Thank you, HCR! Do I understand economic history? No. But, I was born in 1950 and have seen and felt the slow, then ever-increasing erosion of middle class life (with too many examples to write). “Bombarding” Congress with calls has been suggested to me by Michael Moore and David Plouffe in their podcasts as a path that gets attention. So, that’s one of my activist goals for 2021. BidenHarris are not stupid on this score. So, we achieved change in the Executive Branch. Now, it’s truly “all hands on deck” in GEORGIA. I plan to donate more small amounts right now for ad buys and registration efforts. (Yesterday, artists in the Pen and ink Brigade NYC raised over $30,000 selling art at $200 a pop for Stacey Abrams.) Today, I turn from writing 200 postcards (done) to letters and texts. Forget about the polls. Democrats are going to lose unless there is a huge turnout with everyone who can possibly vote voting. Please do what you can to help achieve a victory for GA Democrats and Democracy. Boy, would I love to see Mitch McConnell at the back of the Senate bus. ❤️🧡💙
Thank you! That’s my speed, too. I’m sure others will and have, knowing grassroots donations have powered the Democrats to victories this year. ActBlue! ❤️🤍💙
I, too, was born in 1950. At one time, I was convinced our generation had solutions for many critical social and cultural problems in America. I believe what could have been started to unravel with the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. As you write, there are too many other examples to cite, and here we are.
It’s hard to think of what RFK (MLK, too - but RFK would have been President) might have been able to do without despairing for Amrrica ❤️🤍💙 now. Does anyone have a link to his speech in South Africa? Don’t know date.
OMG. Thank you so much. I heard it on a book tape years ago and never forgot it. There's so much about his political life I miss. Thank you, again. xoxo
Just wondering if you are from State College, PA, originally? Your name is familiar from my high school days, could've been another with the same name. Yes postcards in the mail again, today. Yes, donated again to all 5 on the ground groups who are registering voters and helping GOTV in GA. As a child of the 10950's, I feel like we got a great education in public school, everyone had a chance at a decent lifestyle and there was upward mobility. Now, it is hard to see that future for the young.
No, I'm from a faming community in the now-infamous Luzerne County in NE PA. Two of my siblings attended State College at various times in undergraduate and graduate programs. My mother was on one of the local PSU boards. And there are other extended family ties. Must be someone else with same last name. AND, I had the same experience growing up and worry for the average child growing up now in the USA. xo
Isn't it wonderful to have HCR and this community she has created? It helps my mental health and hopefully will have a larger influence on the US as we move forward. I moved away from PA in 1969 but still have friends where I grew up. State College is of course a little blue island in the state. Always was an aberration.
Keep at it, Deborah! 1950, and the rest of the 50s back when "America was Great." Here are some of those great things: "Leave it to Beaver", cheap 100% leaded gasoline, bobby sox, only one parent needed to work to raise a family of four, lots of unpaved roads, President who golfed a lot, but gave us all a great warning in his last speech in 1960 (Beware of the military industrial complex), to name a few.
I'd like to see Kentucky be educated and aware enough to realize that until they kick McConnell OFF the Senate bus, nothing's likely to improve. I write and send postcards, and I have donated to the Orloff and Warnock campaigns, via the organization Stacey Abrams endorsed. There isn't much more I can do, other than let my own congresscritters know that all the money being diverted into the top 2% household and military pockets and out of the schools is what is killing the golden-egg laying goose.
Each of us reading this post can amplify the message. We talk about it with friends/neighbors/family, we refer them to this post, and we discuss at every opportunity.
Absolutely-but how do these clear, understandable “truths” get out on the “airwaves”? Messages via HCR and Katie Porter need to infiltrate into places where Rush Limbaugh and other right wing messages dominate. I am not an expert in communications, but I am hoping that there are some experts with the Democrats who can figure out how to get these messages out there. I also wonder if the die hard Trump/conspiracy theory supporters have had their brain chemistry changed ? They probably have, which is very sad and scary.
So how do we get the popular pundits, the ones heard by most Americans, to hammer these truths? oh... wait... the big media companies are all owned by Republicans, aren't they?
Not really. NYT, Wash Post, and so many others are solidly, solidly Democrat. I think what we need to demand is that they do their jobs and report on key issues in depth, which to me, by and large, they haven't bothered doing for years.
I hope we can all stop playing into partisan politics of accursing the media of always being biased left or right. We need an open, free media. It is foundational to democracy. Constantly saying the Media is biased hurts us all.
My local TV station is owned by Sinclair News. The reporters grimace and grit their teeth when they have to report the rote biased not-quite-true news from headquarters. We need, as HCR lists as top priority, reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine ASAP.
democrats signed off on the military budget too, don't think they're not at fault here... dems and reps only serve the upper class, but dems are just nice enough to throw some table scraps our way
This is why we really need the progressive branch of the Democratic party. And they can't just come up with ideas, they have to persuade Trump's base! We have to persuade them that they really are not better off than they were four years ago. Other Republicans, too, need to be persuaded.
we absolutely DO NOT need to continue to validate and support the Democratic capitalist class. We already have a progressive wing of the Democratic party, and they get shutdown constantly. None of the progressive movements made it to the official party platform in 2016 or 2020. It's time for a worker's party, a people's party. We've seen how Trump and his party was incapable, now Biden will show us how Democrats are also incapable. We need a third party of regular everyday Americans that fights for us, and this party can gut both of the self-imploding capitalist parties.
I hear what you're saying, but you run smack into the problem of pragmatism vs. idealism. There's plenty of third parties. I've supported Greens for probably 30 years. I still think Ralph Nader would have been this country's best choice in 2000. He's the only one in recent memory who even moved the needle. What did he get for his effort? Eternal blame for costing Al Gore the presidency and thence the second war in Iraq, whether he deserves it or not. You can go back to Ross Perot, and John Anderson before him, which is as far back as my memory goes. Any slightly viable third party seems only to play the spoiler role, and kill the chances of the major party candidate most closely aligned. So what do you do? It's a tough nut. As it stands, our system is designed for two parties. Ranked choice voting opens the door for third parties to become effective vehicles for change. But it's slow going. I've heard talk of it for at least 25 years, but it's only recently begun to be implemented, statewide in Maine I believe, and maybe on municipal levels elsewhere. It seems like the best hope I'm aware of, but has barely broken through the public consciousness as of yet.
we have to abolish the fake duopoly, the dictatorship of capital. i think it starts with a strong labor movement. whether or not dems/reps appeal to the movement is up to them. but i think a lot more people are catching on to the slight of hand that is the capitalist duopoly.
You won't get much argument from me about the problems with capitalism. But the duopoly is definitely real, not fake. I'm all for a much stronger labor movement. I've got almost 25 years in a Union, and am politically active within it. That's why I brought up the pragmatic/idealist problem. We run into it regularly. But if you want to see change at the ground level you kind of have to play the game with all the other players. Otherwise you either need a revolution or your shouting in the wilderness. I don't mind a good shout on occasion, but revolutions seem difficult.
Both parties know quite well that spending other people's money makes for happy voters and gets the re-elected. The difference in my mind is that Democrats have learned how to invest 'other people's money' into infrastructure that benefits everyone. Republicans, well, not so much.
President Carter tried "fireside chats". They did not go over well as I recall. However I think Biden could pull it off, because next to FDR I don't think we have anyone more emphatic coming into the White House. I can't wait for Biden to come out with the maps☺️
Now would be a fine time for him to do that, as he's sadly hobbled by a hairbone foot fracture after his fall while walking Major and shouldn't be out and about much.
Yes, though Fala stole everybody's heart. The Roosevelts had lots of dogs. Interesting that Major was the name of both presidents' GSDs. Biden's was probably named in memory of his son, Beau, who had been a major in the Delaware National Guard. As most people know by now, he's the first rescue dog to be about to take up residence in the White House.
Oh! I read it as "hairline" too! I just looked up the injury to see what his activity restrictions should be. I am sure he will make the most of his recovery time, and the work he needs to do right now can be done from a comfy recliner.
Ahh, good ole Reaganomics. I remember them well, unfortunately. To this day, when someone mentions him as a great leader and the best orator, I want to throw up. I do recall interest rates for CD’s were upwards to 13%...absolutely unheard of! When Reagan sliced welfare benefits, homelessness became rampant which is the residual effect that we see today. Indecency and inhumane practices by the Repubs, is something they have mastered.
The Democrats have a real problem with messaging and that infuriates me. As someone said previously, key Dems must hammer the public and the media of all of the evil things that Republicans have done and are still doing, over and over and over again.
So true Marlene! Reagan was the Great Hypocrite with his glittering state dinners while attacking civil service employees as being lazy. The typical do as I say not as I do Republican who took the month of August off to relax at his ranch. When Biden raises taxes on the robber barons, they will cry their big crocodile tears about the unfairness. The rich get richer while essential workers can only struggle for food, clothing and shelter and now medical care. How many golden toilets are enough 🤡. Great column HCR.
Reagan also makes me gag, as does every republican since. The other side of the CD rates was mortgages at 18% fixed plus “points” - upfront interest. I graduated from college as an accountant in 1981 and there were no jobs. Emphasis was on exporting. I used to think once worldwide wages were evened out, everyone would be lifted out of poverty. But throw in psychopathic politicians, CEO’s and gullible people, and apparently you have the makings of the French Revolution every so often.
I am also infuriated by how worthless the Dems are at countering the GOP spin on things.
voter fraud vs voter suppression and tough on crime vs defund the police i think contributed to the disappearance of the blue wave we all that was going to happen. I know the term defund police was not used by the politicians, but they did a worthless job of reframing that idea so the orange menace was able to feed on fear and racism to get so many women to vote for him. Dems need to learn how to counter the false messages. I keep reading articles about how it is the extreme radical left that are “taking” over the party” as the reason people have left the democratic party. I am one of those radicals. I don’t think it is extreme that the government support the liberal consensus, regulate big business and make sure our policies support everyone.
I am far from being a progressive, but I strongly agree that the Democrats need to counter with better catchy phrases. The party should have a position for someone with advertising experience.
Dems have a lousy problem with messaging. Again, they need people who can deliver “come-back”statements that bites the Repubs in the a**. Constant calling out the falsehoods, loud and clear, is what MUST happen!
You know how they say in advertising someone needs to see and ad 7 times before it sinks into their heads? Instead of Schumer & Pelosi talking at the mic in these long big technical big words, how about they repeat a very simple version of this over and over that explains to people how their personal taxes went up, social services went down, and the rich pay less. They need to start doing Congresswoman Katie Porter White Board speeches and "dumb it down".
Watching Katie Porter gas been an absolute delight! Her takedown of the bank CEO’s was priceless. She and Sheldon Whitehouse are the best at using a whiteboard. Not all people can listen to what people tell them. A lot are kinesthetic learners so actually “seeing” information is helpful and important, plus it is impactful.
Wow good point Marlene! I did not think of it in those terms. I teach photography as an adjunct and lecturing professor off and on, and there is like no getting it in students heads without really tangible visual and hands-on instruction. The United States in now in need of a national classroom of Porter-White-Board instruction.
One thing that's wonderful about today's thread is the sub-text: it's not about Trump! It's about understanding history, crafting policy, communicating effectively -- and ultimately, about hammering out deals in Congress to change key laws. If Democrats have better ideas to offer, now's the time. The party is no longer simply "running against Trump."
Supply side “Reaganomics” - cutting taxes on the rich and starving social services, while boosting spending on the military industrial complex, concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, slowing out consumer-based economy. As working families have less disposable income, business investment turns to privatizing public functions, like schools and prisons, to make profit from government spending instead of consumer demand. After the Great Recession of 2008 we bailed out the banks, but not so much the homeowners. (Granted, it was a fiscal crisis, brought on by deregulation and corruption, and the banks needed rescuing, but it still shifted wealth upwards.) Sending money to millionaires, or trickle-down economics, is a very inefficient way to boost the economy.
Demand side, Keynesian tax and spending programs shift buying power back to working families, and stimulate the economy. Food stamps, increased minimum wages, protecting families from unaffordable medical and insurance payments, reducing college debt, expanding workforce housing, all increase the spending power of working families, the great engine of the American economy.
It might help if we called Keynesian spending “economic stimulus” instead of welfare.
I really appreciated the economics lesson from FDR to the present. I will read over a couple of more times to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Through this wonderful ‘lesson’, I have one fundamental point which I feel needs to be stressed. Prof Richardson writes:
'This is a pattern. Since President Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, Republicans have insisted that tax cuts will pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth, thus increasing tax revenues as everyone gets richer.’
‘everyone gets richer’ is a lie that needs refuted at every turn. Only people with EXCESS WEALTH benefit from a tax cut - to reduce their 1) income tax tax rate, and/or 2) capital gains tax rate (on investment wealth).
Salaried and hourly employees most likely do not have the income or the 'passive wealth’ from wall street assets in order to benefit from a tax cut. Our corporate capitalism in America demands less government (taxation), in order for the wealth to accumulate in private hands (and not be taxed).
Lets’ not be conned by the conservative notion of less government. Progress is advocated by progressives - and that is a more just distribution of wealth, in order progress is available to all Americans, not just the wealthy.
In fact, the state with the highest average income also has the highest avg tax rate, and also the highest education levels. That is Massachusetts.
The link amplifies Biden’s desire for a “Maine Street economy” (rather than a Wall St economy) - and a foreign policy based on shared, mutual interests. The esteemed (imho) EJ Dionne writes of the influence of Bernie and especially Elizabeth Warren, however, Biden is able to make the case to ... Main Street. Warren, and especially Bernie, had a problem translating their progressive ideals to middle America. But Biden has a chance to do just this.
We really need those Senate votes from Georgia. And the Democrats also need to find a “sound bite” to hammer home as it seems many Americans only listen in sound bites.
Your outlining of our economic history is timely. President-Elect Biden will be presenting his Economic team this week.
It reminded me that when we bought our first home in 1981, interest rates for a mortgage were over 15% and a house would cost $50-60,000!
Can this pattern of Republican tax cuts leading to huge deficits and Democrat tax increases bringing down debt continue? The vote in Georgia will be a huge factor in, literally, healing the country and saving our economy.
It will be imperative that the Democrats lead the Senate otherwise we’re going to witness Mitch block everything the Biden-Harris administration puts forward.
Your last paragraph hits the nail on its head! We need those two seats in the Senate in order to do the work of the people in a meaningful, effective way.
Thank you, Heather. This economic/history lesson cannot be repeated loud enough or often enough. Paul Krugman has been pounding the table on this for years, as have others. Grover Norquist needs his own special place in Hell. In a cell next to Gingrich, if I had my way.
As long as the working class keeps seeing their wages cut and their lives stagnating, and keep buying the GOP swill that it's the welfare queens and illegal immigrants that are the problem, I don't know how we square this circle. They are so programmed to resent 'their money going to 'those people'. And yet the people who are truly robbing them blind, the 1% and the pols doing their bidding, are seen as upstanding citizens and straight shooters!
At least 10 years back an old school chum started in about the welfare hammock and how cushy it is, and I asked him if he had ever looked at the Welfare to Work Act, and told him what Clinton had agreed to with 'welfare reform' and he was astounded. He thought there were still women (certain women, of course) who were dropping babies like litters of puppies just to get more welfare money. He had no clue as to how the system really worked - and this was long before the disinformation on Facebook and Twitter, etc.
Yep. The Grasping Out-for-Themselves Pols are not just hypocrites. They are criminal hypocrites. In her book Eloquent Rage, Brittney Cooper discusses the fact that the majority of Black women have a financial cushion of . . . 5 dollars. That's right: 5 bucks. Not even enough to get a combo meal at a fast food joint. This is the "welfare queen" Reagan cynically used as his target in order to sweep up the white men who want to preserve their complete dominance over the economy.
A story that jumped out at me this morning is that the SCOTUS is hearing arguments about the inclusion of undocumented people in the census figures for redistricting in Congress. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/939655182/can-trump-change-a-key-census-count-supreme-court-hears-his-claim The only states that are supporting the Trump Administration's push to fascism and the re-enslavement of people of color represent just 52 Congressional seats and includes Alabama. The solicitor general of Alabama, apparently without a hint of irony, claimed that people who were "voluntarily resident" in his state should be counted but no one else. This is the same Alabama that in the 19th century insisted that enslaved people be counted in the census because otherwise they would lose 40% of their congressional representation.
When reality is so surreal it beggars belief you know we are in Trumplandia.
We truly are a nation deeply divided. It’s the evil whites versus the caring whites and all people of color. It kinda makes me laugh when you think of where we all originally came from. I mean if every white person were to submit a DNA sample, they might find out that their ancestors were from Spain or Ethiopia and were Jewish. What would they do then? Go back to “their countries”? Just food for thought...
In our house, we are watching “The Reagans” with a mixture of dread and something like PTSD. As Heather has been demonstrating to us, the Southern Strategy was started in a cynical (and successful, sadly) effort to divide Americans from each other. Forty years later, we are reaping the terrible crop, and the Republicans’ cynicism continues. Georgia matters.
The naked truth of all this economic history makes me furious but at the same time feeling victimized and impotent to effect change when I know I have been voting against exactly this for my entire adult life. What else can we do?
Having seen this scenario play out the same way since Reagan....the Rethuglicans create an economic mess, the Democrats clean it up and bear the brunt of the criticism when people and businesses perceive from propaganda that they are going to suffer, and yes some will, but it will be the 1%. The problem is that there is no way yet found to make economics a sexy or interesting topic to most of the population. Before we can even begin to achieve any of the needed changes we have to be rid of the control of the Senate by McConnell and his supporters as well as change leadership at the DNC. The DNC failed to get any type of coherent strategy together as well as any messaging that worked and hence we lost down ballot races. The DNC was too focused on the presidential race and neglected the fact that you have to have support down ballot to make any programs that Biden might want a reality.
Warren Buffett has said many times the rich NEED to pay more taxes. If he could become a spokesman for this idea, with examples of how this would help ordinary Americans and benefit the whole country, it might have an impact.
Quoting Darth Vader, er, I mean Dick Cheney in 2001: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
They only matter when Republicans want to use fear of them to harm Democrats. If high indebtedness is bad, then the average American family is composed of bad people.
If we don't get Mitch McConnell out of power, the middle class will be gone. IMO he has done more damage to the average American than anyone in history other than maybe Cheney. He will do exactly the same thing to Biden that he did to Obama. The GOP can not allow the Senate to turn blue because they are funding their re-elections on the back of the dwindling middle-class and if they don't get re-elected they can't get wealthy while in office. Two of the most corrupt politicians in the Senate are Purdue and Loeffler, they got caught doing what they all do, use their position to buy them wealth. The Rep. in my district hasn't done a single thing, not one thing in her position but she needs the good insurance because of issue in her nuclear family...you and I are paying for her sick child and we can't get decent coverage for ours? It's really hard now days for me to contain my rage at these people and the lazy Americans that can't be bothered to do even the slightest research to do their civic duty. They voted in this election but they will go back to sleep again...probably....just like always and leave the considerable responsibility to others. Where do we even start when a pandemic doesn't challenge the GOP to become real human beings and give a shit about their neighbors. I'm at a loss and as depressed as I've ever been at the situation we find ourselves in....
Thank you, HCR! Do I understand economic history? No. But, I was born in 1950 and have seen and felt the slow, then ever-increasing erosion of middle class life (with too many examples to write). “Bombarding” Congress with calls has been suggested to me by Michael Moore and David Plouffe in their podcasts as a path that gets attention. So, that’s one of my activist goals for 2021. BidenHarris are not stupid on this score. So, we achieved change in the Executive Branch. Now, it’s truly “all hands on deck” in GEORGIA. I plan to donate more small amounts right now for ad buys and registration efforts. (Yesterday, artists in the Pen and ink Brigade NYC raised over $30,000 selling art at $200 a pop for Stacey Abrams.) Today, I turn from writing 200 postcards (done) to letters and texts. Forget about the polls. Democrats are going to lose unless there is a huge turnout with everyone who can possibly vote voting. Please do what you can to help achieve a victory for GA Democrats and Democracy. Boy, would I love to see Mitch McConnell at the back of the Senate bus. ❤️🧡💙
I sent $50 to their campaign yesterday. Grassroots here, but hopefully others have chipped in.
Thank you! That’s my speed, too. I’m sure others will and have, knowing grassroots donations have powered the Democrats to victories this year. ActBlue! ❤️🤍💙
My contributions to the effort will remain contributions to Warnock, Ossoff and Fair Fight.
I RD hurts to have to choose between donating to people in need or to the Georgia campaigns.
I do as much as I can to both. Every little bit helps.
Thank you, Mim! This is what I do, and it is a little bit. But, it's amazing how it mounts up and helps when millions contribute a little bit.
Terribly true. I try to do a little to both.
I, too, was born in 1950. At one time, I was convinced our generation had solutions for many critical social and cultural problems in America. I believe what could have been started to unravel with the murders of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy. As you write, there are too many other examples to cite, and here we are.
It’s hard to think of what RFK (MLK, too - but RFK would have been President) might have been able to do without despairing for Amrrica ❤️🤍💙 now. Does anyone have a link to his speech in South Africa? Don’t know date.
https://www.jfklibrary.org/learn/about-jfk/the-kennedy-family/robert-f-kennedy/robert-f-kennedy-speeches/day-of-affirmation-address-university-of-capetown-capetown-south-africa-june-6-1966
Ripple of Hope
OMG. Thank you so much. I heard it on a book tape years ago and never forgot it. There's so much about his political life I miss. Thank you, again. xoxo
Just wondering if you are from State College, PA, originally? Your name is familiar from my high school days, could've been another with the same name. Yes postcards in the mail again, today. Yes, donated again to all 5 on the ground groups who are registering voters and helping GOTV in GA. As a child of the 10950's, I feel like we got a great education in public school, everyone had a chance at a decent lifestyle and there was upward mobility. Now, it is hard to see that future for the young.
No, I'm from a faming community in the now-infamous Luzerne County in NE PA. Two of my siblings attended State College at various times in undergraduate and graduate programs. My mother was on one of the local PSU boards. And there are other extended family ties. Must be someone else with same last name. AND, I had the same experience growing up and worry for the average child growing up now in the USA. xo
Isn't it wonderful to have HCR and this community she has created? It helps my mental health and hopefully will have a larger influence on the US as we move forward. I moved away from PA in 1969 but still have friends where I grew up. State College is of course a little blue island in the state. Always was an aberration.
Yes, I'm very grateful for the HCR community. I moved away, too, in 1969 and am so happy to be living in NY! xx
Ah, the lack of edits, 1950's
Keep at it, Deborah! 1950, and the rest of the 50s back when "America was Great." Here are some of those great things: "Leave it to Beaver", cheap 100% leaded gasoline, bobby sox, only one parent needed to work to raise a family of four, lots of unpaved roads, President who golfed a lot, but gave us all a great warning in his last speech in 1960 (Beware of the military industrial complex), to name a few.
What's "great" about leaded gas?
I'd like to see Kentucky be educated and aware enough to realize that until they kick McConnell OFF the Senate bus, nothing's likely to improve. I write and send postcards, and I have donated to the Orloff and Warnock campaigns, via the organization Stacey Abrams endorsed. There isn't much more I can do, other than let my own congresscritters know that all the money being diverted into the top 2% household and military pockets and out of the schools is what is killing the golden-egg laying goose.
Completely agree with you about McConnell. You're doing a lot. I have to overcome my phone phobia and start calling Congress! xx
Thanks for all you do°
Thanks for your supportive words.
I wish the Democrats could hammer this message home in a sound bite, over and over.
Democrats Grow Jobs. Republicans Grow Recessions!
I really like this sound bite! We need to get it to Biden's and Harris' people.
We need to get it to Georgia voters.
Nice!
May we repost?!
Each of us reading this post can amplify the message. We talk about it with friends/neighbors/family, we refer them to this post, and we discuss at every opportunity.
and if people prefer an audio version, HCR made these points in her
"History of the Republican Party" talks on the Reagan era and its aftermath, available on her Facebook and on YouTube.
Absolutely-but how do these clear, understandable “truths” get out on the “airwaves”? Messages via HCR and Katie Porter need to infiltrate into places where Rush Limbaugh and other right wing messages dominate. I am not an expert in communications, but I am hoping that there are some experts with the Democrats who can figure out how to get these messages out there. I also wonder if the die hard Trump/conspiracy theory supporters have had their brain chemistry changed ? They probably have, which is very sad and scary.
Thanks, Ellie - that's an excellent resource, too.
Good to know!
Yvonne Caruthers, absolutely, this one is getting oxygen on my regular Facebook feed
So how do we get the popular pundits, the ones heard by most Americans, to hammer these truths? oh... wait... the big media companies are all owned by Republicans, aren't they?
Not really. NYT, Wash Post, and so many others are solidly, solidly Democrat. I think what we need to demand is that they do their jobs and report on key issues in depth, which to me, by and large, they haven't bothered doing for years.
I hope we can all stop playing into partisan politics of accursing the media of always being biased left or right. We need an open, free media. It is foundational to democracy. Constantly saying the Media is biased hurts us all.
My local TV station is owned by Sinclair News. The reporters grimace and grit their teeth when they have to report the rote biased not-quite-true news from headquarters. We need, as HCR lists as top priority, reinstatement of the Fairness Doctrine ASAP.
democrats signed off on the military budget too, don't think they're not at fault here... dems and reps only serve the upper class, but dems are just nice enough to throw some table scraps our way
This is why we really need the progressive branch of the Democratic party. And they can't just come up with ideas, they have to persuade Trump's base! We have to persuade them that they really are not better off than they were four years ago. Other Republicans, too, need to be persuaded.
we absolutely DO NOT need to continue to validate and support the Democratic capitalist class. We already have a progressive wing of the Democratic party, and they get shutdown constantly. None of the progressive movements made it to the official party platform in 2016 or 2020. It's time for a worker's party, a people's party. We've seen how Trump and his party was incapable, now Biden will show us how Democrats are also incapable. We need a third party of regular everyday Americans that fights for us, and this party can gut both of the self-imploding capitalist parties.
I hear what you're saying, but you run smack into the problem of pragmatism vs. idealism. There's plenty of third parties. I've supported Greens for probably 30 years. I still think Ralph Nader would have been this country's best choice in 2000. He's the only one in recent memory who even moved the needle. What did he get for his effort? Eternal blame for costing Al Gore the presidency and thence the second war in Iraq, whether he deserves it or not. You can go back to Ross Perot, and John Anderson before him, which is as far back as my memory goes. Any slightly viable third party seems only to play the spoiler role, and kill the chances of the major party candidate most closely aligned. So what do you do? It's a tough nut. As it stands, our system is designed for two parties. Ranked choice voting opens the door for third parties to become effective vehicles for change. But it's slow going. I've heard talk of it for at least 25 years, but it's only recently begun to be implemented, statewide in Maine I believe, and maybe on municipal levels elsewhere. It seems like the best hope I'm aware of, but has barely broken through the public consciousness as of yet.
we have to abolish the fake duopoly, the dictatorship of capital. i think it starts with a strong labor movement. whether or not dems/reps appeal to the movement is up to them. but i think a lot more people are catching on to the slight of hand that is the capitalist duopoly.
You won't get much argument from me about the problems with capitalism. But the duopoly is definitely real, not fake. I'm all for a much stronger labor movement. I've got almost 25 years in a Union, and am politically active within it. That's why I brought up the pragmatic/idealist problem. We run into it regularly. But if you want to see change at the ground level you kind of have to play the game with all the other players. Otherwise you either need a revolution or your shouting in the wilderness. I don't mind a good shout on occasion, but revolutions seem difficult.
I hear you. I just don’t know if I agree. I’m hopeful that Biden, with Harris, will move things further left. But, I hear your warning, too.
Both parties know quite well that spending other people's money makes for happy voters and gets the re-elected. The difference in my mind is that Democrats have learned how to invest 'other people's money' into infrastructure that benefits everyone. Republicans, well, not so much.
Yes! But what is that sound bite? ❤️🤍💙
President Carter tried "fireside chats". They did not go over well as I recall. However I think Biden could pull it off, because next to FDR I don't think we have anyone more emphatic coming into the White House. I can't wait for Biden to come out with the maps☺️
Emphatic or empathetic? Emphatically empathetic.
Marcy Meldahl, thanks for the catch. Yes, I meant empathetic. Emphatically empathetic, I ❤️ it!
Or empathic! ❤️❤️
I'd love to see it but I doubt he'll be given a tenth of the air time that Trump regularly commanded.
And will continue to command is my fear!
Although, I do think his air time is waning. He is becoming less relevant.
Now would be a fine time for him to do that, as he's sadly hobbled by a hairbone foot fracture after his fall while walking Major and shouldn't be out and about much.
Breaking bones while playing with dogs. Something I can relate to
Ouch!
Broken elbow! It wasn't too bad
Still Ouch!
Trivia: FDR also had a Germ Shep named Major
Yes, though Fala stole everybody's heart. The Roosevelts had lots of dogs. Interesting that Major was the name of both presidents' GSDs. Biden's was probably named in memory of his son, Beau, who had been a major in the Delaware National Guard. As most people know by now, he's the first rescue dog to be about to take up residence in the White House.
https://www.dogster.com/lifestyle/all-the-presidents-pups-meet-fdrs-dog-fala
Of course, I meant "hairline."
Oh! I read it as "hairline" too! I just looked up the injury to see what his activity restrictions should be. I am sure he will make the most of his recovery time, and the work he needs to do right now can be done from a comfy recliner.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/30/politics/joe-biden-broken-foot-donald-trump-walter-reed/index.html
Thanks.
Ahh, good ole Reaganomics. I remember them well, unfortunately. To this day, when someone mentions him as a great leader and the best orator, I want to throw up. I do recall interest rates for CD’s were upwards to 13%...absolutely unheard of! When Reagan sliced welfare benefits, homelessness became rampant which is the residual effect that we see today. Indecency and inhumane practices by the Repubs, is something they have mastered.
The Democrats have a real problem with messaging and that infuriates me. As someone said previously, key Dems must hammer the public and the media of all of the evil things that Republicans have done and are still doing, over and over and over again.
So true Marlene! Reagan was the Great Hypocrite with his glittering state dinners while attacking civil service employees as being lazy. The typical do as I say not as I do Republican who took the month of August off to relax at his ranch. When Biden raises taxes on the robber barons, they will cry their big crocodile tears about the unfairness. The rich get richer while essential workers can only struggle for food, clothing and shelter and now medical care. How many golden toilets are enough 🤡. Great column HCR.
Reagan also makes me gag, as does every republican since. The other side of the CD rates was mortgages at 18% fixed plus “points” - upfront interest. I graduated from college as an accountant in 1981 and there were no jobs. Emphasis was on exporting. I used to think once worldwide wages were evened out, everyone would be lifted out of poverty. But throw in psychopathic politicians, CEO’s and gullible people, and apparently you have the makings of the French Revolution every so often.
The first President Bush called it 'voodoo economics."
I am also infuriated by how worthless the Dems are at countering the GOP spin on things.
voter fraud vs voter suppression and tough on crime vs defund the police i think contributed to the disappearance of the blue wave we all that was going to happen. I know the term defund police was not used by the politicians, but they did a worthless job of reframing that idea so the orange menace was able to feed on fear and racism to get so many women to vote for him. Dems need to learn how to counter the false messages. I keep reading articles about how it is the extreme radical left that are “taking” over the party” as the reason people have left the democratic party. I am one of those radicals. I don’t think it is extreme that the government support the liberal consensus, regulate big business and make sure our policies support everyone.
I am far from being a progressive, but I strongly agree that the Democrats need to counter with better catchy phrases. The party should have a position for someone with advertising experience.
YES!
Dems have a lousy problem with messaging. Again, they need people who can deliver “come-back”statements that bites the Repubs in the a**. Constant calling out the falsehoods, loud and clear, is what MUST happen!
I completely agree.
agreed.
Absolutely!!
You know how they say in advertising someone needs to see and ad 7 times before it sinks into their heads? Instead of Schumer & Pelosi talking at the mic in these long big technical big words, how about they repeat a very simple version of this over and over that explains to people how their personal taxes went up, social services went down, and the rich pay less. They need to start doing Congresswoman Katie Porter White Board speeches and "dumb it down".
If you have not seen Porter in actions, this is what I am taking about. She's the Rep from Orange County in California. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0L0XbnvJ6I
Love Katie Porter. So glad she got re-elected!
So am I.
Watching Katie Porter gas been an absolute delight! Her takedown of the bank CEO’s was priceless. She and Sheldon Whitehouse are the best at using a whiteboard. Not all people can listen to what people tell them. A lot are kinesthetic learners so actually “seeing” information is helpful and important, plus it is impactful.
Wow good point Marlene! I did not think of it in those terms. I teach photography as an adjunct and lecturing professor off and on, and there is like no getting it in students heads without really tangible visual and hands-on instruction. The United States in now in need of a national classroom of Porter-White-Board instruction.
Exactly and it gives meaning to “see is believing”!
Dang it! *Seeing is believing!
Gas?? Has!
Makes total sense. Of course the same principle would work to counter the made up conspiracies.
You got it.
K.I.S.S.
Oh thank you so much! She is awesome! I’m really glad she got re elected also!
One thing that's wonderful about today's thread is the sub-text: it's not about Trump! It's about understanding history, crafting policy, communicating effectively -- and ultimately, about hammering out deals in Congress to change key laws. If Democrats have better ideas to offer, now's the time. The party is no longer simply "running against Trump."
Supply side “Reaganomics” - cutting taxes on the rich and starving social services, while boosting spending on the military industrial complex, concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, slowing out consumer-based economy. As working families have less disposable income, business investment turns to privatizing public functions, like schools and prisons, to make profit from government spending instead of consumer demand. After the Great Recession of 2008 we bailed out the banks, but not so much the homeowners. (Granted, it was a fiscal crisis, brought on by deregulation and corruption, and the banks needed rescuing, but it still shifted wealth upwards.) Sending money to millionaires, or trickle-down economics, is a very inefficient way to boost the economy.
Demand side, Keynesian tax and spending programs shift buying power back to working families, and stimulate the economy. Food stamps, increased minimum wages, protecting families from unaffordable medical and insurance payments, reducing college debt, expanding workforce housing, all increase the spending power of working families, the great engine of the American economy.
It might help if we called Keynesian spending “economic stimulus” instead of welfare.
I really appreciated the economics lesson from FDR to the present. I will read over a couple of more times to fill in the gaps in my knowledge. Through this wonderful ‘lesson’, I have one fundamental point which I feel needs to be stressed. Prof Richardson writes:
'This is a pattern. Since President Ronald Reagan’s presidency in the 1980s, Republicans have insisted that tax cuts will pay for themselves by stimulating economic growth, thus increasing tax revenues as everyone gets richer.’
‘everyone gets richer’ is a lie that needs refuted at every turn. Only people with EXCESS WEALTH benefit from a tax cut - to reduce their 1) income tax tax rate, and/or 2) capital gains tax rate (on investment wealth).
Salaried and hourly employees most likely do not have the income or the 'passive wealth’ from wall street assets in order to benefit from a tax cut. Our corporate capitalism in America demands less government (taxation), in order for the wealth to accumulate in private hands (and not be taxed).
Lets’ not be conned by the conservative notion of less government. Progress is advocated by progressives - and that is a more just distribution of wealth, in order progress is available to all Americans, not just the wealthy.
In fact, the state with the highest average income also has the highest avg tax rate, and also the highest education levels. That is Massachusetts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/team-biden-has-to-show-that-foreign-policy-elites-got-the-message/2020/11/25/0bc13bc4-2f5d-11eb-bae0-50bb17126614_story.html?utm_campaign=wp_todays_headlines&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_headlines
The link amplifies Biden’s desire for a “Maine Street economy” (rather than a Wall St economy) - and a foreign policy based on shared, mutual interests. The esteemed (imho) EJ Dionne writes of the influence of Bernie and especially Elizabeth Warren, however, Biden is able to make the case to ... Main Street. Warren, and especially Bernie, had a problem translating their progressive ideals to middle America. But Biden has a chance to do just this.
We really need those Senate votes from Georgia. And the Democrats also need to find a “sound bite” to hammer home as it seems many Americans only listen in sound bites.
Your outlining of our economic history is timely. President-Elect Biden will be presenting his Economic team this week.
It reminded me that when we bought our first home in 1981, interest rates for a mortgage were over 15% and a house would cost $50-60,000!
Can this pattern of Republican tax cuts leading to huge deficits and Democrat tax increases bringing down debt continue? The vote in Georgia will be a huge factor in, literally, healing the country and saving our economy.
It will be imperative that the Democrats lead the Senate otherwise we’re going to witness Mitch block everything the Biden-Harris administration puts forward.
Come on Georgia! 🍑❤️😊
Your last paragraph hits the nail on its head! We need those two seats in the Senate in order to do the work of the people in a meaningful, effective way.
Too bad, Kari, that those of us from other states can't vote in GA😉
But we can contribute to the two Dem. candidates to help them win.
Oh, yes. Doing that for sure!
Aint that the truth!
Thank you, Heather. This economic/history lesson cannot be repeated loud enough or often enough. Paul Krugman has been pounding the table on this for years, as have others. Grover Norquist needs his own special place in Hell. In a cell next to Gingrich, if I had my way.
As long as the working class keeps seeing their wages cut and their lives stagnating, and keep buying the GOP swill that it's the welfare queens and illegal immigrants that are the problem, I don't know how we square this circle. They are so programmed to resent 'their money going to 'those people'. And yet the people who are truly robbing them blind, the 1% and the pols doing their bidding, are seen as upstanding citizens and straight shooters!
At least 10 years back an old school chum started in about the welfare hammock and how cushy it is, and I asked him if he had ever looked at the Welfare to Work Act, and told him what Clinton had agreed to with 'welfare reform' and he was astounded. He thought there were still women (certain women, of course) who were dropping babies like litters of puppies just to get more welfare money. He had no clue as to how the system really worked - and this was long before the disinformation on Facebook and Twitter, etc.
There needs to be a whole cell block : don’t forget about sending McConnell, Graham and Limbaugh down there too!
Right-o
Yep. The Grasping Out-for-Themselves Pols are not just hypocrites. They are criminal hypocrites. In her book Eloquent Rage, Brittney Cooper discusses the fact that the majority of Black women have a financial cushion of . . . 5 dollars. That's right: 5 bucks. Not even enough to get a combo meal at a fast food joint. This is the "welfare queen" Reagan cynically used as his target in order to sweep up the white men who want to preserve their complete dominance over the economy.
A story that jumped out at me this morning is that the SCOTUS is hearing arguments about the inclusion of undocumented people in the census figures for redistricting in Congress. https://www.npr.org/2020/11/30/939655182/can-trump-change-a-key-census-count-supreme-court-hears-his-claim The only states that are supporting the Trump Administration's push to fascism and the re-enslavement of people of color represent just 52 Congressional seats and includes Alabama. The solicitor general of Alabama, apparently without a hint of irony, claimed that people who were "voluntarily resident" in his state should be counted but no one else. This is the same Alabama that in the 19th century insisted that enslaved people be counted in the census because otherwise they would lose 40% of their congressional representation.
When reality is so surreal it beggars belief you know we are in Trumplandia.
We truly are a nation deeply divided. It’s the evil whites versus the caring whites and all people of color. It kinda makes me laugh when you think of where we all originally came from. I mean if every white person were to submit a DNA sample, they might find out that their ancestors were from Spain or Ethiopia and were Jewish. What would they do then? Go back to “their countries”? Just food for thought...
We all started in Africa.
In our house, we are watching “The Reagans” with a mixture of dread and something like PTSD. As Heather has been demonstrating to us, the Southern Strategy was started in a cynical (and successful, sadly) effort to divide Americans from each other. Forty years later, we are reaping the terrible crop, and the Republicans’ cynicism continues. Georgia matters.
On Oct. 31, Republican Party Chairman Ed Gillespie demanded CBS allow historians to review “The Reagans” before it aired.
https://variety.com/2020/tv/news/showtime-cbs-reagan-ronald-nancy-cbs-1234837850/
Oh for God's sake! It wouldn't do to allow a spot of tarnish on St. Ronnie's memory I suppose.
The naked truth of all this economic history makes me furious but at the same time feeling victimized and impotent to effect change when I know I have been voting against exactly this for my entire adult life. What else can we do?
You speak my thoughts precisely. I’m tired of feeling so utterly impotent and SO frustrated at people’s inability to reason.
Having seen this scenario play out the same way since Reagan....the Rethuglicans create an economic mess, the Democrats clean it up and bear the brunt of the criticism when people and businesses perceive from propaganda that they are going to suffer, and yes some will, but it will be the 1%. The problem is that there is no way yet found to make economics a sexy or interesting topic to most of the population. Before we can even begin to achieve any of the needed changes we have to be rid of the control of the Senate by McConnell and his supporters as well as change leadership at the DNC. The DNC failed to get any type of coherent strategy together as well as any messaging that worked and hence we lost down ballot races. The DNC was too focused on the presidential race and neglected the fact that you have to have support down ballot to make any programs that Biden might want a reality.
Warren Buffett has said many times the rich NEED to pay more taxes. If he could become a spokesman for this idea, with examples of how this would help ordinary Americans and benefit the whole country, it might have an impact.
Quoting Darth Vader, er, I mean Dick Cheney in 2001: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter."
They only matter when Republicans want to use fear of them to harm Democrats. If high indebtedness is bad, then the average American family is composed of bad people.
If we don't get Mitch McConnell out of power, the middle class will be gone. IMO he has done more damage to the average American than anyone in history other than maybe Cheney. He will do exactly the same thing to Biden that he did to Obama. The GOP can not allow the Senate to turn blue because they are funding their re-elections on the back of the dwindling middle-class and if they don't get re-elected they can't get wealthy while in office. Two of the most corrupt politicians in the Senate are Purdue and Loeffler, they got caught doing what they all do, use their position to buy them wealth. The Rep. in my district hasn't done a single thing, not one thing in her position but she needs the good insurance because of issue in her nuclear family...you and I are paying for her sick child and we can't get decent coverage for ours? It's really hard now days for me to contain my rage at these people and the lazy Americans that can't be bothered to do even the slightest research to do their civic duty. They voted in this election but they will go back to sleep again...probably....just like always and leave the considerable responsibility to others. Where do we even start when a pandemic doesn't challenge the GOP to become real human beings and give a shit about their neighbors. I'm at a loss and as depressed as I've ever been at the situation we find ourselves in....