The United States has the fastest-growing economy in the world.
I ask you to read that again, and say it quietly to yourself. How does that make you feel? Proud, I hope, because it should.
Now I’d like you to say that out loud ... Once you have it down, I want you to add this: Democrats mend economies that Republicans shatter.
Now I want you to say these two things together and to anybody who matters in your life for the next five months, because it would be about damn time they heard a truth that even many Democrats are curiously hesitant to shout out loud.
The United States has the fastest-growing economy in the world, because Democrats mend economies that Republicans shatter.
I don’t know what it is, but historically Democrats have never understood how to message on all these economies they fix. I suppose they are being gracious in an effort not to insult the minority of the population who are being left behind when we charge ahead, but their hesitancy to tout their achievements borders on malpractice.
My dad used to call it this, “hiding your light under a bushel.”
The last three Democratic presidents have inherited troubled, and in some cases catastrophic economies, from their predecessors and turned them around:
-Bill Clinton from George H.W. Bush
-Barack Obama from George W. Bush
-Joe Biden from Donald Trump
Going back further, since World War II the GDP has grown an incredible 1.6 times faster under Democratic administrations than Republican administrations.
These are called, facts.
Now tell me how many times you have heard over the course of your lifetime that Republicans are better for the economy than Democrats.
These are called, lies.
Democrats have always believed that the economy should strengthen our country and work for every American, not just those at the top.
Republican trickle-down economics DO-NOT -WORK. History tells us this.
Yet the lie somehow festers and is again, because the May jobs report came out this morning and it turns out a breathtaking 272,000 jobs were added to the economy. By comparison, the Trump Administration lost an incredible 2,876,000 during his failed presidency.
Can you imagine how loud the orange traitor and his pathetic GOP servants would have been if he added 272,000 jobs in ONE MONTH, while Barack Obama lost nearly three million jobs during his administration????
My God, they’d be banging their drums so loud the people in China couldn’t sleep. It would be incessant — so booming, in fact, that the corporate media would invariably join the chorus.
But they didn't, because Democrats mend economies that Republicans shatter …
And, say … Remember that killer recession that the corporate media incessantly warned us was on the way three years ago? Yeah … well it never arrived, and it won’t during Joe Biden’s administration. That alone is miraculous.
Me? I’d say the dude’s owed an apology, eh?
Instead, the stock market has climbed to record highs and according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics we are enjoying the greatest period of employment since the 1950s. Americans have not had this kind of job security in 72 years. One more time for emphasis, because we are all going to be touting these numbers to everybody we know for the next five months: The United States is in the middle of its greatest stretch of employment in 72 years.
Are things perfect in our economy? Of course not. There is no such thing as a perfect economy. But, again, I’d like to you to point to any other country that is doing better than the United States right now.
I’ll wait.
Look, I’ll certainly concede prices are higher than we’d like for things like food, but even those prices have been steadily falling in the past three years, much to the chagrin of our greedy corporations who have raked in record profits since the pandemic.
The only people besides them who are unhappy about this are the bought-off Republicans they own.
Oh, and it gets worse for these greedy corporations because wages have increased under Joe Biden, and the minimum wage has increased in 29 states and the District of Columbia.
But I can already hear you thinking that inflation is wiping out any pay increases, because that’s what the corporate media has taught you to believe. Well, that is complete bull, too. Reports by experts like Payscale, Gartner and WorldatWork are projecting pay increases for 2024 to be higher than the actual rate of inflation.
I know, right?
So why don’t we hear more about this? I’m here to politely say that we might be part of the problem.
I swear to you, I have come to the realization that people have been brainwashed into thinking things are horrible right now.
It’s just plain weird.
Last week, I was having a conversation with a young woman in North Carolina. Ever since the blast in November of 2016, I have developed a weird talent for sussing out quickly what side of the political spectrum somebody inhabits. It comes in handy just in case I need to be politely confrontational to keep everybody’s facts straight, or in worse-case scenarios break glass, and get the hell out of there.
At any rate, the woman was nice enough, but it was clear she was not a fan of our president and the job he is doing. Finally she said, “Everything is so expensive and terrible.”
“Everything is so expensive and terrible …”
She said this while standing on a sun-drenched deck overlooking the Atlantic Ocean of a beachfront property she was renting …
I bit my tongue for a second or two until it bled before informing her that things were far, far better here than anywhere else, and certainly better than they were four years ago when we couldn’t even find toilet paper.
That’s when things got eerily quiet as she realized the old, white man she had been stereotyping wasn't listening to her nonsense.
This morning, I’m going to guess that this woman didn’t get the news from any of the rightwing propaganda outlets she invariably monitors that the economy continues to heat up under Joe Biden, and that things are immeasurably better than they were four years.
I plan to share this news with anybody I encounter today, and going forward the next five months.
I hope you will join me.
D. Earl Stephens is the author of “Toxic Tales: A Caustic Collection of Donald J. Trump’s Very Important Letters” and finished up a 30-year career in journalism as the Managing Editor of Stars and Stripes. Follow @EarlofEnough and on his website.
