ORLANDO, Fla. (FNN) – Republicans often site their main concern as the economy. However, if one asks a Republican to go deeper into their thoughts on the economy, using terms such as inflation, recession, stagflation, or even simply providing definitions of capitalism and socialism, many of them will find themselves having a hard time expressing what those terms mean. There is just something so righteous in saying that one’s main concern is the economy.

Do not mistake this as an argument that Republicans have no concerns about the economy, rather most do not know enough about the economy to understand why. Otherwise, they would not constantly praise Ronald Reagan and they certainly would not try to give now former President Donald Trump and his partisan compatriots in congress another term.

Throughout his first term in office, Trump touted his record as the leader of the working class, creating good paying manufacturing jobs, overseeing small business growth, and managing a booming economy. His legacy was much different, as have been his Republican predecessors.

Prior to the insurrection that took place at the nations’ capitol on January 6, 2021, party members such as Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) took note of the success of former President Trump’s economic populism in hopes that they would ride the MAGA wave to their own election to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

It is not too late unless Americans take heed to this message.

Millions of Republicans (and Democrats) are still misguided about the economy. This is not to blame on Trump, this is the fault of large corporations and older party leaders such as Presidents Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan, who tricked the public into thinking what helps large corporations also helps them, hence the United States significant focus on the stock market.

After Trump and Senator Mitch McConnell passed the 2017 tax cuts, millions of working-class families rejoiced, praising the Republican Party’s positive economic policies.

Okay, tax cuts are positive though, right? Those wealthy business owners who receive tax cuts will use that money they save to create more jobs, then those people with jobs will start buying more products, then the “economy” will boom because there is more money floating around, then everyone will be happy, and all that wealth just trickles down to the average hard-working American. The end.

Except, that is never how it turns out.

Former President Trump inherited one of the most successful economies in modern history: a low unemployment rate, consistent increase in GDP, and decrease in budget deficits. Under Trump, the unemployment rates continued to go down, riding on the economic policies of his predecessor but the budget deficit – one of the most, if not the most important aspects of the economy – took a major hike (by nearly $2 trillion), thanks to his own tax cuts and rapid deregulation. Real wages for middle class Americans have stagnated as Trump and Republicans touted a booming stock market. Republican voters have focused much of their concerns on “socialism” and income distribution from the top to the bottom that they have become blind-sided by the income distribution from the bottom to the top.

The Republican Party has misled Americans on the economy for decades, passing tax cuts that give middle income Americans crumbs while the top tenth of the top one percent increases their wealth by trillions. There is a better way to manage the economy. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Franklin D. Roosevelt demonstrated this with the Square Deal and the New Deal, respectively. Regulations on large corporations’ work, protecting consumers, workers, and small businesses. Americans must turn their backs on the long-held belief that what benefits the wealthy few benefits everyone. That is not the case, and the Republican Party does not advocate for the working class.

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Nathaniel Douglas is the youngest elected Orange Soil & Water Conservation District Supervisor and was the youngest person elected in the state of Florida during the 2020 election. He is a Florida National News political contributor. | info@floridanationalnews.com