Are you under the impression that they don’t?
The general consensus seems to be which ever party is in power has the most control over the economy.
Sure, I mean pretty much by definition. What does that have to do with your question?
It’s pretty difficult to control a lot of the economy still, especially where international concerns like the OPEC price setting cartel, yet oil prices are often blamed on leadership.
…but also, establishment politicians have a pretty fixed economic ideology that doesn’t change all that much, further constraining their reactions which are mostly classist.
Then there’s macroeconomic policies like interest rates, which globally Western governments seem to prefer to leave entirely up to central bankers.
I think that’s only a consensus among people who don’t understand the economy very well. The truth is politicians have very little control over the economy particularly in the short term. At most politics is able to nudge the economy very slightly like the rudder on a massive ship that takes years to turn.
Course there are some things you can do. Tariffs is an obvious one, completely bungling a global pandemic is probably another, etc…
The Republicans have been caught entirely funding the green party in multiple swing states.
They absolutely use their money to sabotage the democrats
It’s called gerrymandering.
Been going on my entire life so far
I think choice and/or the illusion of choice needs to be there for either side’s fringe elements to have a safe outlet for their frustrations. There needs to be a viable left-leaning party to control potential socialist or communist agitators. If they just completely shut down the Democratic party, then there’s the potential that somebody outside of the control of the aristocratic classes comes to power. Having the Democratic party around gives them a chance to funnel those people through the system and subtly bend them and make them more agreeable to the system. So maybe somebody would’ve been a bomb-throwing anarchist advocating for blowing up the status quo and beheading all the billionaires, but when processed through the Democratic party, maybe they turn into somebody like AOC or Bernie Sanders or something, still willing to work within the system and less likely to advocate revolution.
I’m still not sure about Trump, he still seems like an abnormality or a glitch in the system. I don’t know if he went AWOL and the aristocracy doesn’t want to move against their own, or if he’s just part of “the plan” to move the country to the Right and having a crazy man-child as president gives them cover to push through all their extreme right-wing policies while everyone else fixates on the latest dumb thing that Trump tweeted. Or maybe it’s all just anarchy and there is no conspiracy of the aristocracy, I don’t know. Trump’s existence just seems like one of those things the TVA would’ve come in and destroyed this whole timeline over.
