New at Reason: Does This Feel Like Peace and Prosperity to You?

If a political party can deliver peace and prosperity, it usually means it can win re-election. That idea is simple enough. Applying it to the upcoming election, though, is not so easy, as Ira Stoll writes.

Start with the basic matter of who deserves credit for the peace and prosperity, or blame for the lack of it. Is it the Democrats and President Obama, who control the White House? Or is it the Republicans, who control Congress?

Getting past the question of who gets credit or blame, what’s a voter to think about whether we are experiencing peace and prosperity? It’s not exactly a clear-cut answer on either the peace or the prosperity front.

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