Readers React: ‘It’s the economy, stupid’ won’t work for Trump in 2020

To the editor: I can’t remember reading a more tone-deaf op-ed article in the L.A. Times than Brad Schiller’s piece on the economy alone carrying President Trump to victory in 2020. This defies recent history and ignores the extraordinary behavior of this president.

First, Trump made the 2018 midterm a referendum on his performance, and the economy was doing well. Nonetheless, House Republicans were resoundingly defeated. It was a total repudiation of Trump’s performance.

Second, Trump’s approval rating (historically low) and disapproval rating (historically high) argue against his reelection.

Third, Trump’s behavior, characterized as allegedly criminal, immoral, unethical, and boorish by large swaths of the populace, is unlike that of any other president.

Schiller ignores all this and relies on an inapplicable model to all but predict a Trump victory. I advise him to pay close attention to the 2020 election results and then consider that the economy plays second fiddle when the existence of our democracy is at stake.

Ray McKown, Torrance

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To the editor: Schiller’s belief that Trump can easily win in 2020 based on past economic statistical measures is at best a wild guess. He places little emphasis on non-economic variables that have as much weight as economic indicators and can affect the final results of an election.

For 2020, such issues as a national health plan, tuition-free college, climate change and the displacement of workers by automation greatly affect the lives of all Americans. Any candidate with a comprehensive understanding of these issues who can communicate that knowledge effectively stands a very good chance of beating Trump.

To do otherwise and give into Trump’s version of campaigning — a campaign of incivility and corruption — will only lead the nation into a quagmire of politics that has become a brand name for Trumpism.

Larry Naritomi, Monterey Park

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To the editor: Schiller chillingly lays out how and why Trump could win again in 2020 — because American voters supposedly care only about their pocketbooks.

He calls Trump a Teflon president, saying voters don’t care that he and his Republican accomplices are shredding the Constitution and creating an imperial presidency.

If this is true, I think it’s time to change the last two lines of our national anthem to read, “the land of the sheep and the home of the knaves.”

Linda Heisen, Los Angeles

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