Sorry, President Trump, Decency Beats Dollars.

A blue wave in the midterms would be a validation of the best American values.

(Fingers crossed.)

'For as long as I’ve been writing about politics, which is longer than I’d like to admit, I’ve had certain rules drilled into me. Three above all.

Rule No. 1: All other things being equal or equal-ish, voters will choose the candidate with whom they’d rather have a beer. This applies mostly to presidential elections — though gubernatorial, Senate and House races aren’t exempt — and is thought to explain George W. Bush’s political success, his father’s political limitations and Richard Nixon’s uphill slog and need for trickery. What you wanted to have with Nixon wasn’t a beer. It was hemlock.

Rule No. 2: Voters thrill to confidence and optimism. This explains Ronald Reagan. His cup wasn’t merely half full. It was effervescent, with jelly beans on the side.

Rule No. 3: Voters vote their pocketbooks. The party that seems to be the surer route to three days at Six Flags is the party in clover. In 1992 James Carville boiled this down into a political catchphrase so endlessly repeated and boundlessly revered that it will probably be engraved on his tombstone: It’s the economy, stupid.

Except it’s not — at least not always and probably not for the 2018 midterms. . .

But part explodes the idea that we Americans are irredeemably materialistic creatures, fixated on our possessions. What happens on Nov. 6 may demonstrate that we care about more than that. It may bring our better angels into play and best values into relief.

“It’s NOT the Economy, Stupid!” was the headline on a recent column by CNN’s Chris Cillizza. In Roll Call, Stuart Rothenberg, a veteran analyst of congressional races, went with “Why It’s NOT the Economy, Stupid.”

The uppercase letters — theirs, not mine — capture the gusto of their assertions that the midterms may hinge on such issues as health care, respect for women, treatment of minorities and, yes, Trump’s pugnacious and petty style.

Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist, told me that what’s happening is actually bigger than Trump. A new pattern has emerged whereby voters respond less to economic winds than to a tribalism fostered by demographic changes, social media and more.

“Identity politics has really become the ecology you’re operating in,” he said. “Economics aren’t as dispositive as they used to be.” He added that many voters evaluate the vigor of the economy in terms of whether the person or party responsible for it is aligned with their tribe.'>>>

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/opinion/trumps-economy-job-approval.html?