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Hey, good morning, playbookers on Rulgu, Mnobalovalin. It's Monday. Today's big question,

how should Democrats discuss inflation? It's your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

Democratic strategists have split in two over how to discuss inflation.

One camp tends to blame the media for focusing too much on the issue at the expense of positive economic news, such as low unemployment.

This group brings up statistics buried beneath the headlines that suggest inflation isn't all that bad.

Simon Rosenberg of Ndn had this to say recently,

quote, some context on inflation. It is high, but wages, stocks, home prices are also way up.

People who are really feeling it are those who use a lot of gas. For most everything else,

it's a modest two to three percent net increase. Net Grocery Bill has gone from $100 to $102.80. But privately, more and more

Democrats see inflation in far more dire terms, and not just for their prospects in elections this

year. One top progressive sound of the alarm over the weekend on a widely read off-the-record

email list. The author gave us permission to quote from their missive, danger. Inflation is a

third rail, which was bouncing around lefty circles on Sunday night. A couple of things

stood out to us. One, some progressives now see inflation as an accelerant for both fiscal

conservatism and authoritarianism. The former is undoubtedly true. Inflation concerns have already

killed Biden's social welfare proposal

and pushed them to embrace deficit reduction. But our anonymous progressive warns of something

darker, quote, obviously inflation does not always lead to authoritarianism. But when it is a feature

of the political environment, it often compounds the weakness of regimes already under stress. In that

environment, the appeal of a strong

leader who can just fix it, becomes considerably more appealing both to the population and leading

...