Don’t let liberal friends and relatives bring you down during the holiday festivities: America is experiencing the best of times. Having seen a thing or two in the USA, I know a thing or two about the USA: like President Obama damn-near ruined the economy. His results resembled Jimmy Carter – not Bill Clinton. Thankfully, President Trump’s maganomics resemble Ronald Reagan – not Gerald Ford. This is true, and the US is now whizzing past many best-on-record milestones.
Why argue politics when our economy is booming? In October, housing starts (1.3 million) reached a 12-year high. Employment rates are the highest since 1969, and median earnings grew by more than 3% last year, when 2.3 million full-time jobs were added. This month, US stock indices all set their 100th record day since 2016.
Furthermore, it’s a fairer economy. Minority un-employment is at record lows, and black women are fast approaching wage parity with white women. The 2018 US poverty rate of 11.8% is the lowest since 2001 (source: US Census Bureau). Consumption-based poverty measures put the rate at just 2.8% of the population, meaning low-income Americans have greater spending power. That explains how 7 million Americans have quit food stamps since 2016.
It’s a safer nation, because American lives are being put first. Trump has kept the US out of regime-change wars and held detente discussions with Afghanistan, Iran, Russia, and North Korea. ICE agents are allowed to do their jobs, and Mexico’s army is preventing migrants from reaching the US border. Plus, Trump cheers law enforcement and fire departments.
It’s a kinder nation, in which a “racist” president reformed the Clinton crime bill and reduced black incarceration rates, and a black rapper is dismantling the “race industry” that has long sown racial division. 63 million Americans volunteered over 8 billion hours to charitable causes in 2018, when charities raised over $427 billion. In fact, the only deplorable behavior I see is that perpetuated by the anti-fascists.
It’s a more free nation, in which a too-powerful central state is being restrained. Conservative courts have decided a Christian baker cannot be forced by a state (Colorado) to betray his religious beliefs, and a non-union member cannot be forced by a state (California) to pay public-employee union dues. How free are we when California-based Charles Schwab can acquire TD Ameritrade and cut expenses by moving to Texas?
It’s a more tolerant nation, in which Republicans have slowed the mad-liberal rush away from church, family and town. In 2016, red states tapped the brakes on multi-culturism and multi-nationalism in 2016. Originalist judges now give the church-going majority a voice in how far and fast cultural values evolve, and a populist president now gives W2-wage earners a voice in how far and fast free trade intrudes on local economies.
Liberals need to remember a pluralist society can protect aggrieved minorities without angering the majority, and a free-market economy can provide for less fortunate citizens without over-taxing the gainfully employed. Remind that whiny liberal conservatives didn’t resort to violence in 2008, and when the buzzkill is too much, take some stock-market profits and go to Disney World. I hear it’s the happiest place on earth.