WE’RE ACTUALLY DOING WELL PEOPLE

Greetings. I am a voting constituent in rural west Texas. As we navigate the mis/disinformation that constitutes a lot of media coverage right now, there is one constant that will never change, even when reality keeps slapping us in the face. Americans think the economy sucks. I live in a small very red town in Texas. New construction is booming. Roads are being redone. The energy sector is booming. There is a labor shortage. Independent contractors can’t keep up with demands for their time. And they all drive brand new pick ups. But the only words out of their mouths is that the economy sucks. And it’s obvious that viewpoint is reinforced by individual political beliefs. A viewpoint that is belied by history. “Under Reagan, deficit spending that tripled the national debt from $995 billion to $2.9 trillion—more federal debt than in the entire previous history of the country—along with lower interest rates and deregulated savings and loan banks, made the economy boom. Americans watching the economic growth such deficit spending produced believed supply-side economics worked. Tax cuts and spending cuts became the Holy Grail of American politics, and the Democrats who opposed them seemed unable to run an economy.  But that belief was not based in reality. In April the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute found that since 1949 the nation’s annual real growth has been 1.2 percentage points higher under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations (3.79% versus 2.60%), total job growth averages 2.5% annually under Democrats compared to barely over 1% under Republicans, business investment is more than double the pace under Democrats than under Republicans, average rates of inflation are slightly lower under Democrats, and families in the bottom 20% of the economy experience income growth 188% faster under Democrats than under Republicans.  A recent analysis by former Goldman Sachs managing director H. John Gilbertson expands on those numbers, showing that Democratic administrations reduce the U.S. budget deficit and that stock market returns are 60% higher under Democrats than under Republicans.” But discontent about the economy is our comfort zone. Enough is never enough. Americans take our land of plenty for granted. But we still can’t see the forrest for the trees…that our economy is the best in the world. Shouldn’t we be celebrating that? But no. Contentment is not a sexy political tool. Discontent is. So we are easily convinced that our lives should always be better than they actually are. The economy ebbs and flows. And the economy can definitely be affected by incompetence and wrong-thinking by people in charge (see above). But your candidate is the king of bankruptcy. King of using other people’s money to line his own pockets. King of convincing Americans their lives suck. I for one am sick of being told my life sucks.