Published December 27, 2021
2022 is likely to pose difficult tests for both parties. Here are three of the biggest challenges each will face in the new year.
For Democrats, the onus will be on President Biden to navigating these three issues:
- Tamping down inflation. Steadily rising prices hurt both the economy and the national psyche. Inflation interferes with price signals, which distort investment decisions and hurts families’ pocketbooks if their wages don’t keep pace. It damages the national soul, too, by giving rise to negativity and hopelessness. Presidents who preside over periods of high inflation, such as Harry S. Truman and Jimmy Carter, are inevitably hammered for it either in midterms (1946) or for reelection (1980). It is in the interest of Biden and the nation for inflation to come under control and trend downward by midyear.
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Henry Olsen is a Washington Post columnist and a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
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Henry Olsen, a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, studies and provides commentary on American politics. His work focuses on how America’s political order is being upended by populist challenges, from the left and the right. He also studies populism’s impact in other democracies in the developed world.