‘Are you better off?' David Gergen's famous question still shapes elections.

Washington Post

3 days ago

'Are you better off now than you were four years ago?' Donald Trump asked a crowd in North Carolina on his final full day on the campaign trail in November. 'I've asked that question so many times.'
So had many of Trump's predecessors. The 'better off' question, popularized when Ronald Reagan asked it in a 1980 presidential debate against President Jimmy Carter and went on to win the election, was crafted with the help of David Gergen, the legendary political insider who died Thursday at 83. Ever since that debate, incumbents and their challengers have used versions of the line to persuade voters to cast ballots based on how they feel the current president affected their lives.
'It landed clearly at the time, and still today, because we're talking about it 45 years later,' said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy at the University of Southern California.
It wasn't the first time Americans had been asked such a question, said Allan Lichtman, a distinguished professor of history at American University. During one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famous fireside chats ahead of the midterm elections in 1934, the president said, 'But the simplest way for each of you to judge recovery lies in the plain facts of your own individual situation. Are you better off than you were last year?'
If the midterm votes were any indication, the country's answer at the time was 'yes.' That year, instead of the typical loss of congressional seats the president's political party faces during midterms, Democrats gained seats.
But when Reagan asked the 'better off' question, his timing and delivery on a large platform made the question resonate in press coverage and public opinion, Romero said. Gergen, who had previously served Richard M. Nixon and Gerald Ford as a senior communications adviser, was called 'the best conceptualizer, in terms of communications strategy, that we have,' by Reagan's White House chief of staff, James A. Baker III, in 1981.
Political scientists say the question has continued to be effective because of its vagueness and how it appeals to people's subjective thoughts. President Joe Biden asked it in March 2024, criticizing Trump for downplaying the coronavirus pandemic and causing rising unemployment rates in his first term. Meanwhile, the economy was improving under Biden, even though many voters didn't feel that way. Needless to say, the question worked better for Trump that year than for Biden.
Other incumbents have used the question with varying levels of success, hoping that a look back at their accomplishments in recent years will encourage people to vote in their favor. Bill Clinton, another president Gergen advised during his career, was among the presidents who harked back to the sentiment.
'Four years ago, you took me on faith, and now, there's a record: 10.5 million more jobs, rising incomes, falling crime rates and welfare rolls, a strong America at peace,' Clinton said in an October 1996 debate. 'We are better off than we were four years ago. Let's keep it going.'
Barack Obama employed the same strategy during 2014 elections in a '60 Minutes' interview, although his execution fell flat.
'I can put my record against any leader around the world in terms of digging ourselves out of a terrible, un — almost unprecedented financial crisis,' Obama said. 'Ronald Reagan used to ask the question, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?' In this case, are you better off than you were in six? And the answer is, the country is definitely better off than we were when I came into office.' (He added that while the economy was slowly improving at the time, many consumers didn't feel like it was better than 2008.)
Still, the question remains a testament to the lasting impact of Gergen, who advised four presidents and remained a fixture of national politics for decades, never mind four years.