that America is eager to return to the prosperity and peace of the Trump era, most voters who were asked President Ronald Reagan’s classic economic question said they are not better off than they were when the Biden-Harris ticket was elected four years ago.
In a new Rasmussen Reports survey shared with Secrets, 56% said “no” to Reagan’s final 1980 pitch in his campaign against President Jimmy Carter: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Just 40%, mostly Democrats, said they are better off.
“Are you better off than you were four years ago?”
Ronald Reagan debating then-President Jimmy Carter, 1980. pic.twitter.com/5rvyCVUOGC
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) September 6, 2024
The poll and findings come as Vice President Kamala Harris is trying to turn voters’ attention away from the inflation they feel to charges that former President Donald Trump is too chaotic to be returned to the Oval Office.
But voters appear ready to overlook his antics to return to the economic security and prosperity they felt when Trump was in office.
The new survey backed that up on two critical issues. Rasmussen asked which party do voters trust with the economy, and the GOP won 51% to 41%. On the Biden-Harris border crisis, they trust Republicans in charge, 53% to 38%.
In the 1980 election, Reagan tested several versions of his economic question, nailing it in a final debate with Carter.
Reagan biographer Craig Shirley told Secrets, “After four years of Jimmy Carter’s failures, which were manifold and manifest, Americans were scared and had had enough.”
“We don’t have inflation because the people are living too well. We have inflation because the government is living too well.”
Ronald Reagan debating then-President Jimmy Carter, 1980. pic.twitter.com/R8YQoPtNiM
— Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute (@RonaldReagan) September 9, 2024
“At home, stagflation ruled the day, something economic textbooks said was impossible. We had high inflation with negative growth. Gas lines snaked around city blocks. We had high inflation, up to 13% and more, and high interest rates, up to 21%. Most Americans did not believe America would be better for their children, a first in polling,” the author of several Reagan biographies added.
So, when he used the line in his Oct. 28, 1980, debate with Carter, it made people think about their personal status, and most chose Reagan.
“In his debate with Carter, Reagan hit the notes and music perfectly, encapsulating precisely what was on everybody’s mind. It has now become a part of the political lexicon, but it started with Ronald Reagan in 1980,” he said.
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He said the question Reagan asked calls into question Harris’s slogan, “We Are Not Going Back,” and shows that Trump’s “Make America Great Again” still works.
“That is why Kamala’s slogan is so stupid. It is defensive and negative. Trump’s slogan is forward-looking, positive,” said Shirley, who is writing a new biography of Trump.