The Political Math That is Changing America
President Donald Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address featured quite a few “good-news” numbers. In the current political climate, though, those numbers could go unnoticed by Americans who only get their “news” from national media.
When partisan media cannot ignore positive results achieved by an administration they loathe, they deny or downplay them.
In only a year, the economy has improved; real GDP is smashing economists’ expectations; IRAs and pension funds are up; average income is outpacing inflation for the first time in five years; crime rates are dropping; our borders are under control; the unemployment rate has dropped despite government downsizing; America’s trade deficit has plunged; and roughly $10 trillion in new domestic investment is returning jobs and revitalizing American manufacturing.
Most improvements have gone un-/under- or inaccurately reported by ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNOWAPNYTWaPo, leaving their dwindling viewers and readers poorly-informed.
But, arguably, the most significant numbers ignored by mainstream media (and the Democrats with whom they are allied) are “80” and “20.”
Those numbers constitute what political analysts refer to as “80-20 issues,” meaning that approximately 80 percent of people support one position while 20 percent or fewer oppose it.
Hot-button “80-20 issues” are restoring accountability, logic and truth to the general public’s political consciousness, and have begun to transform American politics, culture and society.
Despite months of negative media coverage, voters approve of the administration’s efforts to fight illegal immigration, including closing the border and increasing deportations. Remarkably, Democrats have repeatedly gone to court to keep criminal aliens on America’s streets.
Current polling reveals that only 7 percent of Americans think that cracking down on illegal immigration is “not at all important.” Yet that 7 percent appear to be dictating elected Democrats’ immigration policy, and are actively obstructing law enforcement from removing the worst of the worst.
During Mr. Trumps address, more than 36 million viewers watched in shock as Democrats refused to stand and/or even applaud the moral principle that “the first duty of the American government is to protect citizens, not illegal aliens,” or to honor families of innocents murdered by criminal aliens.
Millions more will view or read – and remember – alternate media’s coverage of the congressional Democrats’ shameful conduct.
More than 80 percent of Americans see urban crime as a major problem, and want effective, well-funded law enforcement, yet a minority dismisses the crisis, persists in efforts to “defund the police,” and continues to push for no-cash bail.
More than 80 percent of Americans, including most registered Democrats and independents of all races and ethnicities, want voter ID laws passed, but, apparently thinking minorities aren’t smart enough to comply with the same voting requirements as everyone else, elected Democrats still mischaracterize them as “discriminatory,” and vote nearly unanimously against them.
A vast majority of Americans oppose chemical and surgical mutilation of children, and object to allowing trans-men to compete in female sporting events. They favor common-sense legislation on gender policy, yet are resisted and slandered as “anti-trans” by a relative handful of leftists, trans activists, plus, of course, most elected Democrats.
School choice enjoys strong bipartisan support nationally, but choice is consistently opposed by powerful teachers’ unions and the Democrats they fund, as are other parental rights in education. Parents want transparency in their children’s curricula, but progressives attempt to limit parental oversight and resist disclosure.
A large majority of Americans favor policies that promote energy independence – U.S. oil/natural gas assets and nuclear power – while progressive Democrats continue pushing for “renewables,” the least sensible, most environmentally-destructive ways of generating minimal amounts of intermittent electricity ever devised. Both wind and solar are ridiculously expensive and inherently unreliable.
The seventy prepubescent congressional Democrats who boycotted Mr. Trump’s State of the Union address, and the reprehensible behavior of those who did attend strongly suggest that there really are two Americas, and that congressional Democrats are on the minority side.
Cumulatively, “80-20” issues have put a spotlight on party/ideological differences, with common sense, logic, rights and accountability on one side, and, on the other, special interests, radicalism or, in some instances, merely stupidly-irrational, spiteful opposition to President Trump and his administration.
Politically-ambitious Democrats’ inability or unwillingness to abandon their 20 percent (and under) fringe is self-defeating, especially against an America First, prosperity, freedom, and public safety agenda, and it leaves Democrats vulnerable in the midterms and 2028 presidential election.
https://www.pottsmerc.com/2026/03/01/jerry-shenk-the-political-math-thats-changing-america/
