Thank you for reminding of how much FDR there is in Joe Biden’s DNA. As Roosevelt knew what path to take to end the Great Depression, Biden knew how to end what began as Reaganomics and morphed into Trump’s kleptocracy.
With business journalists celebrating America’s economy as the “best in the world,” I blame the mainstream media for not reporting this truth to the public at large. Such reporting could include that monopoly-driven Greedflation is why basic goods are still so expensive
Indeed, Joe Biden did this on purpose, but he doesn’t feel a strong need for credit for doing so. His personal accomplishments toward healing the USA are all the reward he seeks or needs.
I drove to Danbury Federal Correctional Center this morning I tend on protesting Bannon’s release press conference. Shy of 8AM, I found a crown of supporters and some media. But the prison had released him at 3 AM as they wanted to avoid press. As I walked to the place with his mostly support base, a woman rolled down her car window and asked what was happening and I told her that he was being released and she immediately say, “Oh good. Finally.”
I thought way did she automatically feel Bannon was a good guy. Why? He is evil through and through. But I had tho interpret why MAGAs are who they are. And I reflected that they just don’t like that JBiden (SNL) is blamed for allowing millions to rush over hit sand awhile he ignored it for 2 to 3 years. Yes he did sorry for you not to believe this. And I humbly pray that this doesn’t doom Harris candidacy. It’s a nail biter.
For anyone interested, I side word is that Steve Bannon will hold a press conference at 3 PM in Manhattan at the Lowe’s Regency. Someone from News Max told me. Go protest. I couldn’t make it, unfortunately.
If not for that monster's millions of supporters, who are as much to blame for his rise and should be shamed. Supporting the orange a-hole required extreme rationalization.
You are leaving out a very important factor.These millions of ordinary citizen Trump supporters have been courted for the past 40+ years by GOP cynical power grabbers who don't give a damn about anything except lowest taxes and no regulations. They skillfully played on the sense of "being left out" and "not heard" by politicians in "the swamp" that these mostly working class people were feeling. These folks were also soaked in 14 seasons of (FREE to Trump) TV propaganda, pushing him as a savvy businessman who "speaks his mind" and 'says it like it is" as he calls out over and over, "You're fired!"
I've met some of these folks, decent people. One cafe owner in Shamokin, PA, about as red as you can get, told me about a mentally ill customer who was screaming out that he was Satan. She gently spoke with him about being a child of God so he couldn't be Satan. He calmed down and ate the breakfast she provided for him. She's voting for Trump because he's "a good business man who isn't one of those career politicians. He tells it like it is and we need that. And he's not going to give all our money to foreign countries when we need so much right here." She drank the kool-aid and bought the lies, because that's all she's heard. She shouldn't be shamed, she should be wooed, educated, shown. Or at the very least, outnumbered as we work to find every single persuadable voter and tell our story. It's going to take more than one election. And it will be worth it.
But is running a government like running a business? And don't we have important relations with other countries? We trade a lot of things back and forth. And we count on them when military support is needed. They do us important favors. Etc.
Ah Harvey, when one of them said recently, Jesus is wrong, we know that they are arrogant beyond the pale and unreachable. The word shame is not in their vocabulary. I was at lunch with friends yesterday and one of them reported that her female neighbor left her a pamphlet about how Harris will hurt social security and medicare. She said she has never had a sign, but got a Harris sign that this neighbor can see everyday as they are across the street from each other. Everything death star will do is being attributed to Harris. The other person lives in the country and has a neighbor who allow her to ride her ATV and have her dogs along on his property, so she says nothing to this Trumper. She described him as looking for an argument, so a know-it-all.
What does that say about those who follow him? What does it say about the education of our citizenry?
Jenn, in reality, I do not believe that "Trump is the engineer of this train". The ones who are...are terrifying to me. JD Vance is the "excited little baby boy" in tow who was never taught that most people can still figure out the difference between a lie and the truth.....he is just doing as he is told by the "big boys".
He would rather "sell his soul" to be a part of the "gang" than to protect the people of the United States of America!
"Baby Vance" also recognizes that "Big Daddy Trump" is daily loosing pieces of his mind. What an opportunity to "run with the big dogs".
Chris, I’m another outside-the-US voice with the same opinion of Biden, but I’ll go beyond simply honoring his accomplishments. He may not end up ranked as the best POTUS in American history, but I think he’s right up there. That said, I’ll dance for joy on the day America gives Harris a chance to do even better.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a great answer to the question of why people like us are interested in US politics, along with the question in your profile (why should YOUR problems be OUR problems as well?), in his letter from Birmingham City Jail, where he wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” In 2024, it is literally impossible to face that inconvenient truth and then vote Republican.
Trump wants to enslave Middle-class people and below especially people of color to do the labor with no rights like Russia. Where you have one class of people ruling this country like Elon Musk.
In the end, Joe Biden is going to be one of America’s best loved and respected presidents. Running your mouth is no substitute for taking action and getting things done.
Yes. He is a superior human being. Given to excellent foresight. I was furious when he was being denigrated after the DT debate. He had so much on his plate that these critics had no clue about, like hostage negotiations.
Steve, While your critique of major media is valid, I question whether our candidates effectively have driven home the point, while we need to do better for increasingly more people, the signature legislative accomplishments of the Biden-Harris Administration, among other benefits, have resulted in rising real wages and rising productivity, the main ingredient for higher long-term growth and a higher standard of living. I, further, would add our candidates, while repeatedly mentioning “a Trump sales tax,” have not adequately underscored that the tariffs Trump calls for are not paid by the foreign exporter but by the domestic importer who passes the tax to consumers. This lack of clarity allows Trump falsely to assert his tariffs will bring billions of dollars from foreign nations into the U.S. treasury.
My point, were we to have a fluent economic Explainer-in-Chief, I doubt a majority would repeatedly report that Trump would be better for the economy.
The people we hire through the election process are ostensibly our fiduciary agents. It is in everybody's interests for them to let us know what they're up to and why. and how it is working out. On our side, if we snooze, we lose. Democracy does, anyway.
J L, I recall in Bill Clinton’s day he was a superb communicator on matters related to the economy. Because I don’t view either Harris or Walz nearly as proficient on this issue, we owe it to the people to bring in surrogates who, in their explanations, leave no stone unturned, so to speak.
I agree Barbara; it's why Obama called Clinton, The Explainer in Chief. This nation needs someone like Bill Clinton to explain the nitty gritty of economics. I don't know whether Robert Reich has enough energy in him to tackle that job; however, I wouldn't mind seeing him give it a go. In anyone's opinion contributing to this discussion, who else might fill this role?
Professor Robert Reich remains a multi-talented micro & macro economist. Reich is well spoken publicly or from a lectern in front of students & now on Substack. Professor Reich is imbued with common sense always communicating in historical context.
Reminds me of another Professor who lives in Maine.
Well, lets see.......Joseph Stiglitz, Glory liu, Julie Su, Nick Hanaur, David Goldstein, Kyla Scanlon, ..........the list can go on......... I havent had coffee yet .....moving kinda slow here....
Beau, the “not Foghorn Leghorn “ would have been great in syndication. I’ll have to check out Belle. Politics Girl is/was also great. I’ve let them slide in favor of multiple substacks. Maybe an opportunity lost there.
You are spot on, Miselle. I love that Politics Girl, and now Belle of the Fifth Column are doing their video presentations. I am with you on the pace of Leigh, but I think that is just that our brains did not grow up with ultra fast video/sound/music, and it becomes overwhelming.
Heather??? Heather who? 😂😂😂😂 Sorry; just kidding. HCR does a wonderful job explaining pretty much everything. I don't doubt she would be fabulous. Had to get my chuckles in 😅.
Clinton was a superb communicator, but his strategy of jumping on the free trade bandwagon to take the issue away from Bush senior resulted in the acceleration of the creation of the rust belt. On top of that, the war on labor and defined benefit pension plans has created a huge percentage of impoverished elderly. Title IX, by creating more opportunities for women in the economy, had the unintended consequence of reducing the quality of the teaching workforce. So when Americans needed to become a whole lot smarter about the importance of lifetime savings for retirement, our investment in the educational processes that would have given that a chance of happening went the other way.
I like Bill and voted for him twice. And, to be fair, he had a horrible Congress to deal with, but he was definitely not the leader on the economy that we so desperately needed at the time. In a very real sense, the unfocused somewhat irrational anger that so many feel, is what has enabled Trump to harness that. If he could give a coherent speech the way Hitler could, he would be a lot more dangerous than he is; and the lower half of the economy and how that mess was created is the wellspring of the whole MAGA movement.
Dems need to find a way to reign in corporate power and reverse the movement away from defined benefit plans.
Title IX was not not enacted to create more opportunities for women in the workforce. And it did not reduce the quality of teaching of the teaching workforce.
It added sex as a protected class under the Civil Rights Act.
The major impact of Title IX was a considerable increase in the number of female students participating in organized sports within American academic institutions followed by growing interest in initiating and developing programs which would pursue feminist principles in relationship to concerns surrounding issues dealing with girls and women's equality and equity in sport.
So I respectfully disagree. If you look at the chart that the folks at the Visual Capitalist did last week on the ROI of various degrees, it makes it perfectly clear that going into education is a losing proposition that requires saints. That was NOT the case before the cultural change that Title IX signaled that we were going to insist upon going forward. The situation in education is actually far worse than the charts indicate, because the impact on education has not bee uniform across all disciplines. The STEM subjects have been hit much harder than the others, and that shows up in what John Allen Paulos termed "Innumeracy" by society in general in his famous book of the same title. Just talk to some kids these days. Grade inflation is everywhere and competency is way down.
My view is that Rush, racism, Ronnie and Rupert are the “wellspring of the whole MAGA movement. Me and my seven sibs were born poor and had to work hard during this period, but it was the convenient pushing of scapegoats that hit the amygdala of the men in my orbit. May not have been just my crowd. Granted, so many suffered a loss of livelihood, which precipitated so many changes, but having hate geared to scapegoats caused way more problems when too many thought it was a solution.
Craig, Your critique of Clinton’s economic policies, indeed, is merited. The point, however, is to identify comparably abled communicators to fill in on current economic matters where Harris and Walz fall short. While, as part of this thread, I mentioned Biden’s chief economic advisor Jared Bernstein, another commenter Gregg provided a more comprehensive list I plan to include in a letter to the Harris campaign I will deploy sometime today.
I agree. Adding, I think that part of the issue is a failure to clearly articulate some things that need to be done. The whole behavioral theory work that has been done around nudges and default choices needs to be applied to lifetime wealth creation. The law can help with that. We are spending huge amounts of our GDP on advertising and improving its effectiveness. Well, that drains wealth away from the susceptible. I'm not suggesting that we curtail advertising legally, but we do need to create structures that offset it. Defined benefit plans are a fantastic way of doing that. They have a proven track record as effective builders of the middle class.
I actually think both Kamala and Tim are pretty good communicators. What they lack is a coherent economic message that resonates.
I am missing some valuable point here? MAGA understand something? What ,specifically , plus detail please. All I see is corporate stranglehold while’ promised growth ‘ widening the gap between …more rich people …cleverly disguised to falsely appease the disenfranchised …with the same lies. Harris quite succinctly addresses that, no?
I can't agree that it is a "stellar" explanation as it comes across as blaming women for the downfall in education when it is a far more complex issue than Title IX giving gender as a protected class. He does bring up some good points.
Your point that it would take three years and the will to learn for MAGA to understand is grossly underestimated, in both the will to learn and the time frame for understanding.
Craig, I had to read your third line several times in order to get (I think) what you were saying; that by giving women more economic opportunity in other fields, the quality of teachers suffered as an unintended consequence. It wasn't the legislation that did it, it was more the factors at play that you describe as the acceleration of the rust belt (moving US manufacturing jobs overseas for pennies on the dollar) and the war on labor and defined benefit pension plans.
You then blame the lack of women in the teaching profession, with your statement "when Americans needed to become a whole lot smarter about the importance of lifetime savings for retirement, our investment in the educational processes that would have given that a chance of happening went the other way." Why not blame the lack of teacher pay and benefits in general instead?
Craig, maybe I am misreading your comments. Are you saying that hiring opportunities for more women to teach resulted in lower teaching quality? I hope not. But if you are, do you have any data to confirm that or is it purely your opinion?
"Title IX, by creating more opportunities for women in the economy, had the unintended consequence of reducing the quality of the teaching workforce. " You may not understand what you are talking about here.
Perhaps, but there is a rock solid reality that 50 years ago the odds were stacked such that most (not all) highly capable women who wanted a professional career went into teaching. They were underpaid and under appreciated. The women's movement changed that landscape dramatically, leaving teachers still underpaid, but gutting their ranks of the many thousands of highly capable women who would have otherwise gone in that direction.
In my career at Boeing I saw many talented women engineers and assembly workers who could not have gotten those kinds of jobs in the 1950s and 60s. Those doors were closed, so they went elsewhere, and often that meant teaching. There was and still is a lot of gender discrimination in the workplace, but it is mostly on the job now and not nearly as much as it once was at the employment office.
I will ask …personally…how many here feel threatened if Vance gets in power , ahem ..oh perhaps it’s ..Trump gets more power? That the carry through of deporting/concentration encampments isn’t planned for …us….soon? And Specifically the eloquent writers? Not sure I haven’t become ‘fear mongered’ obviously.
People keep referring to tfg as Hitler. Somewhat warranted. But vance...he's the one to NEVER turn your back to. If they get into the White House, vance will be there for the next 40 years, and the horrors will fill history books for centuries.
I will close down my ‘shop/fb’ I think they call that ‘going dark’ but am known and there’s a complex in the area ( Oath Keeprs …) call themselves 2nd AMMENDMENT CLUB. Well armed . They’ve not been bothersome, in fact some say who know them ‘ they’re nice guys’ don’t know who the women are or if I met one on the street. Low profile…so far. My brother was concerned for me. Most know I’m ’a prepper’..we’re farmers. My kids think I’m too paranoid. 🤞
Barbara, economics can not be explained in sound bites. The vectors of cause and effect cause the uneducated eyes to glaze over. The problem with avoiding a recession/depression is that the simple minded only understand one effect, “inflation” and one cause, “printing money”. Nothing else matters. None of the benefits of government spending matters. People only understand “Biden caused inflation by spending money. I can’t afford eggs, its Biden’s fault”
Trying to counter that in a 30 second ad is fruitless. Trying to do it in a campaign speech runs the gamet of vectors that people aren’t educationally equipped to comprehend
Econ 101 takes a full semester to begin the process. Most people aren’t interested in business finance
Trumpers seize on what pushes their button. Inflation bad. Biden Bad
Saying "private industry has invested billions in US manufacturing jobs because of Biden's legislation" is not hard to understand, but it needs to be said.
If I said that to my MAGA neighbor his response would be “Huh? Ain’t helping me.” These are not big picture people, and with their loyalty to Fox, OAN etc. the message doesn’t even arrive.
3. The vast majority of the American public isn't capable of complex thinking.
4. Therefore simplistic slogans and sound bites work best with the American public.
This friends is the same recipe used for the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. It will work here too. And quite honestly I am not sure there is any real solution. The problem is essentially intractable.
"Economics is complex"... that can equally be said of every specialist sector or scientific / technical field. You're right, Jon, is takes an effort even to absorb a little of popularizations of these fields. Things become incendiary when emotion is adrenalized by ambitious politicians. Then, there are the outright lies, and then, there is RvW and all that represents, which is not a technical complexity at all, but part of a religious movement.
Dave, In my view, if just the few points I noted in my original comment were made highly accessible, to which I would add repeatedly showing how corporate profits account for nearly half the increased prices people are paying, I believe minds would change.
Barbara, I wish you were right but I fear you are missing the fact that most people do not want to bother with that level of understanding if indeed they are even capable of it.
Barbara, my experience that people equate the price of gas entirely upon one pipeline that didn’t get built. Supply was CUT so its all Biden’s fault. No amount of explanation regarding global supply, refinery capacity, or the fact that US oil production is at an all time high can rebut that one pipeline was not built or that corporate oil profits are at an all time high. They’re not (edit) interested when the explanation is counter to their belief system
Barbara Jo, Robert Reich is really really good at simplifying - and even drawing - economic policy. He has been making short educational videos on economic issues and measuring the impact on viewers. If only he could partner with marketing to get these videos in front of the target audiences that need to know….
Barbara, et al, I've had trouble figuring out where to insert my comment in response to yours and several others, so I'll just put it here. All seem to be ignoring the major factor that is human nature. In my experience at least, the average person is far more willing to accept negative information without question than positive information.
A simple example: When someone shares gossip that casts another in a negative light, the rumor spreads like wildfire. When a positive story about someone is shared, it usually goes nowhere.
The same applies to stories about the economy, immigrants, and all the other issues that matter to Americans. This makes the job much easier for Republican operatives.
I don't have a solution. I just see the problem.
I do believe a better-educated public is the foundation to a better society. But I wonder if, thanks to Republican demolition of our public education system, we are too far gone to recover.
Dale, thanks for sharing this very interesting point of view. There’s so much truth to it, and yet I haven’t heard it expressed in any posts, or more importantly, in any discussions/conversations. Thanks.
People who choose to be ignorant are lazy. If they can make time for gatherings and events with their families then they can make the time to find out why cost of living has gone up. They have computers and cell phones to do their research with. They just don't give a damn and they take this country for granted. It's a shame and pathetic to blame President Biden who has done a phenomenal job in governing this country.
Well said, Dave and I agree. My 86 y.o. mother only understands that it costs her $50 to take a taxi to the doctor, one way and she can't afford that. Since Biden is currently the President he is the one she blames.
That’s what my husband says to his mother when she complains about what the government is doing (mostly here in Texas) - “Well, Mom, who did you vote for? Don’t you think they are some of the cause of XYZ that you’re complaining about?” His mom was an early adopter of the “Tea Party” here - famously carrying a sign at a local protest that said “Congress - Read What You Sign!” He was too late to explain to her that Congress doesn’t sign legislation…
Sadly, I think the Democrats have not been good messengers for several administrations -- probably because they like to stick to the facts (generally) and not lie or embellish like the other party does. Also - it seems a message of darkness and fear from the GOP takes hold faster than a message of positive news.
What we lack is education. The system has been so skewed to ‘common core” that is is messing up the ability of real teachers to teach things like, critical thinking and ethics.Kids these days dont need “deep knowledge” because now they have the digital age, Alexa, Siri, and AI.
As a former public school teacher and the daughter of one, the Republicans have spent years cutting public education. In my home state of NC, the court ruled the legislature was not adequately funding education according to state constitutional standards. Of course, then after inadequately funding public schools, the Republicans give state money to private schools and charter schools so parents have a choice not to send their kids to the terrible public schools that the Republicans won’t adequately fund. Then they cut teacher pay and cut funds to schools of education and say teacher education is deficient. Oh, did I mention the “education” lottery? A scam for sure which doesn’t add additional funds for schools as legislators cut the general education budget by whatever amount the lottery kicks in.
JennSH: BOOM! Thanks for that succinct summary of the GOP strategy to wreck everything funded by public dollars (starting with public education). The plan: privatize everything so it can turn a profit.
@lauriemcf, I can’t accept that good messaging entails lying or embellishing. In my view, it entails deep knowledge of the matter combined with an ability to connect with voters and what most matters in their lives.
I did not take @lauriemcf to advocate lying. The literal meaning of embellishing is 'making beautiful', which could certainly apply to pointing out to the masses that Bidenomics is in fact beautiful and in fact has done beautiful things (like billions in private investment for manufacturing jobs in the US.) The problem, as others have noted, is that those who most need that message will not hear it, because they are tuned to Fox and Sinclair and worse.
John, Thank you for your comment that, indeed, is valid. I only would note plenty of “soft” Republicans and right-leaning Independents likely would tune in and be receptive to substantive messaging that extends or even restructures some of their thinking.
And therein lies one of the major problems we face... good messaging is complex requiring as you put it "deep knowledge" which then requires deep understanding, two traits which the vast majority of the American public as well as its leaders LACK in abundance.
I hope we are not doomed but a shallow analysis might lead to the conclusion that we are.
"SHALLOW!" This word pops into my mind whenever I get depressed about our national conversation. Waay back, in the nineteenth century, crowds would gather outdoors to hear famous orators debate, for hours.
But today? anything that takes more than a few seconds to say, bores us. It's all soundbites now. Commercialism has trained us this way, because that makes us better "consumers".
I do not concede, but I accept what I think is the inevitable conclusion of the upcoming election and plan to consider and take action on remedies that may be necessary to reverse the result. There it's only one week before the election and my current concern is to plan for what I think is the most likely outcome.
lauriemcf, you’re right about fear outweighing joy in the effect of messages. We need more Pete Buttigiegs to go on Fox News to inform people without preaching to them.
Democrats have a tendency not to be united. That has been one of their down falls for years. Therefore it makes it difficult for them to reach out because their to busy fighting amongst themselves. Republicans during the years have always been united. No matter if their leaders have been corrupted.
Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve wondered why T’s declarations about tariffs didn’t ring true, but I haven’t had the background to know where to look to get the answers.
Carol, Thank you for writing. I imagine your experience is representative of a broad swath of the population. If it weren’t, Trump wouldn’t get by repeatedly saying he’s calling for tariffs not a sales tax.
When i heard about Trump's assertions that exporting nations would pay the bill, I knew it was pure nonsense, the very opposite of the real effect. Importers would pay for the tariffs, and pass that along as price increases. Would they stimulate American production? Likely, of course, with higher prices, ie inflation for the average American consumer. Globalization from the 70s on was a broad policy movement to reduce or remove tariff protection which allowed lower wage esp Asian economies to import into the US etc and undermine whole industries (including unions). Harris has kept the message very simple: a "sales tax". Economists have inveighed against Trump's plan. Trump's followers have been taught only to trust Him. Sorry if i got carried away!
I don't know...I was having an on line conversation with a maga who was arguing the felon rapist was better for the economy...I tried explaining how much better we are now but facts don't impress these people - they are totally brainwashed and just go to calling me names cause they don't care about reality, it's all just about their feelings and perceptions...
I completely agree that we (Democrats and Independents who believe the government has a role in leveling the playing field, protecting the public, etc.) are not explaining clearly enough what the Oligarchs accomplish when they levy tariffs and monopolize businesses.
I would elaborate that the monopolization does more than raise the price of cable and internet, meat and poultry and any number of other consumer products. Much more.
The likes of Google and Meta have been allowed to gobble up competitive tech companies that were fledgling competitors. This has consolidated power into the hands of a few "Tech Bros". They have become the new TV channels, the new newspapers. That means the fascists have an easy time reaching millions of people with a few keystrokes and AI generated pictures.
There is a lot of whining about the Main Stream Media and how it has failed to stand up to the fascists - Trump and others. And it is truly disgusting the LA Times and the WaPo have failed to defend democracy. But what is happening on line dwarfs the influence of legacy newspapers and old fashioned TV channels and networks.
America is being undermined on it's phones. We are in the "Gilded Age" of social media influencers who are not doing THEIR jobs of policing the internet and it's platforms. The idea that two multi billionaires like Zuckerberg and Musk can control the national dialog as much as they do is astounding to me.
I'm not so worried about the MSM as I am about the SM - where most people live now. It is a world that will decide the election. It is where that information you and I treasure should be dominating as the truth. But it is buried in AI generated propaganda from the fascists and the Russians.
I don't even think it has anything to do with Russians or even fascists. It has as much if not more to do with a dumbing down of the public, so much that they don't even care to try to understand if it requires more brain cells than a video game. And I do not believe there is any good solution as the best solution requires thought, something most Americans simply no longer have the patience for.
Interesting, i remember a critique called So Little for the Mind, written in the mid-50s, saying how little public education promoted "critical thinking" to a broadly rote-taught population. This isn't new.
While it is entertains, Social Media is likely degrading our national intellect. But I am worried about another, bigger threat: AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI has some of the attributes of human intelligence, but iAI utterly lacks a moral dimension. That lack makes it psychopathic.
True, Bill. I have a nephew with whom I engage from time to time, and his defense of whatever position he’s taken is generally something from Instagram. With older folks it’s YouTube.
Gail, our nephew is living with us for a time while his housing situation is in flux. His primary source of information is YouTube. A number of our conversations begin with "there's this person I follow on YouTube" and fortunately what follows is usually informed and reasoned discussion. (He's 35). My wife (62) gets a lot of "how to" information on YouTube ranging from building with Lego (she's an AFOL), to how to build hexagonal cedar planting beds, and how to make sousaphone bell covers (she made the one in my photograph). At 66, and as an auditory processor, watching YouTube videos isn't my best medium for learning. I got a huge "way to go" when I learned how to trim a beef brisket prior to smoking it from a YouTube video.
Lol, I learned how to replace the belt on my neighbor’s rototiller (the MAGA one) and how to take the dishwasher apart to clean out the stuff beyond the filter. Score!
Barbara - I think the reason why the success of the economy is not as front and center as you and others suggest is that the average American is not feeling it that much and don't want to be told that they too will benefit if they can just be a bit more patient. Oh they might be employed, and their wages have gone up some, but they feel perhaps rightly that they have not been able to catch up with the runaway inflation that we had for a time. And generally prices have not dropped - they almost never do. I have heard people say they are unaware the economy is doing well - react with surprise as if to say "Really? Not from my standpoint." And we have a lying corrupt candidate who claims he can fix it all immediately. We have a reality in this country - the average American voter is low information. It has always been that way, but perhaps with no greater consequences than now. And being low information, they are apt to do the wrong thing at the ballot box. They will know just enough to be dangerous so to speak. Unfortunately they will tend toward the goals of the unscrupulous who want to take advantage of that ignorance. That is as old as politics itself. But look where it has gotten us. Today, the low information voter in league with the unscrupulous wealthy and the misguided hyper-religous Christians are within a whisker of throwing it all away and instead nazifying our nation.
I tend to low-key disagree with some of your assessment. While I, personally, really relish detailed explanations, they fly like a lead balloon in campaign messaging. The undecided voters that they're trying to speak to largely do not have the time and patience for explainers. That "Trump sales tax" line is actually a pretty great way to put the concept in the sharpest packaging possible and aim it like a dart at the opposition balloon.
For those of us who do like explainers, the material is out there and we actually do tend to find it. And I know so well the feeling of learning really great things about our administration and thinking, "why can't we broadcast this to EVERY HOME IN AMERICA??" I'd love to see the (knock on wood) Harris administration get creative with their off-season messaging. Daily video pod press releases, maybe? But for the next week: all campaign, no explain.
GOOD point made here about the tariffs. I've often wondered why this isn't spelt out more clearly.
However, they ACT as a tax, because they're imposed by the government. The importer acts at the behest of the government; he doesn't raise his prices voluntarily. The consumer, however, picks up the bill.
Thank you, Barbara! Well said. This has been one of my contentions also for a long time. Common people like me need to have the dots connected for us better, especially when it comes to economics, which I don't understand very well. The Biden policies are the new New Deal. Resisters in our government have the history lesson clearly spelled out and proven to work, but they are still struggling to achieve that age-old agenda,, namely, control by the wealthy. Gore Vidal wrote of many politicians that they don't want a real democracy. They are in politics precisely to get wealthy and make enough money so they don't have to live among us common people.
Barbara, on one hand, I agree completely; the Democrats need someone who can deliver the messages in a way that articulates, clearly, the policies and their outcomes. My caveat to that is there are some in MAGAtville that will NEVER BELIEVE, EVER EVER EVER anything that could be said to them.
Sensational articles sell. Lead stories and headlines are always about Don Olds latest stunt followed by, oh, yeah, Biden and/or Harris did this great but less exciting thing.
In 2016 journalists constantly asked, What about the emails, never allowing Clinton to present herself as the preferred candidate. This year it’s, we don’t know her, what are her economic plans, how will she differ from Biden. Biden has done an amazing job. Building on that is what we need.
I agree that it is in Biden's DNA. An advantage of Biden's age is that he has been around long enough to remember what Roosevelt's programs did for our country, and what the US is like before Reagan. I remember too, although as a child. Reagan is the one that made college suddenly so expensive, and instead of being paid for by grants he shifted everyone to loans which made a huge difference to our nation since then.
As someone who is reading Project 2025 in a Political Book club, I see that they are aware of what Roosevelt has done as well, because his programs are on the block as much as Biden's and Obama's.
Yes, I voted for Biden because has the knowledge, experience and wisdom to get us out of the mess Trump left. He's done a wonderful job and Ive put him on my shortlist of favorite Presidents
I think you are wrong about "Biden's age". Biden is 81, born in 1942. He was barely 3 years old when Roosevelt died. How could he have any more direct awareness of FDRs programs and their effectiveness than most older adults today. My mother is 98 and she was just a young girl when Roosevelt's programs were taking effect. As for Reagan, he didn't really CHANGE the grants program for college, it stayed pretty much the same through his terms in office. What changed was the increase in loan programs after the Vietnnm war to help more people get into college which led a large number of people going to college into debt. But that wasn't just Reagan fault, the Democrats supported it just as much, maybe more. The college loan programs grew more dramatically under Clinton.
That crossed my mind, but i didn't think it was worth the effort to be so pedantic. I remember, as a younger person hearing over and over by my olders how bad the Great Recession was, etc.
My mom is 87 and believe me, our family (parents, grandparents, great grandparents) was steeped not only in Depression knowledge but lived as though it would happen again. Our family lived in Oklahoma so we had a double whammy of the Depression and Dust Bowl. Many great uncles and aunts moved to California. My grandparents couldn't deal with CA and came back to OK where my grandfather worked for the WPA. Those that lived through those times taught their children about scarcity and they, in turn, taught their children. I can see in myself habits that stem from my mother and grandmother and their living not only through the Depression but also through WW2 and rationing.
Jon, the cost of college grew as government spending on social programs were deliberately shrunk. The inceased loan programs became necessary for people to afford a college education, just as the need for a college degree was growing.
Not to take anything away from FDR, but Joe has also had to deal with several strongmen trying to build or rebuild their empires through bloody invasions.
Russia is seriously weaker that they were in February, 2022 and Netanyahu is likely hanging on by a thread. Putin dares not show his face in public as their are assassins everywhere.
Bob Woodward's book, "War" outlines many of the amazing things the Biden team has accomplished including preventing Putin from using nukes by negotiating with the Chinese and others to stop Putin.
When my mom was on hospice, after a night of tossing and turning--borrowing from the Eagles --"every morning, I wake up and worry, what's gonna happen today?"
Good Lord MAGA has me so so so tired.
I needed something to make me smile. Maybe you guys do, too. I went back to Doonesbury's cartoon this weekend. Worthy of a second (and third, and so on) look.
Couldn’t agree more. I usually go to a local pet food store for Fancy Feast cat food. At store A, it’s 90 cents…. at Stop and Shop…. it’s.99 cents…. Why!!!! And people can’t afford to have their pets. It’s too expensive. And I don’t blame Biden at all, it’s greed!!! Okay thank you for letting me rant. LFG!💙💙💙🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Greed. For me, it is pet expense and car repairs. For others too, I have read. Car repairs are “whatever the traffic can bear.” Vet bill, for having cat put down last year - $640. The first three cats I had who had reached the end, vets gave a shot and charged nothing. I rant with you.
I have a grand nephew who has worked his arse off to open his Vet Clinic in NC. I begrudge no one success, but some places have figured out that vulnerable people are easy to scam. I would love to have that option. And that would be reasonable. Seems that animals often get the short end of the stick since there are no happy “endings.” Hug your pets today.
Always, I have decided that cats suffer from emotional issues as much as humans. They just can’t talk. My one who is left won’t eat canned salmon or any canned food after my Rosie died. Had to buy Meow Mix. She needs a therapist. I may too.
Is Stop and Shop a convenience store? They all have higher markups, maybe that's the price of "convenience"... ie volume relative to overhead. And, are you saying Store A is "less greedy" that S&S?
Stop and Shop is a major grocery store in the Notheast—maybe beyond that, I don’t know. Anyway, they, like so many others, have greatly increased prices. I can see that even though only shopping for 2 these days. Are those down the line getting more or is it just the big suppliers? I can see that things are coming down a bit, but profits seem to be up a lot.
Thanks Susan. I can find slightly lower prices from chain to chain, eg Costco / Walmart vs the national chains in Canada, or in discounting stores. Short answer is shop the lowest price, shop the sales - on that last item, that's closer to the real price, since consumers flock to them, all built into the chains' basic profit calculations. All of them find steady customers
No, Steve, I believe Roosevelt did NOT know what path to take initially, but as a former politician and governor of New York State, he DID know the history of an economic boom a century earlier generated by his predecessor Dewitt Clinton's gamble on behalf of early commercial interests by embarking on the first, and for many decades, the largest public works project in the new United States, the Erie Canal. While derisively called "Clinton's Ditch" when first proposed in 1807, building (actually digging) began in earnest in 1817 when Clinton received approval from the legislature for $7 million for construction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal). The canal was financed by public bonds, was completed in 1825 ahead of schedule and the business generated by this extraordinary public work paid off the bonds well before they came due. The breadth and amount of subsequent development was virtually unprecedented and laid the groundwork for future public investments in the new country's infrastructure.
Hey, John. Just fyi… It’s not polite to start a comment by saying “No” (as in No, you’re wrong). Try “Well, in my opinion …” next time. This way, you don’t come off as believing you’re a know-it-all who doesn’t think other people’s opinions matter. Just trying to keep you from being blocked in the future by people more easily offended than I am. Have a nice day!
Steve & Susan, I certainly intended no "reprimand" but more historical background which didn't align with what Steve presented as a simple fact: "Roosevelt knew what path to take to end the Great Depression." While I think a much better case can be made for Biden knowing how to end Reaganomic kleptocracy, given the history of the time (and this IS primarily historically framed newsletter), it is my opinion that much less was recognized about the long term economic effects, namely the concentration of wealth, of what later came to be known as "supply-side economics" back then. I believe FDR did not know what to to do but did recognize that something different from Hoover's policies had to be tried and he found an enormously bright, well-educated woman to help him drive a recovery from the "Great Depression" in the person of Frances Perkins, the first woman to ever serve on a presidential cabinet. On March 25, 1911, Perkins witnessed the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory where 146 garment workers—mostly young women—lost their lives. (Management had locked the factory doors to prevent the workers from wasting the company's time with smoking or bathroom breaks.) It was, she later said, the day the New Deal was born.
In the wake of the fire, she was appointed to head New York’s Committee on Safety and principal investigator of a legislative commission that resulted in the most comprehensive state laws on workplace health and safety to date. Governor Al Smith appointed her to the state’s Industrial Commission in 1919 and later named her its chair.
Perkins joined FDR’s cabinet when he served as governor of New York from 1929 to 1933. Before appointing her, the two spent a day at the Roosevelt estate at Hyde Park. As FDR drove them around the property, she told him that if she accepted the position she would promote a progressive policy agenda that would limit the hours women worked, restrict child labor, develop a better workman’s compensation system, and broaden the state’s labor laws to more industries. He agreed and promised to help her. She soon became the most prominent state labor official in the nation, responding to the deepening economic depression and, at the same time, advancing her boss’s visibility. <https://livingnewdeal.org/frances-perkins-woman-behind-new-deal/ >
In short, the focus on protecting workers, on legislating and supporting workers, for the people rather than for business owners was what later proved to an effective economic stimulus leading to recovery from the Great Depression.
Trump, "People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you." He tells them everying is terrible. They are paying more for food and shelter and they know it is Biden's fault becaue they are told. They believe that the wars in Gaza and Ukraine would not happen if tRump were president. They think that it is lies that tRump had praise for Hitler and he wanted generals like Hitler had. tRump does not Hitler's generals tried to assinate him.
Well, then, Greedflation went global as supply chains were severely disrupted by the Covid shutdown with millions thrown out of work, not just American corporations. And, remember, if inflation has been a struggle, it has indeed come down to within the typical 2% overall range. Food inflation was among the worse hit sectors, but its rate has also declined. I see Trump has made a promise to "bring down" inflation, but in fact it has already been largely curtailed. During the shutdowns both corporations and small business suffered. Airlines, for example, were shattered, including bankruptcy. Just putting everything down to "Greedflation" is likely a bit of an oversimplification.
Steve, I still try to explain to my MAGAt friends who post the "Gas was 1.80 and the interest rate was 1.25 in 2000. Tell me again how I am better off" that greedflation is a thing, fuel companies raked in record profits and that the Fed acted by raising interest rates to prevent a recession. I am met with their usual, well thought out and articulated "Nu-uh. It's Harris's fault".
Very well said Steve. So few talk about the truth behind people feeling high price as economy problems when the reality is it is Greedflation that is the cause of high prices. Thanks to Reganomics and the removal of merger rules, and the thought that money moving upwards would trickle down to the people. Well trickle it has to drip, drip, drip. I thank Biden for all he has done to bring this country to the envy of the world economically. However, so many have drunk the juice it will be a tough road to get them to see the light. For the rest of us, if you have not already voted, the do so and make it BLUE up and down that ticket.
Thank you. I watched Kamala Harris tonight and heard her say she would put controls on food prices (something like that). This is what we need… and what Biden (for whatever reason) didn’t do. I hope MAGA heard that she’s going to do this… although they’d probably say she’s lying. That’s how programmed they are not to trust Democrats.
Thank You Dr. Richardson. Your history lessons have so many layers woven into them they have quite an impact. Thank You for your tremendous work on Letters from an American. Maintaining Letters while keeping your other professional commitments, authoring books and the following grueling book tours, interviewing President Biden and the many forums you participate in and your podcast. And I haven't even covered everything. Whew!
This is what should have happened now with Biden, who redressed a terrible situation following the pandemic, set the economy on a good path and passed bills to benefit ordinary, hard working Americans. The result is a thriving economy, low unemployment, better healthcare for many, etc.
Instead, a considerable amount of people whine about the price of eggs and are ready to vote an incompetent, hateful and malignant clown who protects only the super rich while despising the middle class, and has mounted a coup after he lost the 2020 election. This is what poor media coverage, manipulation and brainwashing have done to people, who can’t see past their own nose and vote against their own interests.
We can only hope that the nazi rally was a bridge too far and some of those hypnotized people suddenly woke up.
Midnight, I also hope the very same. However, in too many places, where I'm based in VA., at least, many in our population don't do the leg work necessary to fully understand the issues at hand. There are so many who are facile and topical in what they say, hear, and decide which only puts them on a road to lazy discussions and reasoning. The problem with much of the American public is that we have turned into visual learners where too many of us simply don't read. Because visual skills are for the most part topical, too many have lost the intellectual depth in understanding what they see. This is where the current republican party takes advantage of the population. It is in their best interest to home in on such limitations as it increases the chances for their success at the public's interest. Kamala Harris is right: the public is exhausted by Trump's divisiveness. However, it's an exhaustion that no one can really afford.
So, he has said; and that's a big problem for the rest of us who actually *think* through a campaign rather than *react* through it. I learned well from my dear mother back in the '60's when Kennedy was running against Nixon. She would often tell me that republicans are too often "reactionary" while democrats (and especially Kennedy at that time) were the intellectuals.
I disagree. Let us praise Biden who had major economic accomplishments and turned the tide, nay the destructive tsunami, of neoliberal public policy (that existed in both political parties). While our national macro-economic figures look great, one has to understand they do not capture the stress and impoverishment of people, families, and government represented by our nation's monstrous wealth inequality. It is said that 3 Americans have more wealth than the least wealthy (?) 50% of the population. Not understanding that the price of basic necessities - eggs and other foods, rent, gas, child care, not to mention ridiculous out of pocket medical care expenses (even when insured) - have stressed, angered and upset many, many Americans is not to understand where MAGA Trumps gets its energy.
Absolutely! There are vast numbers of Americans who, correctly, see the political, judicial, economic, and education systems stacked against them. They may not be deeply or fully informed on some issues, but they are daily beaten down. They are looking for someone to blame. Immigrants, both legal and illegal) are an easy target. Many Trump backers are just looking for hope. A flimflam artist with no moral core and an enormous, insatiable ego has stepped in to be their Messiah. He says the things they want to hear and promises them prosperity, happiness, and vengeance on those who have, in their view, caused them pain. We miss the point by dismissing Trump supporters as foolish or stupid. Though his proposed policies will, in fact, hurt middle-class, working-class and poor people, it doesn’t matter to those who view the current systems as broken. They just want to blow them up, much like FDR’s legion of followers wanted to end failed Republican policies. Throw in the super-wealthy, the religious hypocrites, the blatantly racists, homophobes, and misogynists and the MAGA crowd is a pretty good representation of America as a whole.
I didn’t mean to imply YOU said they are stupid. But I do hear that a lot from people who are dismissive of MAGA folks. People who are struggling to pay rent, buy food, fill up their gas tanks, pay off school debt or medical bills, afford childcare or elder care, etc., are wondering what hit them. They “played by the rules” but are drowning.
The only way these people can improve their condition is not voting for a corrupt, lying malignant racist who will only care for billionaires and rich and entitled people. It’s up to them.
"Bezos tells corporate journalists indisputable facts they refuse to acknowledge: The country hates and distrusts them.
" Like virtually all corporate media outlets, the Washington Post has no “credibility” to squander. The opposite is true: the mass media is now held in the lowest esteem of any major American institution, somehow even lower than Congress. And the major reason why is that the public perceives – accurately – that large media outlets do not try to tell the truth, but instead lie on purpose to advance their political, ideological, and partisan preferences."
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Most citizens despise the media even more than Congress? Well, not so surprising when the groups contending for winner and runner-up for that dubious award happen to be those working harder to make us fear, disrespect, and deprecate every neighbor, gender, political party, religion, or skin color that isn't ours.
Congratulations to the WaPO subscribers who cancelled. Overdue.
Now, invest some of that savings in some decent investigative news sources. A few contenders are on Substack.
The end result of a long standing republican campaign, to misinform the public, so that they may win votes by appealing to voters egos and not their intellect. So much easier and more effective! This is the only way they can win elections. Their policies clearly don’t serve the needs of their voters.
One of my sons and his wife are saving enough to buy a new car now that their youngest has gone to kindergarten. It’s a huge burden for young people! Although, of course, this grandmother could have gone from household to household, taking care of all the offspring in turn!
The stress of my bros is mainly brought on by their listening to crap, in their political churches, the fire station, etc. they are not poor, having worked their arses off, but do depend on some SS and Medicare. Shocker, without Medicare, they will really feel stress. Duh.
If one shops the perimeter of the supermarket, prices have not increased dramatically. Eggs today are $2:74/ doz. Processed and ultra processed foods have increased. Likewise if you adjust gas prices for inflation, they are at 1958 levels
Going back years ago, I had a coworker who constantly complained about prices. Once, as I scanned the weekly food ads from the morning paper, and she complained (again) I mentioned how I managed to cut my costs. One way was to follow ads cycles, and when possible, buy sale items in bulk. She looked at me like I was nuts and said "who can afford to do THAT!?" That was the easiest of my solutions. I limited my shopping to two competing groceries, and mentioned how I compared prices, clipped coupons (paper coupons were much more prevalent then) used shopping rewards, purchased some store brands, etc. Her answer "that's too much work!"
Now I am retired, and grocery shopping HAS become much more work. I am frustrated by having to buy a certain number of items to get a lower price (ie; one bag of chips is $5.99, but 4 is $10) prices that are only valid on certain days, prices that are only valid using ordering on line, prices that are valid only using combinations of certain items, etc, etc. And this is no joke: I would estimate that about a third of my shopping receipts have errors on them. It's difficult to catch them when you have a large order in store, and so frustrating to go back and have them correct them after checking at home. If it's less than a dollar total, I generally don't. Check your receipts carefully.
True story, just last week. I clipped my online coupons that reduced canned soup from $3.79 to 99 cents each, IF I purchased exactly 5. Which I did. I came in just to pick up a few items and did self checkout. It rang up at the full price. I took the receipt to the service desk, where the snarly employee demanded to see my phone to ascertain I had clipped the coupon. (I had) She then blamed me for clipping the coupon on the website online via computer. "You NEED to use the app! It messes up on the computer!" I have found their closest competitor to have a smooth, online pick up process, better "rewards" (which I use to lower my fuel costs up to $2/gal off) easier navigated website, and allows me to redeem any paper coupons at the pick up . They still have many of the above price point conditions, which I hate., but guess who gets the bulk of my dollars?
You can save quite a bit of money if you work at it. I'm sure that plenty of shoppers either honestly don't have the time, but others (my sister) prefer to watch Golden Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars.
Certain produce (on the perimeter) like fruit has gone up a lot. I partly overcome this by sticking with seasonal fruits. Unlike most people, I am lucky that can grow fruit in my yard.
Here in lies the real issue. Economic inequality. A government that shows all the benefits to the wealthy and chastizes the poor for expecting more. Biden made a good start. If Harris wins and Democrats have a majority in the House and Senate, we'll see if she and legislators have the courage to fix this. I think the fix can be in....it just may take a political will that the people have to push. Our work will not be done after November 5.
I believe Midnight's point really revolved around the inadequacy of those who need to see, but can't, the foundation of why they are in such a position, and then chronically complain about such things as the price of eggs, gas, etc. On that thought, I'm with Midnight, as he correctly states how much they whine about such costs. For those who are in such poverty and lower middle-class situations, don't think that I am immune to their suffering. When my mother, born in Brooklyn NY, came back to N.Y. from living in Syria with what amounted to be a failed marriage and two children to take care of, I can remember well the times she had to cobble $10 together in order to go shopping for food. However, in spite of the stresses of life, she was a reader and student of the political situation of that time. All she had was a performance in music degree that she earned form David Manis School of Music during her student years in New York. I understand the points made here. However, stressed these folks may be (and I'm sure they are), too many don't have the wherewithal to understand that studying the current situation is, *in fact*, not only in their interest, but also in the quality of life needed to get ahead. I'm sure there are many reasons for their station in life: born in poverty, inadequate education, depressed area in which they live, chemical explosions such as happened in Palestine Ohio, etc. etc. etc. the list can go on forever. No doubt, these folks need help and it's been the left of center candidates who have reached out to them and tried to help them out through policy changes which have been historically unfavored by the right of center. Unfortunately, too many have been steeped in the republican line of thinking and actually said to in a *punitive* manner: such as "go get a job", or "you're responsible for yourself", or (and this one is my favorite) "you've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps." All of those platitudes are not necessarily bad; however, democrats have a clear history of helping them "find a job" or teaching them "self-responsibility" through education programs, or even helping them "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps". Therein lies the difference between the two, especially the two current parties, but also, the two parties historically.
I'm worried Harris is going back to neoliberal economics. She seems poised to fire Lina Khan, who is doing so much for the American people. I think if Harris would just come out in favor of consumer protections and be anti monopoly, she'd win the votes. But instead she's pandering to wealthy donors. I'm worried it's gonna cost her the election. Biden has been fantastic; I'm skeptical of Harris.
Another important cause of people not understanding the present economic pressures is the deliberate dumbing down of education standards in red states. These states generally have low taxes so schools are greatly underfunded with science text books that are 30 years old. There is also a chill on intellectual curiosity with the deliberate and choreographed banning (and in places burning) of many books that are deemed unacceptable by a small number of special-interest groups like Moms for Liberty, who are funded by money from the Koch fortunes. The unsurprising result over several decades is a population that doesn't value critical thinking or knowing how to distinguish fact from lie.
And in addition to all that, most of the media consumed in red states is owned and controlled by a special-interest political group - Trump supporters.
Midnight in Paris, love your name, reminds me of my mom who used a perfume and face powder of that name. I remember a navy round box with silver script and perhaps a silver design. Just sharing a warm moment.
So agree with your post, every sentence and thought!
I hear what you are saying, however, I think your friend mispronounced the word "stellar". The word your friend should have been looking for was "cellar".
Thank you Dr. Richardson. We have learned a lot from you. This story of the Great Depression and the sharply different approaches to solving the problem, cannot be told often enough. Fortunately FDR turned to Frances Perkins for ideas on social programs to bring relief to the unemployed. Imagine how different the scene was back before Social Security, Unemployment benefits, FDIC insured bank accounts, government work projects and no minimum wage. This the GOP would have us believe were the good old days, which included segregated schools.
Thank you for reminding us of Frances Perkins. Just as the Dems have always cleaned up the economic mess that the Rs made, it's important for us to remember the brilliant, strong, and compassionate woman who was FDR's Secretary of Labor.
The good old days were when the very rich obeyed virtually no rules and bought the government they liked, and could charge or pay as much or as little as suited them. That was the payload of Reaganomics and "Citizens United".
"Politicians and commentators agreed that most Democrats and Republicans shared a “liberal consensus” that the government should regulate business, provide for basic social welfare, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. It seemed the country had finally created a government that best reflected democratic values."
Thanks for another history lesson, with a humorous footnote as to the origin of Foghorn Leghorn, and this respite from election news. I appreciate you so much for the perspective you bring to our current lives, and for the many hours of work you have put in these past five+ years to educate us, enlighten us and at times entertain us. Thank you.
Thank you Dr. Richardson for making me a more informed person. I find your voice so refreshing and wish I could be one of your classroom students. Your work is valuable and vitally important to our continuing work for our democracy.
Helen, I view LFAA as auditing a graduate level "Politics and History" class. The comments section here is when we (us students) go out after class for coffee/beer and discuss the class and what we learned, and how our experiences add to the mix.
"...but certain wealthy Americans were sure they knew what had caused it. The problem, they said, was that poor Americans refused to work hard enough and were draining the economy. They must be forced to take less.''
This view, simplistic and dismissive, often obscured the structural changes needed for real recovery. It was a convenient narrative that placed the burden on the vulnerable, absolving the wealthy from responsibility—a classic move from fascism's playbook. By deflecting blame onto the poor and marginalized, fascist ideologies reinforce economic disparities, bolster authoritarian control, and protect elite interests under the guise of "national stability" or "moral discipline."
"A buffoon who represented the past, the Claghorn character was such a success that he starred in his own Hollywood film and later became the basis for the Looney Tunes cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn."
Good call on Kennedy! He definitely poured on his Southern accent when he decided that certain members of Congress needed him to read bedtime stories of pornography.
There is no indication that Kennedy isn't a fool. An Ivy League education only means that one was able to meet the requirements to enroll.
There have been thousands of legacies that had no business being accepted into colleges across the US. And others, like Jared Kushner whose daddy paid several million so he could attend.
He was also a Rhodes Scholar. They don't give those out lightly. He's a deeply cynical man, playing the rubes, and sometimes playing A rube, in search of power.
And now we are right back to where we were. Regressive taxation, monopolies, downsizing of public works, stock manipulations, and massive wealth in the hands of the very, very few.
And lots of poor people, anger, and growing fascism.
Delighted to see John Kenneth Galbraith in the notes. At social gatherings I often ask people I don't know -"Milton Friedman or John Kenneth Galbraith?" which likely explains why I don't get invited much. This LFAA is a great example of why I consider the central GOP policy "Trickle-down" to be fraud and not economics.
While Reagan and his "economists" spoke of free market -they knew such a market did not exist. The Bush tax cuts, coupled with banking deregulation led to the massive taxpayer bailout at the beginning of President Obama's first term. And all the non-interventionist "free market" nonsense was on full display when we had to provide a $Trillion to steer the financial from catastrophe. The economic engine did not recover after 1929 until liberal policies and government (taxpayer) spending pulled the United States out of the greed-based trickle-down economy. Trickle-down (or supply-side economics) as it is sold by the wealthy through their GOP shills (and a few so-called Dems like Joe Manchin) might have been an interesting theory once. We've seen how the experiment works. It led to long-term suffering once, it led to the massive bailout in 2009, and it has led to the extreme wealth concentration of today where we get publishers too frightened to print the truth (or too focused on self-enrichment), and dancing billionaire imbeciles on stage with a Presidential candidate running to stay out of prison while commiting more crimes against the United States and our allies under the Supremely Corrupted Court's umbrella of "official acts of duty".
George As those ‘free traders’ choose to ignore, Adam Smith, ‘the father of modern capitalism,’ in his economic ‘Bible,’ warned that, whenever businessmen gathered, they sought to establish monopolies and others nefarious arrangements. Smith, back in the 18th century, discussed the need for government to serve the people against raw capitalism.
Indeed and thank you Keith. Adam may have also unwittingly argued in favor of ESG (environmental, social, governance data)by stating a buyer and seller should have “perfect knowledge” in a transaction. When the seller doesn’t disclose the externalization of costs to society, they are intentionally relaying imperfect information to the buyer. Of course ESG, like DEI has become part of the anti-woke battle the wealthy are now waging to keep society divided and conquered.
His Theory of Moral Sentiments lays the groundwork for his second work Wealth of Nations. the first volume has been largely over looked so as to corrupt and misconstrue the second by the Chicago boys. Just saying
Franklin D. Roosevelt was my father's hero. He lived through the depression and fought in World War II. Like most veterans of that era, he didn't say too much about the war, but he loved to talk about FDR and how his presidency changed the country. His stories were an oral history that I will never forget.
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for this history and reminder on the 95th anniversary of what was an economic cataclysm for the country and the world. And indeed, it had global ramifications, yet the US, despite the horrific economic distress in the country, coupled with the environmental catastrophe of the Dust Bowl, maintained its democracy.
And that, to me, accentuates the shamefulness of our moment. Yes, there is economic distress and income inequality that needs redressing. But that is also taking place at a time when the nation’s collective wealth is robust, but poorly distributed. I knew all too many Trump supporters in the US when I lived there who were wealthy with secure jobs whose only reason for voting for him was their out and out racism.
Their jobs and livelihood were not threatened. They were prosperous and the inflation the world suffered in the wake of Covid was shared and global, and relatively benign in the US. Compare this to when fascism came to Germany, in the wake of a humiliating defeat with humiliating terms of surrender in WWI, with hyper inflation, with political instability and a rather weak Weimar government (despite some minor successes). The German people had at least had an excuse to be so vulnerable.
The US, on the other hand, has more information at its finger tips (literally) and remains relatively if imperfectly affluent. The notion that making the country the property of a single political party, owned and operated by a single ruling crime family, will solve its problems is preposterous and risible. And if you are so desperate to think taking away the rights of others will empower you and put money in your pocket, then you are about to have a very unpleasant wake up call.
I was born during the Great Depression. Though I was too young to appreciate the depths of despair throughout America, I saw desperate people selling hot chestnuts and apples and seeking food at back doors as they struggled to survive.
There were middle class friends of my family who lost everything in the Great Depression. For my first eleven years, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was my only president.
Historians have wrestled with FDR during his extraordinary career. This patrician, first as New York governor, then as president of the United States, initiated new and dynamic programs intended to provide support to the unemployed and to strengthen the economy.. This was unprecedented, certainly in America and, also, throughout the world.
What he most provided was hope during a terrible time—unemployment of far more than 25%, inadequate food lines, and the possibility of physical uprisings by desperate people. Huey Long, Father Conklin, and others were waiting in the wings to capitalize on a fragile democracy.
I recall some of FDR’s Fireside Chats—33 over 12 years. Thanks to radio, he was able to speak to many millions of Americans. This was comforting, and his photo was posted in homes around the country.
Did FDR ‘conquer’ the Great Depression? At best I would say that he attacked it vigorously. ‘All we have to fear is fear itself’ was his watch word, as he closed the banks for four days and launched his 100 Days New Deal programs. Some were good, others worked rather badly. As FDR said, ‘We must try something, and if I bat 70% then I will be content.’
FDR kept experimenting. In retrospect, some of what he initiated was bad economics. Indeed, in hind sight, President Herbert Hoover, who was pillaried during this period, initiated several of the key programs that worked the best during the FDR years.
By 1936 the economy was considerable better and FDR won a spectacular reelection. Then there was the ‘Roosevelt recession,’ as FDR sought to be more traditional.
Objectively, one can conclude that World War II got the United States out of the Great Depression. In part, this was as we became of ‘arsenal of democracy’ before Pearl Harbor. Then we provided our massive manufacturing to win World War II with Britain, the Soviet Union, and other allies.
I wept when President Roosevelt died in April 1945. Then and now I realized that he had saved the United States of America, both through the Great Depression and World War II. Historians still debate how FDR operated and what specifically he achieved.
Personally, I place him with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as one of our three greatest presidents.
I was born during the last months of Pres Truman's administration, so I don't know first hand FDR and the Depression. I grew up liking Ike and reeeeaaally liking JFK. But I have generational memory, if that's a thing, from my parents and grandparents of the New Deal and their hardscrabble survival. So, I've inherited a love of FDR and passed it on to JRB.
Beth I greatly admired Ike, initially as commander of the allied forces in Europe. His smile, captured by Norman Rockwell, was magnificent.
At 19 I was associated with the creation of Eisenhower Fellowships, which was my Dad’s idea to provide opportunities to bring young leaders worldwide to the US and maintain a network. I met Ike with Eisenhower Fellows when he was president.
I have been associated with EF ever since, meeting and breaking bread with well over 1300. Susan and David Eisenhower are still involved.
Our chairmen include Jerry Ford, George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, General Colin Powell, and SecDef Robert Gates.
In 2016 I initiated a book on EF and This I believe for which Colin Powell wrote a forward.
In retrospect, President Eisenhower terminated the Korean War, kept peace, was moderate nationally, respected the Constitution, and reflected more moderate views than JFK and LBJ.
Thanks for this glimpse from the "front row". My folks were born in 1916 and 1921, so both were depression era kids. My Dad's Dad was an engineer for Great Northern; their family did well, and they took in what my Dad called "the girl cousins" (5 or 6 in all, IIRC) when their families couldn't provide for them. My Mom's Dad benefited from the CCC, and worked building some of the original bridges in many of California's state parks. Roosevelt was the first president both of my parents voted for; both were lifelong Democrats.
The introduction to this newsletter is a brilliant piece of writing. Well done, Dr. Richardson! And I appreciated learning about the origin of the Foghorn Leghorn character in Looney Tunes. :-)
And now the Entertainment has come right on stage in the Political Spectacle- with Lauren Leghorn Boebert, Marjorie Looney Tunes Greene, Matt Foghorn Gaetz, etc And, of course, Ronald McDonald T-rump, the most dangerous clown of all
Thank you for reminding of how much FDR there is in Joe Biden’s DNA. As Roosevelt knew what path to take to end the Great Depression, Biden knew how to end what began as Reaganomics and morphed into Trump’s kleptocracy.
With business journalists celebrating America’s economy as the “best in the world,” I blame the mainstream media for not reporting this truth to the public at large. Such reporting could include that monopoly-driven Greedflation is why basic goods are still so expensive
Indeed, Joe Biden did this on purpose, but he doesn’t feel a strong need for credit for doing so. His personal accomplishments toward healing the USA are all the reward he seeks or needs.
This is how he appears to us in the outside world, too. Trump? Foghorn Leghorn #2.
Foghorn Leghorn is a rooster. The orange traitor is a chicken.
OMG that is PERFECT!
As much as Trump and MAGA wear me down, LFAA folks lift me up!
I drove to Danbury Federal Correctional Center this morning I tend on protesting Bannon’s release press conference. Shy of 8AM, I found a crown of supporters and some media. But the prison had released him at 3 AM as they wanted to avoid press. As I walked to the place with his mostly support base, a woman rolled down her car window and asked what was happening and I told her that he was being released and she immediately say, “Oh good. Finally.”
I thought way did she automatically feel Bannon was a good guy. Why? He is evil through and through. But I had tho interpret why MAGAs are who they are. And I reflected that they just don’t like that JBiden (SNL) is blamed for allowing millions to rush over hit sand awhile he ignored it for 2 to 3 years. Yes he did sorry for you not to believe this. And I humbly pray that this doesn’t doom Harris candidacy. It’s a nail biter.
For anyone interested, I side word is that Steve Bannon will hold a press conference at 3 PM in Manhattan at the Lowe’s Regency. Someone from News Max told me. Go protest. I couldn’t make it, unfortunately.
If I were in that part of the country … Gad, Bannon. The Creep du Jour from MAGA. Sigh.
😂
BINGO!!!!
cluck, cluck!
Celeste - you are denigrating Joyce's chickens (Civil Discourse)!!
Oh, Maggie, silly!!! I love Joyce's chickens!
I figured you would get the point!!!
Roosters are male chickens, so same thing!
I’m so happy to hear there are those outside USA who “get” Joe Biden.
On average, I feel very proud of him, while
we are so embarrassed by the orange shame.
If not for that monster's millions of supporters, who are as much to blame for his rise and should be shamed. Supporting the orange a-hole required extreme rationalization.
You are leaving out a very important factor.These millions of ordinary citizen Trump supporters have been courted for the past 40+ years by GOP cynical power grabbers who don't give a damn about anything except lowest taxes and no regulations. They skillfully played on the sense of "being left out" and "not heard" by politicians in "the swamp" that these mostly working class people were feeling. These folks were also soaked in 14 seasons of (FREE to Trump) TV propaganda, pushing him as a savvy businessman who "speaks his mind" and 'says it like it is" as he calls out over and over, "You're fired!"
I've met some of these folks, decent people. One cafe owner in Shamokin, PA, about as red as you can get, told me about a mentally ill customer who was screaming out that he was Satan. She gently spoke with him about being a child of God so he couldn't be Satan. He calmed down and ate the breakfast she provided for him. She's voting for Trump because he's "a good business man who isn't one of those career politicians. He tells it like it is and we need that. And he's not going to give all our money to foreign countries when we need so much right here." She drank the kool-aid and bought the lies, because that's all she's heard. She shouldn't be shamed, she should be wooed, educated, shown. Or at the very least, outnumbered as we work to find every single persuadable voter and tell our story. It's going to take more than one election. And it will be worth it.
I hope we GET this election right! Yes, there’ll be more work to be done, but we must get this one right
But is running a government like running a business? And don't we have important relations with other countries? We trade a lot of things back and forth. And we count on them when military support is needed. They do us important favors. Etc.
The cafe owner sounds like a decent person. Trump would have had the customer thrown out. Trump's business record is not as good as MAGA thinks it is.
Good businessmen don't go bankrupt over and over as a style of business.
Ah Harvey, when one of them said recently, Jesus is wrong, we know that they are arrogant beyond the pale and unreachable. The word shame is not in their vocabulary. I was at lunch with friends yesterday and one of them reported that her female neighbor left her a pamphlet about how Harris will hurt social security and medicare. She said she has never had a sign, but got a Harris sign that this neighbor can see everyday as they are across the street from each other. Everything death star will do is being attributed to Harris. The other person lives in the country and has a neighbor who allow her to ride her ATV and have her dogs along on his property, so she says nothing to this Trumper. She described him as looking for an argument, so a know-it-all.
Same here, in Portugal.
Problem is, they don’t vote. We need people HERE to ‘get’ him
Foghorn Leghorn was smarter than Trump.
JennSH from NC,
What does that say about those who follow him? What does it say about the education of our citizenry?
Jenn, in reality, I do not believe that "Trump is the engineer of this train". The ones who are...are terrifying to me. JD Vance is the "excited little baby boy" in tow who was never taught that most people can still figure out the difference between a lie and the truth.....he is just doing as he is told by the "big boys".
He would rather "sell his soul" to be a part of the "gang" than to protect the people of the United States of America!
"Baby Vance" also recognizes that "Big Daddy Trump" is daily loosing pieces of his mind. What an opportunity to "run with the big dogs".
"I say, I say, that boy's about as sharp as a bowling ball!"
LOL. I'd say that one of his thighs, lightly roasted with a bit of garlic, would be smarter than Trump.
I say, I say! Any chicken is smarter than bone-spurs...just noting for all the sucker and losers.
Best dressed too.
Chris, I’m another outside-the-US voice with the same opinion of Biden, but I’ll go beyond simply honoring his accomplishments. He may not end up ranked as the best POTUS in American history, but I think he’s right up there. That said, I’ll dance for joy on the day America gives Harris a chance to do even better.
Martin Luther King Jr. had a great answer to the question of why people like us are interested in US politics, along with the question in your profile (why should YOUR problems be OUR problems as well?), in his letter from Birmingham City Jail, where he wrote, “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” In 2024, it is literally impossible to face that inconvenient truth and then vote Republican.
Well said, James
😂 visual forthcoming ,Chris?
Ha ha! We'll see.
Trump wants to enslave Middle-class people and below especially people of color to do the labor with no rights like Russia. Where you have one class of people ruling this country like Elon Musk.
In the end, Joe Biden is going to be one of America’s best loved and respected presidents. Running your mouth is no substitute for taking action and getting things done.
And who could ever forget Senator Jack S. Phogbound? There's no Jack S. like our Jack S." !
And Jubilation T Cornpone.
I didn’t read Li’l Abner, so I didn’t get this at first. Then I said it aloud. Ha! Clever.
Al Capp saw Donald Trump coming but probably never saw him becoming president. If he did, he was too clever to say it in print.
But WE need his accomplishments to be known, or how else can we keep going in that direction … ?
Yes. He is a superior human being. Given to excellent foresight. I was furious when he was being denigrated after the DT debate. He had so much on his plate that these critics had no clue about, like hostage negotiations.
And that’s the truth💪🇺🇸
Steve, While your critique of major media is valid, I question whether our candidates effectively have driven home the point, while we need to do better for increasingly more people, the signature legislative accomplishments of the Biden-Harris Administration, among other benefits, have resulted in rising real wages and rising productivity, the main ingredient for higher long-term growth and a higher standard of living. I, further, would add our candidates, while repeatedly mentioning “a Trump sales tax,” have not adequately underscored that the tariffs Trump calls for are not paid by the foreign exporter but by the domestic importer who passes the tax to consumers. This lack of clarity allows Trump falsely to assert his tariffs will bring billions of dollars from foreign nations into the U.S. treasury.
My point, were we to have a fluent economic Explainer-in-Chief, I doubt a majority would repeatedly report that Trump would be better for the economy.
The people we hire through the election process are ostensibly our fiduciary agents. It is in everybody's interests for them to let us know what they're up to and why. and how it is working out. On our side, if we snooze, we lose. Democracy does, anyway.
J L, I recall in Bill Clinton’s day he was a superb communicator on matters related to the economy. Because I don’t view either Harris or Walz nearly as proficient on this issue, we owe it to the people to bring in surrogates who, in their explanations, leave no stone unturned, so to speak.
I agree Barbara; it's why Obama called Clinton, The Explainer in Chief. This nation needs someone like Bill Clinton to explain the nitty gritty of economics. I don't know whether Robert Reich has enough energy in him to tackle that job; however, I wouldn't mind seeing him give it a go. In anyone's opinion contributing to this discussion, who else might fill this role?
Riad, Aside from Reich, my top pick would be Biden’s chief economic advisor Jared Bernstein.
Professor Robert Reich remains a multi-talented micro & macro economist. Reich is well spoken publicly or from a lectern in front of students & now on Substack. Professor Reich is imbued with common sense always communicating in historical context.
Reminds me of another Professor who lives in Maine.
Well, lets see.......Joseph Stiglitz, Glory liu, Julie Su, Nick Hanaur, David Goldstein, Kyla Scanlon, ..........the list can go on......... I havent had coffee yet .....moving kinda slow here....
Go as slowly as you may, Gregg; I'm still checking out your first two suggestions. :)
Though not a politician, I value "Belle" who has taken over for her husband "Beau of the Fifth Column" on YouTube. Seriously!
Beau, the “not Foghorn Leghorn “ would have been great in syndication. I’ll have to check out Belle. Politics Girl is/was also great. I’ve let them slide in favor of multiple substacks. Maybe an opportunity lost there.
You are spot on, Miselle. I love that Politics Girl, and now Belle of the Fifth Column are doing their video presentations. I am with you on the pace of Leigh, but I think that is just that our brains did not grow up with ultra fast video/sound/music, and it becomes overwhelming.
Robert Reich is doing it already. He makes videos where he explains and draws it on a whiteboard as he talks.
That’s only one of his projects. He has a substack, Common Dreams, he is on X and Facebook, YouTube, and his op-eds can be found in the Guardian.
I have great respect too for R Reich, I also think it is time for some young blood to step up.
Heather???
Heather??? Heather who? 😂😂😂😂 Sorry; just kidding. HCR does a wonderful job explaining pretty much everything. I don't doubt she would be fabulous. Had to get my chuckles in 😅.
Clinton was a superb communicator, but his strategy of jumping on the free trade bandwagon to take the issue away from Bush senior resulted in the acceleration of the creation of the rust belt. On top of that, the war on labor and defined benefit pension plans has created a huge percentage of impoverished elderly. Title IX, by creating more opportunities for women in the economy, had the unintended consequence of reducing the quality of the teaching workforce. So when Americans needed to become a whole lot smarter about the importance of lifetime savings for retirement, our investment in the educational processes that would have given that a chance of happening went the other way.
I like Bill and voted for him twice. And, to be fair, he had a horrible Congress to deal with, but he was definitely not the leader on the economy that we so desperately needed at the time. In a very real sense, the unfocused somewhat irrational anger that so many feel, is what has enabled Trump to harness that. If he could give a coherent speech the way Hitler could, he would be a lot more dangerous than he is; and the lower half of the economy and how that mess was created is the wellspring of the whole MAGA movement.
Dems need to find a way to reign in corporate power and reverse the movement away from defined benefit plans.
Title IX was not not enacted to create more opportunities for women in the workforce. And it did not reduce the quality of teaching of the teaching workforce.
It added sex as a protected class under the Civil Rights Act.
The major impact of Title IX was a considerable increase in the number of female students participating in organized sports within American academic institutions followed by growing interest in initiating and developing programs which would pursue feminist principles in relationship to concerns surrounding issues dealing with girls and women's equality and equity in sport.
So I respectfully disagree. If you look at the chart that the folks at the Visual Capitalist did last week on the ROI of various degrees, it makes it perfectly clear that going into education is a losing proposition that requires saints. That was NOT the case before the cultural change that Title IX signaled that we were going to insist upon going forward. The situation in education is actually far worse than the charts indicate, because the impact on education has not bee uniform across all disciplines. The STEM subjects have been hit much harder than the others, and that shows up in what John Allen Paulos termed "Innumeracy" by society in general in his famous book of the same title. Just talk to some kids these days. Grade inflation is everywhere and competency is way down.
My view is that Rush, racism, Ronnie and Rupert are the “wellspring of the whole MAGA movement. Me and my seven sibs were born poor and had to work hard during this period, but it was the convenient pushing of scapegoats that hit the amygdala of the men in my orbit. May not have been just my crowd. Granted, so many suffered a loss of livelihood, which precipitated so many changes, but having hate geared to scapegoats caused way more problems when too many thought it was a solution.
Craig, Your critique of Clinton’s economic policies, indeed, is merited. The point, however, is to identify comparably abled communicators to fill in on current economic matters where Harris and Walz fall short. While, as part of this thread, I mentioned Biden’s chief economic advisor Jared Bernstein, another commenter Gregg provided a more comprehensive list I plan to include in a letter to the Harris campaign I will deploy sometime today.
Woof, woof, woof, woof woof
I agree. Adding, I think that part of the issue is a failure to clearly articulate some things that need to be done. The whole behavioral theory work that has been done around nudges and default choices needs to be applied to lifetime wealth creation. The law can help with that. We are spending huge amounts of our GDP on advertising and improving its effectiveness. Well, that drains wealth away from the susceptible. I'm not suggesting that we curtail advertising legally, but we do need to create structures that offset it. Defined benefit plans are a fantastic way of doing that. They have a proven track record as effective builders of the middle class.
I actually think both Kamala and Tim are pretty good communicators. What they lack is a coherent economic message that resonates.
Craig!!! Stellar explanation. Getting MAGA to understand what you just said would take 3 years and a willing audience however
I am missing some valuable point here? MAGA understand something? What ,specifically , plus detail please. All I see is corporate stranglehold while’ promised growth ‘ widening the gap between …more rich people …cleverly disguised to falsely appease the disenfranchised …with the same lies. Harris quite succinctly addresses that, no?
We’d best do it in 2 ( years) as 2026 is the time to rid the ones left..maggots that is ✔️😉
Yep
I can't agree that it is a "stellar" explanation as it comes across as blaming women for the downfall in education when it is a far more complex issue than Title IX giving gender as a protected class. He does bring up some good points.
Your point that it would take three years and the will to learn for MAGA to understand is grossly underestimated, in both the will to learn and the time frame for understanding.
Craig, I had to read your third line several times in order to get (I think) what you were saying; that by giving women more economic opportunity in other fields, the quality of teachers suffered as an unintended consequence. It wasn't the legislation that did it, it was more the factors at play that you describe as the acceleration of the rust belt (moving US manufacturing jobs overseas for pennies on the dollar) and the war on labor and defined benefit pension plans.
You then blame the lack of women in the teaching profession, with your statement "when Americans needed to become a whole lot smarter about the importance of lifetime savings for retirement, our investment in the educational processes that would have given that a chance of happening went the other way." Why not blame the lack of teacher pay and benefits in general instead?
Craig, maybe I am misreading your comments. Are you saying that hiring opportunities for more women to teach resulted in lower teaching quality? I hope not. But if you are, do you have any data to confirm that or is it purely your opinion?
I could never make up my mind regarding Clinton's 'strategy' Craig.
That's simple - it was to win. He adapted to the political landscape brilliantly.
Alleluia, brother.
"Title IX, by creating more opportunities for women in the economy, had the unintended consequence of reducing the quality of the teaching workforce. " You may not understand what you are talking about here.
Perhaps, but there is a rock solid reality that 50 years ago the odds were stacked such that most (not all) highly capable women who wanted a professional career went into teaching. They were underpaid and under appreciated. The women's movement changed that landscape dramatically, leaving teachers still underpaid, but gutting their ranks of the many thousands of highly capable women who would have otherwise gone in that direction.
In my career at Boeing I saw many talented women engineers and assembly workers who could not have gotten those kinds of jobs in the 1950s and 60s. Those doors were closed, so they went elsewhere, and often that meant teaching. There was and still is a lot of gender discrimination in the workplace, but it is mostly on the job now and not nearly as much as it once was at the employment office.
No easy task Barbara considering that the current MAGA Republicans are such a noisy circus we have to compete against but still a great idea!!!!
I will ask …personally…how many here feel threatened if Vance gets in power , ahem ..oh perhaps it’s ..Trump gets more power? That the carry through of deporting/concentration encampments isn’t planned for …us….soon? And Specifically the eloquent writers? Not sure I haven’t become ‘fear mongered’ obviously.
People keep referring to tfg as Hitler. Somewhat warranted. But vance...he's the one to NEVER turn your back to. If they get into the White House, vance will be there for the next 40 years, and the horrors will fill history books for centuries.
Patricia, I feel there are four targets on me: female, lesbian, over 65, and educated.
I will close down my ‘shop/fb’ I think they call that ‘going dark’ but am known and there’s a complex in the area ( Oath Keeprs …) call themselves 2nd AMMENDMENT CLUB. Well armed . They’ve not been bothersome, in fact some say who know them ‘ they’re nice guys’ don’t know who the women are or if I met one on the street. Low profile…so far. My brother was concerned for me. Most know I’m ’a prepper’..we’re farmers. My kids think I’m too paranoid. 🤞
I’d rather err on the side of caution. “Just because you’re paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you”.
Barbara, economics can not be explained in sound bites. The vectors of cause and effect cause the uneducated eyes to glaze over. The problem with avoiding a recession/depression is that the simple minded only understand one effect, “inflation” and one cause, “printing money”. Nothing else matters. None of the benefits of government spending matters. People only understand “Biden caused inflation by spending money. I can’t afford eggs, its Biden’s fault”
Trying to counter that in a 30 second ad is fruitless. Trying to do it in a campaign speech runs the gamet of vectors that people aren’t educationally equipped to comprehend
Econ 101 takes a full semester to begin the process. Most people aren’t interested in business finance
Trumpers seize on what pushes their button. Inflation bad. Biden Bad
Saying "private industry has invested billions in US manufacturing jobs because of Biden's legislation" is not hard to understand, but it needs to be said.
If I said that to my MAGA neighbor his response would be “Huh? Ain’t helping me.” These are not big picture people, and with their loyalty to Fox, OAN etc. the message doesn’t even arrive.
My experience exactly, Gail.
😢
Yes, because it contradicts the lies that the Repugnants are telling... but whether they will listen is another story.
Listen, perhaps, but only to counter with their "information" that is counter to that.
I’ve heard that said many times, but perhaps its cuz I’m paying more attention than the ones who need to hear it better
1. Economics is complex.
2. Understanding economics requires complex thinking
3. The vast majority of the American public isn't capable of complex thinking.
4. Therefore simplistic slogans and sound bites work best with the American public.
This friends is the same recipe used for the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. It will work here too. And quite honestly I am not sure there is any real solution. The problem is essentially intractable.
Economic explanations don’t fit on a bumper sticker.
"Economics is complex"... that can equally be said of every specialist sector or scientific / technical field. You're right, Jon, is takes an effort even to absorb a little of popularizations of these fields. Things become incendiary when emotion is adrenalized by ambitious politicians. Then, there are the outright lies, and then, there is RvW and all that represents, which is not a technical complexity at all, but part of a religious movement.
Dave, In my view, if just the few points I noted in my original comment were made highly accessible, to which I would add repeatedly showing how corporate profits account for nearly half the increased prices people are paying, I believe minds would change.
Barbara, I wish you were right but I fear you are missing the fact that most people do not want to bother with that level of understanding if indeed they are even capable of it.
Jon. Econ is wonky. People want $1.50 gasoline, right?
With all their hearts. Those gas guzzlers eat up a lot of income in fuel costs.
If costs are high, it must be Biden's fault. 🙄
Barbara, my experience that people equate the price of gas entirely upon one pipeline that didn’t get built. Supply was CUT so its all Biden’s fault. No amount of explanation regarding global supply, refinery capacity, or the fact that US oil production is at an all time high can rebut that one pipeline was not built or that corporate oil profits are at an all time high. They’re not (edit) interested when the explanation is counter to their belief system
Do you mean consistent with their beliefs? (Damn autocorrect!)
“Not interested”. Thx for the catch Marge
Barbara Jo, Robert Reich is really really good at simplifying - and even drawing - economic policy. He has been making short educational videos on economic issues and measuring the impact on viewers. If only he could partner with marketing to get these videos in front of the target audiences that need to know….
Barbara, et al, I've had trouble figuring out where to insert my comment in response to yours and several others, so I'll just put it here. All seem to be ignoring the major factor that is human nature. In my experience at least, the average person is far more willing to accept negative information without question than positive information.
A simple example: When someone shares gossip that casts another in a negative light, the rumor spreads like wildfire. When a positive story about someone is shared, it usually goes nowhere.
The same applies to stories about the economy, immigrants, and all the other issues that matter to Americans. This makes the job much easier for Republican operatives.
I don't have a solution. I just see the problem.
I do believe a better-educated public is the foundation to a better society. But I wonder if, thanks to Republican demolition of our public education system, we are too far gone to recover.
Dale, thanks for sharing this very interesting point of view. There’s so much truth to it, and yet I haven’t heard it expressed in any posts, or more importantly, in any discussions/conversations. Thanks.
6
People who choose to be ignorant are lazy. If they can make time for gatherings and events with their families then they can make the time to find out why cost of living has gone up. They have computers and cell phones to do their research with. They just don't give a damn and they take this country for granted. It's a shame and pathetic to blame President Biden who has done a phenomenal job in governing this country.
Would love to see a chart comparing the astronomical profits of the beef, pork, chicken, and eggs industries for the years 1/2019 thru 10/2020 and
1/2023 thru 10/2024 with colors for each industry.
Dave, do you not think this would be understandable to many MAGAs?
Have never seen a reference to profits on any posts decrying the rise in prices!
Well said, Dave and I agree. My 86 y.o. mother only understands that it costs her $50 to take a taxi to the doctor, one way and she can't afford that. Since Biden is currently the President he is the one she blames.
My mother complains about high health care costs. I tell her to dtop voting for Republicans
That’s what my husband says to his mother when she complains about what the government is doing (mostly here in Texas) - “Well, Mom, who did you vote for? Don’t you think they are some of the cause of XYZ that you’re complaining about?” His mom was an early adopter of the “Tea Party” here - famously carrying a sign at a local protest that said “Congress - Read What You Sign!” He was too late to explain to her that Congress doesn’t sign legislation…
Sadly, I think the Democrats have not been good messengers for several administrations -- probably because they like to stick to the facts (generally) and not lie or embellish like the other party does. Also - it seems a message of darkness and fear from the GOP takes hold faster than a message of positive news.
And let’s not forget the Effects of Murdoch, Newsmax, and other right wing voices.
What we lack is education. The system has been so skewed to ‘common core” that is is messing up the ability of real teachers to teach things like, critical thinking and ethics.Kids these days dont need “deep knowledge” because now they have the digital age, Alexa, Siri, and AI.
As a former public school teacher and the daughter of one, the Republicans have spent years cutting public education. In my home state of NC, the court ruled the legislature was not adequately funding education according to state constitutional standards. Of course, then after inadequately funding public schools, the Republicans give state money to private schools and charter schools so parents have a choice not to send their kids to the terrible public schools that the Republicans won’t adequately fund. Then they cut teacher pay and cut funds to schools of education and say teacher education is deficient. Oh, did I mention the “education” lottery? A scam for sure which doesn’t add additional funds for schools as legislators cut the general education budget by whatever amount the lottery kicks in.
JennSH: BOOM! Thanks for that succinct summary of the GOP strategy to wreck everything funded by public dollars (starting with public education). The plan: privatize everything so it can turn a profit.
“As a former public school teacher…“
Thank you for your service.
But they get accused of lying, cheating, and every dirty trick that repubs used. Goebbels most used rule for propaganda. Accuse them of what you do.
@lauriemcf, I can’t accept that good messaging entails lying or embellishing. In my view, it entails deep knowledge of the matter combined with an ability to connect with voters and what most matters in their lives.
I did not take @lauriemcf to advocate lying. The literal meaning of embellishing is 'making beautiful', which could certainly apply to pointing out to the masses that Bidenomics is in fact beautiful and in fact has done beautiful things (like billions in private investment for manufacturing jobs in the US.) The problem, as others have noted, is that those who most need that message will not hear it, because they are tuned to Fox and Sinclair and worse.
John, Thank you for your comment that, indeed, is valid. I only would note plenty of “soft” Republicans and right-leaning Independents likely would tune in and be receptive to substantive messaging that extends or even restructures some of their thinking.
8
And therein lies one of the major problems we face... good messaging is complex requiring as you put it "deep knowledge" which then requires deep understanding, two traits which the vast majority of the American public as well as its leaders LACK in abundance.
I hope we are not doomed but a shallow analysis might lead to the conclusion that we are.
Sigh...
Sound bites, bite us all in the rear.
JDinTX, that is gold. Pure gold.
Although I haven't a character that could use that phrase once again, you nail those one liners! If only I could be so precise!
"SHALLOW!" This word pops into my mind whenever I get depressed about our national conversation. Waay back, in the nineteenth century, crowds would gather outdoors to hear famous orators debate, for hours.
But today? anything that takes more than a few seconds to say, bores us. It's all soundbites now. Commercialism has trained us this way, because that makes us better "consumers".
Jon, In my view, the stakes are too great to concede to whatever obstacles stand in the way of a more informed electorate.
I do not concede, but I accept what I think is the inevitable conclusion of the upcoming election and plan to consider and take action on remedies that may be necessary to reverse the result. There it's only one week before the election and my current concern is to plan for what I think is the most likely outcome.
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Well, go for the deep analysis.
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lauriemcf, you’re right about fear outweighing joy in the effect of messages. We need more Pete Buttigiegs to go on Fox News to inform people without preaching to them.
Who is it who said “A lie can go around the world twice while the truth is still putting on its shoes”?
Democrats have a tendency not to be united. That has been one of their down falls for years. Therefore it makes it difficult for them to reach out because their to busy fighting amongst themselves. Republicans during the years have always been united. No matter if their leaders have been corrupted.
Thank you for pointing this out. I’ve wondered why T’s declarations about tariffs didn’t ring true, but I haven’t had the background to know where to look to get the answers.
Carol, Thank you for writing. I imagine your experience is representative of a broad swath of the population. If it weren’t, Trump wouldn’t get by repeatedly saying he’s calling for tariffs not a sales tax.
When i heard about Trump's assertions that exporting nations would pay the bill, I knew it was pure nonsense, the very opposite of the real effect. Importers would pay for the tariffs, and pass that along as price increases. Would they stimulate American production? Likely, of course, with higher prices, ie inflation for the average American consumer. Globalization from the 70s on was a broad policy movement to reduce or remove tariff protection which allowed lower wage esp Asian economies to import into the US etc and undermine whole industries (including unions). Harris has kept the message very simple: a "sales tax". Economists have inveighed against Trump's plan. Trump's followers have been taught only to trust Him. Sorry if i got carried away!
I don't know...I was having an on line conversation with a maga who was arguing the felon rapist was better for the economy...I tried explaining how much better we are now but facts don't impress these people - they are totally brainwashed and just go to calling me names cause they don't care about reality, it's all just about their feelings and perceptions...
Yep, spit at your opponents and denounce them outright.
Barbara Jo,
I completely agree that we (Democrats and Independents who believe the government has a role in leveling the playing field, protecting the public, etc.) are not explaining clearly enough what the Oligarchs accomplish when they levy tariffs and monopolize businesses.
I would elaborate that the monopolization does more than raise the price of cable and internet, meat and poultry and any number of other consumer products. Much more.
The likes of Google and Meta have been allowed to gobble up competitive tech companies that were fledgling competitors. This has consolidated power into the hands of a few "Tech Bros". They have become the new TV channels, the new newspapers. That means the fascists have an easy time reaching millions of people with a few keystrokes and AI generated pictures.
There is a lot of whining about the Main Stream Media and how it has failed to stand up to the fascists - Trump and others. And it is truly disgusting the LA Times and the WaPo have failed to defend democracy. But what is happening on line dwarfs the influence of legacy newspapers and old fashioned TV channels and networks.
America is being undermined on it's phones. We are in the "Gilded Age" of social media influencers who are not doing THEIR jobs of policing the internet and it's platforms. The idea that two multi billionaires like Zuckerberg and Musk can control the national dialog as much as they do is astounding to me.
I'm not so worried about the MSM as I am about the SM - where most people live now. It is a world that will decide the election. It is where that information you and I treasure should be dominating as the truth. But it is buried in AI generated propaganda from the fascists and the Russians.
I don't even think it has anything to do with Russians or even fascists. It has as much if not more to do with a dumbing down of the public, so much that they don't even care to try to understand if it requires more brain cells than a video game. And I do not believe there is any good solution as the best solution requires thought, something most Americans simply no longer have the patience for.
Interesting, i remember a critique called So Little for the Mind, written in the mid-50s, saying how little public education promoted "critical thinking" to a broadly rote-taught population. This isn't new.
While it is entertains, Social Media is likely degrading our national intellect. But I am worried about another, bigger threat: AI (Artificial Intelligence). AI has some of the attributes of human intelligence, but iAI utterly lacks a moral dimension. That lack makes it psychopathic.
AI scares the bejesus out of me.
True, Bill. I have a nephew with whom I engage from time to time, and his defense of whatever position he’s taken is generally something from Instagram. With older folks it’s YouTube.
Gail, our nephew is living with us for a time while his housing situation is in flux. His primary source of information is YouTube. A number of our conversations begin with "there's this person I follow on YouTube" and fortunately what follows is usually informed and reasoned discussion. (He's 35). My wife (62) gets a lot of "how to" information on YouTube ranging from building with Lego (she's an AFOL), to how to build hexagonal cedar planting beds, and how to make sousaphone bell covers (she made the one in my photograph). At 66, and as an auditory processor, watching YouTube videos isn't my best medium for learning. I got a huge "way to go" when I learned how to trim a beef brisket prior to smoking it from a YouTube video.
Lol, I learned how to replace the belt on my neighbor’s rototiller (the MAGA one) and how to take the dishwasher apart to clean out the stuff beyond the filter. Score!
Just shows that judicious use of You Tube certainly may be good.
Barbara - I think the reason why the success of the economy is not as front and center as you and others suggest is that the average American is not feeling it that much and don't want to be told that they too will benefit if they can just be a bit more patient. Oh they might be employed, and their wages have gone up some, but they feel perhaps rightly that they have not been able to catch up with the runaway inflation that we had for a time. And generally prices have not dropped - they almost never do. I have heard people say they are unaware the economy is doing well - react with surprise as if to say "Really? Not from my standpoint." And we have a lying corrupt candidate who claims he can fix it all immediately. We have a reality in this country - the average American voter is low information. It has always been that way, but perhaps with no greater consequences than now. And being low information, they are apt to do the wrong thing at the ballot box. They will know just enough to be dangerous so to speak. Unfortunately they will tend toward the goals of the unscrupulous who want to take advantage of that ignorance. That is as old as politics itself. But look where it has gotten us. Today, the low information voter in league with the unscrupulous wealthy and the misguided hyper-religous Christians are within a whisker of throwing it all away and instead nazifying our nation.
Good precis.
Excellent response, James!
Barbara, you’re right. I nominate Pete Buttigieg—he manages so well cutting through the chaff on Fox News.
Trump believes he is the smartest person in the room. It never works for even those that are the smartest.
I tend to low-key disagree with some of your assessment. While I, personally, really relish detailed explanations, they fly like a lead balloon in campaign messaging. The undecided voters that they're trying to speak to largely do not have the time and patience for explainers. That "Trump sales tax" line is actually a pretty great way to put the concept in the sharpest packaging possible and aim it like a dart at the opposition balloon.
For those of us who do like explainers, the material is out there and we actually do tend to find it. And I know so well the feeling of learning really great things about our administration and thinking, "why can't we broadcast this to EVERY HOME IN AMERICA??" I'd love to see the (knock on wood) Harris administration get creative with their off-season messaging. Daily video pod press releases, maybe? But for the next week: all campaign, no explain.
GOOD point made here about the tariffs. I've often wondered why this isn't spelt out more clearly.
However, they ACT as a tax, because they're imposed by the government. The importer acts at the behest of the government; he doesn't raise his prices voluntarily. The consumer, however, picks up the bill.
Thank you, Barbara! Well said. This has been one of my contentions also for a long time. Common people like me need to have the dots connected for us better, especially when it comes to economics, which I don't understand very well. The Biden policies are the new New Deal. Resisters in our government have the history lesson clearly spelled out and proven to work, but they are still struggling to achieve that age-old agenda,, namely, control by the wealthy. Gore Vidal wrote of many politicians that they don't want a real democracy. They are in politics precisely to get wealthy and make enough money so they don't have to live among us common people.
Barbara, on one hand, I agree completely; the Democrats need someone who can deliver the messages in a way that articulates, clearly, the policies and their outcomes. My caveat to that is there are some in MAGAtville that will NEVER BELIEVE, EVER EVER EVER anything that could be said to them.
Barbara Jo Krieger,
Your truth and clarity and honest concern is wasted on most . Why read? It is easier to listen to Fox News!!!!
It is easier to follow the golden haired huckster selling Bibles and golden shoes....etc.
Why would the truth matter? Why would real plans to improve the lives of our citizenry matter?
I agree with you.
Sensational articles sell. Lead stories and headlines are always about Don Olds latest stunt followed by, oh, yeah, Biden and/or Harris did this great but less exciting thing.
In 2016 journalists constantly asked, What about the emails, never allowing Clinton to present herself as the preferred candidate. This year it’s, we don’t know her, what are her economic plans, how will she differ from Biden. Biden has done an amazing job. Building on that is what we need.
This Political article from three days ago highlights the work Bill Clinton is doing to “Explain the economy” in the pithy, masterful, heartfelt was he always does: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/10/26/bill-clinton-north-carolina-harris-00185596
Good article on point.
I agree that it is in Biden's DNA. An advantage of Biden's age is that he has been around long enough to remember what Roosevelt's programs did for our country, and what the US is like before Reagan. I remember too, although as a child. Reagan is the one that made college suddenly so expensive, and instead of being paid for by grants he shifted everyone to loans which made a huge difference to our nation since then.
As someone who is reading Project 2025 in a Political Book club, I see that they are aware of what Roosevelt has done as well, because his programs are on the block as much as Biden's and Obama's.
Yes, I voted for Biden because has the knowledge, experience and wisdom to get us out of the mess Trump left. He's done a wonderful job and Ive put him on my shortlist of favorite Presidents
I think you are wrong about "Biden's age". Biden is 81, born in 1942. He was barely 3 years old when Roosevelt died. How could he have any more direct awareness of FDRs programs and their effectiveness than most older adults today. My mother is 98 and she was just a young girl when Roosevelt's programs were taking effect. As for Reagan, he didn't really CHANGE the grants program for college, it stayed pretty much the same through his terms in office. What changed was the increase in loan programs after the Vietnnm war to help more people get into college which led a large number of people going to college into debt. But that wasn't just Reagan fault, the Democrats supported it just as much, maybe more. The college loan programs grew more dramatically under Clinton.
That crossed my mind, but i didn't think it was worth the effort to be so pedantic. I remember, as a younger person hearing over and over by my olders how bad the Great Recession was, etc.
My mom is 87 and believe me, our family (parents, grandparents, great grandparents) was steeped not only in Depression knowledge but lived as though it would happen again. Our family lived in Oklahoma so we had a double whammy of the Depression and Dust Bowl. Many great uncles and aunts moved to California. My grandparents couldn't deal with CA and came back to OK where my grandfather worked for the WPA. Those that lived through those times taught their children about scarcity and they, in turn, taught their children. I can see in myself habits that stem from my mother and grandmother and their living not only through the Depression but also through WW2 and rationing.
I’m old. I was raised knowing about FDR and Ike. Our family, like many others, suffered losses.
Jon, the cost of college grew as government spending on social programs were deliberately shrunk. The inceased loan programs became necessary for people to afford a college education, just as the need for a college degree was growing.
College tuition increased as States reduced their subsidies.
Got that wrong. I’m a Vietnam-era Vet and got 2 graduate degrees using my veteran’s benefits. No debt for me and no soup for you.
Not to take anything away from FDR, but Joe has also had to deal with several strongmen trying to build or rebuild their empires through bloody invasions.
Russia is seriously weaker that they were in February, 2022 and Netanyahu is likely hanging on by a thread. Putin dares not show his face in public as their are assassins everywhere.
Bob Woodward's book, "War" outlines many of the amazing things the Biden team has accomplished including preventing Putin from using nukes by negotiating with the Chinese and others to stop Putin.
Gotta read that book!
When my mom was on hospice, after a night of tossing and turning--borrowing from the Eagles --"every morning, I wake up and worry, what's gonna happen today?"
Good Lord MAGA has me so so so tired.
I needed something to make me smile. Maybe you guys do, too. I went back to Doonesbury's cartoon this weekend. Worthy of a second (and third, and so on) look.
https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/10/27/
IF ONLY!!!!!!
Miselle, THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!
Add Steven Miller et al to the lockup.
I am tired too, and scared—and I needed a laugh. Thank you!
Couldn’t agree more. I usually go to a local pet food store for Fancy Feast cat food. At store A, it’s 90 cents…. at Stop and Shop…. it’s.99 cents…. Why!!!! And people can’t afford to have their pets. It’s too expensive. And I don’t blame Biden at all, it’s greed!!! Okay thank you for letting me rant. LFG!💙💙💙🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Greed. For me, it is pet expense and car repairs. For others too, I have read. Car repairs are “whatever the traffic can bear.” Vet bill, for having cat put down last year - $640. The first three cats I had who had reached the end, vets gave a shot and charged nothing. I rant with you.
We've had the good fortune to have a mobile vet come to our house and put our cats down. That service costs $300 and is absolutely priceless.
I have a grand nephew who has worked his arse off to open his Vet Clinic in NC. I begrudge no one success, but some places have figured out that vulnerable people are easy to scam. I would love to have that option. And that would be reasonable. Seems that animals often get the short end of the stick since there are no happy “endings.” Hug your pets today.
Hugs every day, JD.
Always, I have decided that cats suffer from emotional issues as much as humans. They just can’t talk. My one who is left won’t eat canned salmon or any canned food after my Rosie died. Had to buy Meow Mix. She needs a therapist. I may too.
Is Stop and Shop a convenience store? They all have higher markups, maybe that's the price of "convenience"... ie volume relative to overhead. And, are you saying Store A is "less greedy" that S&S?
Stop and Shop is a major grocery store in the Notheast—maybe beyond that, I don’t know. Anyway, they, like so many others, have greatly increased prices. I can see that even though only shopping for 2 these days. Are those down the line getting more or is it just the big suppliers? I can see that things are coming down a bit, but profits seem to be up a lot.
Thanks Susan. I can find slightly lower prices from chain to chain, eg Costco / Walmart vs the national chains in Canada, or in discounting stores. Short answer is shop the lowest price, shop the sales - on that last item, that's closer to the real price, since consumers flock to them, all built into the chains' basic profit calculations. All of them find steady customers
Hear! Hear! Bravo Steve.
No, Steve, I believe Roosevelt did NOT know what path to take initially, but as a former politician and governor of New York State, he DID know the history of an economic boom a century earlier generated by his predecessor Dewitt Clinton's gamble on behalf of early commercial interests by embarking on the first, and for many decades, the largest public works project in the new United States, the Erie Canal. While derisively called "Clinton's Ditch" when first proposed in 1807, building (actually digging) began in earnest in 1817 when Clinton received approval from the legislature for $7 million for construction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erie_Canal). The canal was financed by public bonds, was completed in 1825 ahead of schedule and the business generated by this extraordinary public work paid off the bonds well before they came due. The breadth and amount of subsequent development was virtually unprecedented and laid the groundwork for future public investments in the new country's infrastructure.
Hey, John. Just fyi… It’s not polite to start a comment by saying “No” (as in No, you’re wrong). Try “Well, in my opinion …” next time. This way, you don’t come off as believing you’re a know-it-all who doesn’t think other people’s opinions matter. Just trying to keep you from being blocked in the future by people more easily offended than I am. Have a nice day!
Funny—I had no problem with John’s answer at all and found your reprimand odd!
Steve & Susan, I certainly intended no "reprimand" but more historical background which didn't align with what Steve presented as a simple fact: "Roosevelt knew what path to take to end the Great Depression." While I think a much better case can be made for Biden knowing how to end Reaganomic kleptocracy, given the history of the time (and this IS primarily historically framed newsletter), it is my opinion that much less was recognized about the long term economic effects, namely the concentration of wealth, of what later came to be known as "supply-side economics" back then. I believe FDR did not know what to to do but did recognize that something different from Hoover's policies had to be tried and he found an enormously bright, well-educated woman to help him drive a recovery from the "Great Depression" in the person of Frances Perkins, the first woman to ever serve on a presidential cabinet. On March 25, 1911, Perkins witnessed the fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory where 146 garment workers—mostly young women—lost their lives. (Management had locked the factory doors to prevent the workers from wasting the company's time with smoking or bathroom breaks.) It was, she later said, the day the New Deal was born.
In the wake of the fire, she was appointed to head New York’s Committee on Safety and principal investigator of a legislative commission that resulted in the most comprehensive state laws on workplace health and safety to date. Governor Al Smith appointed her to the state’s Industrial Commission in 1919 and later named her its chair.
Perkins joined FDR’s cabinet when he served as governor of New York from 1929 to 1933. Before appointing her, the two spent a day at the Roosevelt estate at Hyde Park. As FDR drove them around the property, she told him that if she accepted the position she would promote a progressive policy agenda that would limit the hours women worked, restrict child labor, develop a better workman’s compensation system, and broaden the state’s labor laws to more industries. He agreed and promised to help her. She soon became the most prominent state labor official in the nation, responding to the deepening economic depression and, at the same time, advancing her boss’s visibility. <https://livingnewdeal.org/frances-perkins-woman-behind-new-deal/ >
In short, the focus on protecting workers, on legislating and supporting workers, for the people rather than for business owners was what later proved to an effective economic stimulus leading to recovery from the Great Depression.
Trump, "People will just believe you. You just tell them and they believe you." He tells them everying is terrible. They are paying more for food and shelter and they know it is Biden's fault becaue they are told. They believe that the wars in Gaza and Ukraine would not happen if tRump were president. They think that it is lies that tRump had praise for Hitler and he wanted generals like Hitler had. tRump does not Hitler's generals tried to assinate him.
Well, then, Greedflation went global as supply chains were severely disrupted by the Covid shutdown with millions thrown out of work, not just American corporations. And, remember, if inflation has been a struggle, it has indeed come down to within the typical 2% overall range. Food inflation was among the worse hit sectors, but its rate has also declined. I see Trump has made a promise to "bring down" inflation, but in fact it has already been largely curtailed. During the shutdowns both corporations and small business suffered. Airlines, for example, were shattered, including bankruptcy. Just putting everything down to "Greedflation" is likely a bit of an oversimplification.
Steve, I still try to explain to my MAGAt friends who post the "Gas was 1.80 and the interest rate was 1.25 in 2000. Tell me again how I am better off" that greedflation is a thing, fuel companies raked in record profits and that the Fed acted by raising interest rates to prevent a recession. I am met with their usual, well thought out and articulated "Nu-uh. It's Harris's fault".
Very well said Steve. So few talk about the truth behind people feeling high price as economy problems when the reality is it is Greedflation that is the cause of high prices. Thanks to Reganomics and the removal of merger rules, and the thought that money moving upwards would trickle down to the people. Well trickle it has to drip, drip, drip. I thank Biden for all he has done to bring this country to the envy of the world economically. However, so many have drunk the juice it will be a tough road to get them to see the light. For the rest of us, if you have not already voted, the do so and make it BLUE up and down that ticket.
Thank you. I watched Kamala Harris tonight and heard her say she would put controls on food prices (something like that). This is what we need… and what Biden (for whatever reason) didn’t do. I hope MAGA heard that she’s going to do this… although they’d probably say she’s lying. That’s how programmed they are not to trust Democrats.
Well said, Steve.
We can all arm ourselves with some good talking points to share with the doubters we still need to reach with this Politico article from 3 days ago about Bill Clinton’s work down South helping explain the economic message as only this master-communicator can: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2024/10/26/bill-clinton-north-carolina-harris-00185596
So totally agree!!!!
Food, becsuse of climate change, may require rationing and price controls as during WWII. Can’t mention that until the election is settled, however.
Thank You Dr. Richardson. Your history lessons have so many layers woven into them they have quite an impact. Thank You for your tremendous work on Letters from an American. Maintaining Letters while keeping your other professional commitments, authoring books and the following grueling book tours, interviewing President Biden and the many forums you participate in and your podcast. And I haven't even covered everything. Whew!
Thank you for your work.
I concur wholeheartedly with you Barbara.
Dr. Richardson has over 1 million subscribers to her Letters from an American. She has become a seriously valued voice in America today.
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This is what should have happened now with Biden, who redressed a terrible situation following the pandemic, set the economy on a good path and passed bills to benefit ordinary, hard working Americans. The result is a thriving economy, low unemployment, better healthcare for many, etc.
Instead, a considerable amount of people whine about the price of eggs and are ready to vote an incompetent, hateful and malignant clown who protects only the super rich while despising the middle class, and has mounted a coup after he lost the 2020 election. This is what poor media coverage, manipulation and brainwashing have done to people, who can’t see past their own nose and vote against their own interests.
We can only hope that the nazi rally was a bridge too far and some of those hypnotized people suddenly woke up.
Midnight, I also hope the very same. However, in too many places, where I'm based in VA., at least, many in our population don't do the leg work necessary to fully understand the issues at hand. There are so many who are facile and topical in what they say, hear, and decide which only puts them on a road to lazy discussions and reasoning. The problem with much of the American public is that we have turned into visual learners where too many of us simply don't read. Because visual skills are for the most part topical, too many have lost the intellectual depth in understanding what they see. This is where the current republican party takes advantage of the population. It is in their best interest to home in on such limitations as it increases the chances for their success at the public's interest. Kamala Harris is right: the public is exhausted by Trump's divisiveness. However, it's an exhaustion that no one can really afford.
Trump said he loves the uneducated.
So, he has said; and that's a big problem for the rest of us who actually *think* through a campaign rather than *react* through it. I learned well from my dear mother back in the '60's when Kennedy was running against Nixon. She would often tell me that republicans are too often "reactionary" while democrats (and especially Kennedy at that time) were the intellectuals.
Oh, plenty of Americans still read...sadly it's limited to what, 160 characters?
(I don't do social media, so perhaps I have dated myself on that.)
I think if you're referring to X-itter (use the Chinese pronunciation of "Xi") it was 140 at one time.
I've thought Xitter or TwiX would have been better names than just X. But I've never understood it, before or since Musk.
Miselle, you've hit the nail on the head. Kudos!
I disagree. Let us praise Biden who had major economic accomplishments and turned the tide, nay the destructive tsunami, of neoliberal public policy (that existed in both political parties). While our national macro-economic figures look great, one has to understand they do not capture the stress and impoverishment of people, families, and government represented by our nation's monstrous wealth inequality. It is said that 3 Americans have more wealth than the least wealthy (?) 50% of the population. Not understanding that the price of basic necessities - eggs and other foods, rent, gas, child care, not to mention ridiculous out of pocket medical care expenses (even when insured) - have stressed, angered and upset many, many Americans is not to understand where MAGA Trumps gets its energy.
Absolutely! There are vast numbers of Americans who, correctly, see the political, judicial, economic, and education systems stacked against them. They may not be deeply or fully informed on some issues, but they are daily beaten down. They are looking for someone to blame. Immigrants, both legal and illegal) are an easy target. Many Trump backers are just looking for hope. A flimflam artist with no moral core and an enormous, insatiable ego has stepped in to be their Messiah. He says the things they want to hear and promises them prosperity, happiness, and vengeance on those who have, in their view, caused them pain. We miss the point by dismissing Trump supporters as foolish or stupid. Though his proposed policies will, in fact, hurt middle-class, working-class and poor people, it doesn’t matter to those who view the current systems as broken. They just want to blow them up, much like FDR’s legion of followers wanted to end failed Republican policies. Throw in the super-wealthy, the religious hypocrites, the blatantly racists, homophobes, and misogynists and the MAGA crowd is a pretty good representation of America as a whole.
I never said they were stupid, they have been tragically manipulated and lied to. They deserve better, if only they could see past their nose.
I didn’t mean to imply YOU said they are stupid. But I do hear that a lot from people who are dismissive of MAGA folks. People who are struggling to pay rent, buy food, fill up their gas tanks, pay off school debt or medical bills, afford childcare or elder care, etc., are wondering what hit them. They “played by the rules” but are drowning.
The only way these people can improve their condition is not voting for a corrupt, lying malignant racist who will only care for billionaires and rich and entitled people. It’s up to them.
The Trump backers are looking for “lessers” to blame.
Found this timely since it was posted today too.
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Glenn Greenwald @ggreenwald
Oct 29, 2024 at 8:31pm
"Bezos tells corporate journalists indisputable facts they refuse to acknowledge: The country hates and distrusts them.
" Like virtually all corporate media outlets, the Washington Post has no “credibility” to squander. The opposite is true: the mass media is now held in the lowest esteem of any major American institution, somehow even lower than Congress. And the major reason why is that the public perceives – accurately – that large media outlets do not try to tell the truth, but instead lie on purpose to advance their political, ideological, and partisan preferences."
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Most citizens despise the media even more than Congress? Well, not so surprising when the groups contending for winner and runner-up for that dubious award happen to be those working harder to make us fear, disrespect, and deprecate every neighbor, gender, political party, religion, or skin color that isn't ours.
Congratulations to the WaPO subscribers who cancelled. Overdue.
Now, invest some of that savings in some decent investigative news sources. A few contenders are on Substack.
I don't think they're "looking for hope", I think they've found someone to hate; it is what feeds them.
The end result of a long standing republican campaign, to misinform the public, so that they may win votes by appealing to voters egos and not their intellect. So much easier and more effective! This is the only way they can win elections. Their policies clearly don’t serve the needs of their voters.
And that’s really sad.
Sadly, I think you are correct
Childcare eats up a huge chunk of a family’s budget and often forces them to scramble to have childcare.
but but but....the grannies are supposed to be doing that for free!
(Anyone else notice that Vance didn't suggest the Pepaws do it?)
One of my sons and his wife are saving enough to buy a new car now that their youngest has gone to kindergarten. It’s a huge burden for young people! Although, of course, this grandmother could have gone from household to household, taking care of all the offspring in turn!
The stress of my bros is mainly brought on by their listening to crap, in their political churches, the fire station, etc. they are not poor, having worked their arses off, but do depend on some SS and Medicare. Shocker, without Medicare, they will really feel stress. Duh.
If one shops the perimeter of the supermarket, prices have not increased dramatically. Eggs today are $2:74/ doz. Processed and ultra processed foods have increased. Likewise if you adjust gas prices for inflation, they are at 1958 levels
Going back years ago, I had a coworker who constantly complained about prices. Once, as I scanned the weekly food ads from the morning paper, and she complained (again) I mentioned how I managed to cut my costs. One way was to follow ads cycles, and when possible, buy sale items in bulk. She looked at me like I was nuts and said "who can afford to do THAT!?" That was the easiest of my solutions. I limited my shopping to two competing groceries, and mentioned how I compared prices, clipped coupons (paper coupons were much more prevalent then) used shopping rewards, purchased some store brands, etc. Her answer "that's too much work!"
Now I am retired, and grocery shopping HAS become much more work. I am frustrated by having to buy a certain number of items to get a lower price (ie; one bag of chips is $5.99, but 4 is $10) prices that are only valid on certain days, prices that are only valid using ordering on line, prices that are valid only using combinations of certain items, etc, etc. And this is no joke: I would estimate that about a third of my shopping receipts have errors on them. It's difficult to catch them when you have a large order in store, and so frustrating to go back and have them correct them after checking at home. If it's less than a dollar total, I generally don't. Check your receipts carefully.
True story, just last week. I clipped my online coupons that reduced canned soup from $3.79 to 99 cents each, IF I purchased exactly 5. Which I did. I came in just to pick up a few items and did self checkout. It rang up at the full price. I took the receipt to the service desk, where the snarly employee demanded to see my phone to ascertain I had clipped the coupon. (I had) She then blamed me for clipping the coupon on the website online via computer. "You NEED to use the app! It messes up on the computer!" I have found their closest competitor to have a smooth, online pick up process, better "rewards" (which I use to lower my fuel costs up to $2/gal off) easier navigated website, and allows me to redeem any paper coupons at the pick up . They still have many of the above price point conditions, which I hate., but guess who gets the bulk of my dollars?
You can save quite a bit of money if you work at it. I'm sure that plenty of shoppers either honestly don't have the time, but others (my sister) prefer to watch Golden Bachelor and Dancing with the Stars.
Certain produce (on the perimeter) like fruit has gone up a lot. I partly overcome this by sticking with seasonal fruits. Unlike most people, I am lucky that can grow fruit in my yard.
None of these people will be better off with trump, not one of them. Plus they will be living in a dictatorship.
Here in lies the real issue. Economic inequality. A government that shows all the benefits to the wealthy and chastizes the poor for expecting more. Biden made a good start. If Harris wins and Democrats have a majority in the House and Senate, we'll see if she and legislators have the courage to fix this. I think the fix can be in....it just may take a political will that the people have to push. Our work will not be done after November 5.
I believe Midnight's point really revolved around the inadequacy of those who need to see, but can't, the foundation of why they are in such a position, and then chronically complain about such things as the price of eggs, gas, etc. On that thought, I'm with Midnight, as he correctly states how much they whine about such costs. For those who are in such poverty and lower middle-class situations, don't think that I am immune to their suffering. When my mother, born in Brooklyn NY, came back to N.Y. from living in Syria with what amounted to be a failed marriage and two children to take care of, I can remember well the times she had to cobble $10 together in order to go shopping for food. However, in spite of the stresses of life, she was a reader and student of the political situation of that time. All she had was a performance in music degree that she earned form David Manis School of Music during her student years in New York. I understand the points made here. However, stressed these folks may be (and I'm sure they are), too many don't have the wherewithal to understand that studying the current situation is, *in fact*, not only in their interest, but also in the quality of life needed to get ahead. I'm sure there are many reasons for their station in life: born in poverty, inadequate education, depressed area in which they live, chemical explosions such as happened in Palestine Ohio, etc. etc. etc. the list can go on forever. No doubt, these folks need help and it's been the left of center candidates who have reached out to them and tried to help them out through policy changes which have been historically unfavored by the right of center. Unfortunately, too many have been steeped in the republican line of thinking and actually said to in a *punitive* manner: such as "go get a job", or "you're responsible for yourself", or (and this one is my favorite) "you've got to pull yourself up by your own bootstraps." All of those platitudes are not necessarily bad; however, democrats have a clear history of helping them "find a job" or teaching them "self-responsibility" through education programs, or even helping them "pull themselves up by their own bootstraps". Therein lies the difference between the two, especially the two current parties, but also, the two parties historically.
Exactly this.
I'm worried Harris is going back to neoliberal economics. She seems poised to fire Lina Khan, who is doing so much for the American people. I think if Harris would just come out in favor of consumer protections and be anti monopoly, she'd win the votes. But instead she's pandering to wealthy donors. I'm worried it's gonna cost her the election. Biden has been fantastic; I'm skeptical of Harris.
Another important cause of people not understanding the present economic pressures is the deliberate dumbing down of education standards in red states. These states generally have low taxes so schools are greatly underfunded with science text books that are 30 years old. There is also a chill on intellectual curiosity with the deliberate and choreographed banning (and in places burning) of many books that are deemed unacceptable by a small number of special-interest groups like Moms for Liberty, who are funded by money from the Koch fortunes. The unsurprising result over several decades is a population that doesn't value critical thinking or knowing how to distinguish fact from lie.
And in addition to all that, most of the media consumed in red states is owned and controlled by a special-interest political group - Trump supporters.
Midnight in Paris, love your name, reminds me of my mom who used a perfume and face powder of that name. I remember a navy round box with silver script and perhaps a silver design. Just sharing a warm moment.
So agree with your post, every sentence and thought!
Thanks! 😊
If the 2nd insurrection is not already in progress, it will be after Trump loses.
Midnight, not in my MAGAt friends' view. It was a stellar event.
I hear what you are saying, however, I think your friend mispronounced the word "stellar". The word your friend should have been looking for was "cellar".
That’s very depressing.
Thank you Dr. Richardson. We have learned a lot from you. This story of the Great Depression and the sharply different approaches to solving the problem, cannot be told often enough. Fortunately FDR turned to Frances Perkins for ideas on social programs to bring relief to the unemployed. Imagine how different the scene was back before Social Security, Unemployment benefits, FDIC insured bank accounts, government work projects and no minimum wage. This the GOP would have us believe were the good old days, which included segregated schools.
Thank you for reminding us of Frances Perkins. Just as the Dems have always cleaned up the economic mess that the Rs made, it's important for us to remember the brilliant, strong, and compassionate woman who was FDR's Secretary of Labor.
May i add she was the longest serving secretary of labor. Ever. She is one of my heroes!
Indeed, she was an amazing woman and one of my heroes. FDR knew what he was doing when he appointed her.
The good old days were when the very rich obeyed virtually no rules and bought the government they liked, and could charge or pay as much or as little as suited them. That was the payload of Reaganomics and "Citizens United".
The good ol' days, briefly...
"Politicians and commentators agreed that most Democrats and Republicans shared a “liberal consensus” that the government should regulate business, provide for basic social welfare, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. It seemed the country had finally created a government that best reflected democratic values."
Thanks for another history lesson, with a humorous footnote as to the origin of Foghorn Leghorn, and this respite from election news. I appreciate you so much for the perspective you bring to our current lives, and for the many hours of work you have put in these past five+ years to educate us, enlighten us and at times entertain us. Thank you.
Couldn’t have said it better myself!
I wonder if this was an early, inverse “study” for Archie Bunker?
Ditto..
Thank you Dr. Richardson for making me a more informed person. I find your voice so refreshing and wish I could be one of your classroom students. Your work is valuable and vitally important to our continuing work for our democracy.
No need to be in a classroom when we're involved in lifelong learning right here.
Knowledge is that broad horizon stretching out before us. learning is our endless march toward it. i cant remember who said that.
You are correct. As a retired teacher, I would love to audit her class!
Helen, I view LFAA as auditing a graduate level "Politics and History" class. The comments section here is when we (us students) go out after class for coffee/beer and discuss the class and what we learned, and how our experiences add to the mix.
Truly.
- Pulled Quote -
Remember this sentiment:
"...but certain wealthy Americans were sure they knew what had caused it. The problem, they said, was that poor Americans refused to work hard enough and were draining the economy. They must be forced to take less.''
This view, simplistic and dismissive, often obscured the structural changes needed for real recovery. It was a convenient narrative that placed the burden on the vulnerable, absolving the wealthy from responsibility—a classic move from fascism's playbook. By deflecting blame onto the poor and marginalized, fascist ideologies reinforce economic disparities, bolster authoritarian control, and protect elite interests under the guise of "national stability" or "moral discipline."
"A buffoon who represented the past, the Claghorn character was such a success that he starred in his own Hollywood film and later became the basis for the Looney Tunes cartoon rooster Foghorn Leghorn."
Now reenacted by Louisiana's own John Kennedy.
Right? Every time I hear John Kennedy speak, I expect him to say "Go away son, ya bother me".
Yup. " ... That's all Folks"
lin “ah say, ah say, ah say that little chick is gonna be the death of us all”. (The little chicken with the glasses that had Fighorn’s number)
RIP Mel Blanc!
lol, lin. And they talk about Kamala’s faking her accent/speech pattern.
Kennedy who graduated from Vanderbilt, UVA, and Oxford….and knows better
How ironic that the morbidly rich who were taking advantage of everyone possible should talk about the morality of the poor.
Any GOP critter and ESPECIALLY Mike Johnson and the words “moral discipline” are laughable. Johnson bears false witness daily!
Forced austerity thru engineered shortages and monopoly power. Same then. Same now.
And then there's that Michael.
“Senator Beauregard Claghorn” reminds me of Senator John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), who is no fool, but is happy playing one to entertain his supporters.
Good call on Kennedy! He definitely poured on his Southern accent when he decided that certain members of Congress needed him to read bedtime stories of pornography.
There is no indication that Kennedy isn't a fool. An Ivy League education only means that one was able to meet the requirements to enroll.
There have been thousands of legacies that had no business being accepted into colleges across the US. And others, like Jared Kushner whose daddy paid several million so he could attend.
He was also a Rhodes Scholar. They don't give those out lightly. He's a deeply cynical man, playing the rubes, and sometimes playing A rube, in search of power.
The same can be said for many on the right side of the aisle. Ted Cruz readily comes to mind.
Ted is the one
Louisiana chiming in to say that yes, many of us call him Foghorn Leghorn! Such a disgrace.
And now we are right back to where we were. Regressive taxation, monopolies, downsizing of public works, stock manipulations, and massive wealth in the hands of the very, very few.
And lots of poor people, anger, and growing fascism.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
Delighted to see John Kenneth Galbraith in the notes. At social gatherings I often ask people I don't know -"Milton Friedman or John Kenneth Galbraith?" which likely explains why I don't get invited much. This LFAA is a great example of why I consider the central GOP policy "Trickle-down" to be fraud and not economics.
While Reagan and his "economists" spoke of free market -they knew such a market did not exist. The Bush tax cuts, coupled with banking deregulation led to the massive taxpayer bailout at the beginning of President Obama's first term. And all the non-interventionist "free market" nonsense was on full display when we had to provide a $Trillion to steer the financial from catastrophe. The economic engine did not recover after 1929 until liberal policies and government (taxpayer) spending pulled the United States out of the greed-based trickle-down economy. Trickle-down (or supply-side economics) as it is sold by the wealthy through their GOP shills (and a few so-called Dems like Joe Manchin) might have been an interesting theory once. We've seen how the experiment works. It led to long-term suffering once, it led to the massive bailout in 2009, and it has led to the extreme wealth concentration of today where we get publishers too frightened to print the truth (or too focused on self-enrichment), and dancing billionaire imbeciles on stage with a Presidential candidate running to stay out of prison while commiting more crimes against the United States and our allies under the Supremely Corrupted Court's umbrella of "official acts of duty".
George As those ‘free traders’ choose to ignore, Adam Smith, ‘the father of modern capitalism,’ in his economic ‘Bible,’ warned that, whenever businessmen gathered, they sought to establish monopolies and others nefarious arrangements. Smith, back in the 18th century, discussed the need for government to serve the people against raw capitalism.
Indeed and thank you Keith. Adam may have also unwittingly argued in favor of ESG (environmental, social, governance data)by stating a buyer and seller should have “perfect knowledge” in a transaction. When the seller doesn’t disclose the externalization of costs to society, they are intentionally relaying imperfect information to the buyer. Of course ESG, like DEI has become part of the anti-woke battle the wealthy are now waging to keep society divided and conquered.
His Theory of Moral Sentiments lays the groundwork for his second work Wealth of Nations. the first volume has been largely over looked so as to corrupt and misconstrue the second by the Chicago boys. Just saying
Gregg Yup. He wasn’t an economist—phrase didn’t exist. He was a philosopher.
Painful TRUTH.
Foghorn Leghorn and Blowhard Trumphorn were both born in 1946, about a month apart.
"Boy! I say, Boy! we're gonna Make America Great Again! That other guy tryin' to copy my hairdo? Why, he's just a joke, son!"
Franklin D. Roosevelt was my father's hero. He lived through the depression and fought in World War II. Like most veterans of that era, he didn't say too much about the war, but he loved to talk about FDR and how his presidency changed the country. His stories were an oral history that I will never forget.
And his wife Eleanor was an amazing First Lady. She set the standard.
And then there's Melania. An uneducated Eastern European that cheated her way into the US.
Eleanor!! The best gal ever!! And you had to mention that ..........other woman....... dang it!
Thank you, Professor Richardson, for this history and reminder on the 95th anniversary of what was an economic cataclysm for the country and the world. And indeed, it had global ramifications, yet the US, despite the horrific economic distress in the country, coupled with the environmental catastrophe of the Dust Bowl, maintained its democracy.
And that, to me, accentuates the shamefulness of our moment. Yes, there is economic distress and income inequality that needs redressing. But that is also taking place at a time when the nation’s collective wealth is robust, but poorly distributed. I knew all too many Trump supporters in the US when I lived there who were wealthy with secure jobs whose only reason for voting for him was their out and out racism.
Their jobs and livelihood were not threatened. They were prosperous and the inflation the world suffered in the wake of Covid was shared and global, and relatively benign in the US. Compare this to when fascism came to Germany, in the wake of a humiliating defeat with humiliating terms of surrender in WWI, with hyper inflation, with political instability and a rather weak Weimar government (despite some minor successes). The German people had at least had an excuse to be so vulnerable.
The US, on the other hand, has more information at its finger tips (literally) and remains relatively if imperfectly affluent. The notion that making the country the property of a single political party, owned and operated by a single ruling crime family, will solve its problems is preposterous and risible. And if you are so desperate to think taking away the rights of others will empower you and put money in your pocket, then you are about to have a very unpleasant wake up call.
I was born during the Great Depression. Though I was too young to appreciate the depths of despair throughout America, I saw desperate people selling hot chestnuts and apples and seeking food at back doors as they struggled to survive.
There were middle class friends of my family who lost everything in the Great Depression. For my first eleven years, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was my only president.
Historians have wrestled with FDR during his extraordinary career. This patrician, first as New York governor, then as president of the United States, initiated new and dynamic programs intended to provide support to the unemployed and to strengthen the economy.. This was unprecedented, certainly in America and, also, throughout the world.
What he most provided was hope during a terrible time—unemployment of far more than 25%, inadequate food lines, and the possibility of physical uprisings by desperate people. Huey Long, Father Conklin, and others were waiting in the wings to capitalize on a fragile democracy.
I recall some of FDR’s Fireside Chats—33 over 12 years. Thanks to radio, he was able to speak to many millions of Americans. This was comforting, and his photo was posted in homes around the country.
Did FDR ‘conquer’ the Great Depression? At best I would say that he attacked it vigorously. ‘All we have to fear is fear itself’ was his watch word, as he closed the banks for four days and launched his 100 Days New Deal programs. Some were good, others worked rather badly. As FDR said, ‘We must try something, and if I bat 70% then I will be content.’
FDR kept experimenting. In retrospect, some of what he initiated was bad economics. Indeed, in hind sight, President Herbert Hoover, who was pillaried during this period, initiated several of the key programs that worked the best during the FDR years.
By 1936 the economy was considerable better and FDR won a spectacular reelection. Then there was the ‘Roosevelt recession,’ as FDR sought to be more traditional.
Objectively, one can conclude that World War II got the United States out of the Great Depression. In part, this was as we became of ‘arsenal of democracy’ before Pearl Harbor. Then we provided our massive manufacturing to win World War II with Britain, the Soviet Union, and other allies.
I wept when President Roosevelt died in April 1945. Then and now I realized that he had saved the United States of America, both through the Great Depression and World War II. Historians still debate how FDR operated and what specifically he achieved.
Personally, I place him with George Washington and Abraham Lincoln as one of our three greatest presidents.
Thank you for this real, lived history, Keith.
I’m old too, he created the world for me and sibs. Of course, we liked Ike. In my adulthood, repubs have never stopped trying to tear down that world.
I was born during the last months of Pres Truman's administration, so I don't know first hand FDR and the Depression. I grew up liking Ike and reeeeaaally liking JFK. But I have generational memory, if that's a thing, from my parents and grandparents of the New Deal and their hardscrabble survival. So, I've inherited a love of FDR and passed it on to JRB.
Beth I greatly admired Ike, initially as commander of the allied forces in Europe. His smile, captured by Norman Rockwell, was magnificent.
At 19 I was associated with the creation of Eisenhower Fellowships, which was my Dad’s idea to provide opportunities to bring young leaders worldwide to the US and maintain a network. I met Ike with Eisenhower Fellows when he was president.
I have been associated with EF ever since, meeting and breaking bread with well over 1300. Susan and David Eisenhower are still involved.
Our chairmen include Jerry Ford, George H. W. Bush, Henry Kissinger, General Colin Powell, and SecDef Robert Gates.
In 2016 I initiated a book on EF and This I believe for which Colin Powell wrote a forward.
In retrospect, President Eisenhower terminated the Korean War, kept peace, was moderate nationally, respected the Constitution, and reflected more moderate views than JFK and LBJ.
Thanks for this glimpse from the "front row". My folks were born in 1916 and 1921, so both were depression era kids. My Dad's Dad was an engineer for Great Northern; their family did well, and they took in what my Dad called "the girl cousins" (5 or 6 in all, IIRC) when their families couldn't provide for them. My Mom's Dad benefited from the CCC, and worked building some of the original bridges in many of California's state parks. Roosevelt was the first president both of my parents voted for; both were lifelong Democrats.
The introduction to this newsletter is a brilliant piece of writing. Well done, Dr. Richardson! And I appreciated learning about the origin of the Foghorn Leghorn character in Looney Tunes. :-)
And now the Entertainment has come right on stage in the Political Spectacle- with Lauren Leghorn Boebert, Marjorie Looney Tunes Greene, Matt Foghorn Gaetz, etc And, of course, Ronald McDonald T-rump, the most dangerous clown of all
and John Leghorn Cleghorn Kennedy