Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas.
If it’s not becoming clearer and clearer by the day that the GOP’s superpower is not fiscal responsibility but rather convincing people that black is white and up is down. And bad is good for you.
No more the lofty rhetoric of past conservative voices, who could explain, and did, why they believed what they believed. There has been a steady corrosive turn from then to now.
Now, because the increasingly unacceptable path of the GOP is being rejected by all but the fringe elements, the focus is increasingly on propaganda in lieu of facts. Misinformation rather than actual policy. Stoking fear of change instead of progress.
Today’s example. Republicans vs Democrats in handling the economy.
The economy has boomed under President Joe Biden, putting the lie to the old trope that Democrats don’t manage the economy as well as Republicans.
This should not come as a surprise to anyone. The economy has performed better under Democrats than Republicans since at least World War II.
CNN Business reports that since 1945, the Standard & Poor’s 500 has averaged an annual gain of 11.2% during years when Democrats controlled the White House, and a 6.9% average gain under Republicans.
In the same time period, gross domestic product grew by an average of 4.1% under Democrats, 2.5% under Republicans.
Job growth, too, is significantly stronger under Democrats than Republicans.
“[T]here has been a stark pattern in the United States for nearly a century,” wrote David Leonhardt of the New York Times last year, “The economy has grown significantly faster under Democratic presidents than Republican ones.”
So the myth that Democrats are bad for the economy is just that.
Here’s hoping we as a country start to see through the marketing sooner rather than later.
If not, we get what we deserve.
