Dems running on “affordability?” Now that’s rich.

If you’re paying attention ahead of the midterms, you’ve certainly noticed that the Democrats have gone all-in on “affordability.” If voters will only give Democrats the majority in Congress, those good Dems promise to, first thing, turn their attention to the “affordability crisis.”

(Of course, that’s not true. The first thing they’ll do is impeach Donald Trump for…something.)

But I digress.

Affordability is the buzzword of this midterm election. To which I say, “That’s rich,” coming from Democrats.

Am I the only one who has noticed that the least affordable places in the country are, and have been, run by Democrats for decades? That’s not my opinion. It’s not debatable. It’s an objective fact.

Democrats have successfully co-opted “affordability” because gasoline prices have spiked because of the war in Iran and its impact on the Strait of Hormuz, through which in normal times flows about 20 percent of the world’s daily output of oil.

Two thoughts.

First, Democrats at one time were in favor of higher gasoline prices. They believe that high gas prices will curtail fossil fuel consumption, push people into electric cars and – their dream of dreams – into public transportation. In a September 2008 interview with the Wall Street Journal, Steven Chu, who would go on to become Barack Obama’s Secretary of Energy, said:

Somehow, we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

(Just so you have some perspective, gasoline in Europe costs roughly four times what it costs here.)

Second, California isn’t in Europe. It’s in the United States (nominally, at least). And because of massive energy taxation and regulation, gasoline in California is about two dollars a gallon higher than the national average.

Ah, California. As blue states go, California is about as blue as it gets. And the median price for a home in California is nearly two and a half times higher than here in Texas.

But let’s look beyond California.

The money available to “afford” things is money that’s left after all the taxes are paid. And the top 10 highest tax states are all deep blue.

Things cost more in the blue precincts. High taxes and overreaching regulation – particularly regulation that pushes up the costs for land and construction to provide housing – make it so.

Groceries, dry cleaning, getting your car fixed, re-doing the bathroom, going to the movies, taking your spouse out to dinner – everything costs more where Democrats are in charge.

The working poor and the young just starting out who live in one of these Democrat-run places are, without doubt, having a hell of a time getting by. But the irony is that these very people vote overwhelmingly for the very Democrats whose policies result in the double whammy of reduced take-home pay and higher costs.

Here’s the truth. Democrat politicians have never made things more “affordable.” If you could read their minds, you’d see that they don’t really want to.

They need the “affordability crisis.”

They need it to run on it.