Brooks: Progressives Want to Talk Guns, Abortion, ‘Entire Rest of the Country’ Cares about Economy

On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” New York Times columnist David Brooks stated that there is “a giant gap between what a lot of Democrats want to talk about and what the whole rest of the country wants to talk about.” Because while “Progressives want to talk about abortion and guns. The entire rest of the country…they want to talk about the economy.” And argued that the economy is why President Joe Biden’s approval numbers are doing so badly and why Hispanic voters are trending Republican.

Brooks said, “Now, abortion rights defenders, they should pursue their cause with the passion that they’re bringing to it. And so, I don’t want — nothing I say should dissuade anybody from pursuing that cause. But there is just a giant gap between what a lot of Democrats want to talk about and what the whole rest of the country wants to talk about. And if you ask people, what [are] the most important issues? Progressives want to talk about abortion and guns. The entire rest of the country, independents, conservatives, unaffiliated people, they want to talk about the economy. And, for them, the economy is way up here. Jobs are number one. Inflation’s number two. And so, why is Joe Biden at 33% approval in the latest Times poll? It’s the economy. Why, in the same poll, do half of Hispanics support the Republicans now? The economy.”

He added, “I think that’s probably a little outlier. But we’ve had a whole series of polls showing a lot of Hispanic movement moving over to the Republican Party and turning it into really a multiracial, working-class party. And so if people — they should pursue their passions, and they should pursue these issues. But if Democrats — if they’re not talking about economic policy every day, then they’re just not talking about the policy that is clearly ranking number one with a vast majority of voters.”

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