Tag Archives: Heather Cox Richardson

On the Precipice

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As we approach with bated breath the change of years on the calendar, the flow of events continues. The calendar is an artificial device invented by humans for counting time but time ticks forward regardless. So, here we are, about to celebrate another “year” lived and with hope, we hope, for a better future for everyone.

Given all that, it’s a good idea to review some things about the recent past that have a large bearing on the near future. For this, I turn to Heather Cox Richardson, brilliant Boston College historian to whose daily newsletter [Letters From an American] I have recently subscribed. I’m pretty sure she’s ok with my repeating her thoughts/information because each issue of the newsletter as a “Share” button at the end with options for email, Twitter, Facebook, and others. And we’re on the same team.

Here are some of HCR’s observations about the Biden administration’s performance:

  • The U.S. economy is stronger than that of any other country in the Group of Seven (G7)—a political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, along with the European Union—with higher growth and faster drops in inflation than any other G7 country over the past three years.
  • … growth accelerated to an astonishing 4.9% annualized rate in the third quarter of the year while inflation cooled from 6.4% to 3.1% and the economy added more than 2.5 million jobs.
  • The S&P 500, which is a stock market index of 500 of the largest companies listed on U.S. stock exchanges, ended this year up 24%. The Nasdaq composite index, which focuses on technology stocks, gained more than 40%.
  • … new businesses are starting up at a near-record pace.
  • … holiday sales this year were up 3.1%.
  • Unemployment has remained below 4% for 22 months in a row for the first time since the late 1960s.
  • … unionized workers in the automobile industry, UPS, Hollywood, railroads, and service industries [won] higher wages and other benefits.
  • Real wages have risen faster than inflation, especially for those at the bottom of the economy, whose wages have risen by 4.5% after inflation between 2020 and 2023.
  • the nation has had a record drop in homicides and other categories of violent crime. The only crime that has risen in 2023 is vehicle theft.

One must wonder why this kind of news does not get more attention from at least the so-called Mainstream Media. I get a vast array of news articles from a vast array of sources every day and you would think from the headlines/content of most of them, that the United States is on the brink of economic collapse. I have wondered in other posts why the Democratic Party’s message of progress/achievement/hope is not keeping up with the relentless drumbeat of lies/deceptions/deflections from Donald Trump and his acolytes. I will wonder.

The “new” science of Behavioral Economics [see Kahneman, Thinking Fast and Slow] teaches us about cognitive biases and the influence of salience on how we generalize our understandings of “reality.” To some significant degree, the repetition of the lies and distortions of Trump’s dark vision of America have led many people to believe we are on the precipice of collapse brought on by immigration, socialism, communism, abortion, and transgenderism, etc etc. The facts say otherwise.

That is not to say, obviously, that there are no problems. One of them, that gets too little attention, is our continued dependence on other countries, most notably but not solely China for many vital products, including critical microchips. See https://www.ted.com/talks/rob_toews_ai_s_single_point_of_failure/transcript?user_email_address=f286772a6726b8e7d0d1da2e91e7f0c9 There are many others but the scale of the United States, its history and its attachment to capitalism inevitably cause problems. For an honest explanation of some by a brilliant scholar who believes in capitalism, see Charles Lindblom’s The Market System (2001), as valid today as when written.

So, as we approach the “New Year,” there is much to celebrate and much about which to be concerned. Maybe this is nothing new, but it feels more ominous for reasons I have discussed in other recent posts. For now, just for today, I will desist from worrying and, with Heather Cox Richardson, accept that we have much to appreciate in our current political leadership, that we still have hope because the good guys outnumber the bad guys, and trust that the good guys will, as they have in past, do what must be done as Americans who still believe in our aspiration set out in the Preamble to the Constitution:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Former Speaker Resigns House Seat to Seek Backbone

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I have just started reading the remarkable daily newsletter published by Heather Cox Richardson, professor of history at Boston College. You too can subscribe: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/subscribe

Today’s post discusses the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision to bar Donald Trump from the state ballot because of his participation in the January 6 insurrection. Although I profoundly wish it were otherwise, I do not believe the U.S. Supreme Court will sustain that decision. I will explain why in another post shortly. But the HCR piece also reminded me that Kevin McCarthy, “the first speaker ever thrown out by his own party, today officially resigned his seat.”

McCarthy needs more free time to search for his backbone that went missing when he was on his knees trying to placate all sides, but ultimately just Donald Trump, on the questions raised by Trump’s efforts to overthrow the government. McCarthy’s persistent lying is recounted in gruesome detail in Liz Cheney’s remarkable memoir, Oath and Honor, A Memoir and a Warning. I am only halfway through her mesmerizing recounting of the days leading up to, through and beyond the January 6 attack on the Capitol but the pattern is clear, especially regarding McCarthy’s behavior. Most of the Republicans in Congress then do not come out much better. But McCarthy was one of their leaders.

To be clear, I abhor most of Liz Cheney’s political views (and those of her father, W’s former VP) but her courage in the face of Donald Trump’s criminality warrants our endorsement. It cost her a position as a Republican Party leader and ultimately her seat in Congress. As recounted in Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liz_Cheney], Cheney supported Trump’s second impeachment and rejected his claim that the 2020 election was stolen.

Slithering on his belly, a characteristic of invertebrates, Kevin McCarthy supported her removal from party leadership. The final straw came when Cheney accepted service as Vice Chair of the House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack. The Wyoming Republican Party, ever obedient to Trump, revoked her membership and she was defeated in the next primary by a Trump-endorsed robot.

We can never undo the past, but we can learn from it. Cheney’s book contains a multitude of chapter-and-verse revelations from inside the Congress throughout the period around January 6. This is a must-read book for anyone who wants to understand more deeply what transpired, who was responsible and all the ugly rest.

It’s good that McCarthy is gone. The ethical quotient of the Congress went up the moment he departed, though it remains to be seen who will replace him in the House. The mind boggles. We hope McCarthy finds his backbone though the odds seem long. It’s more likely he will hang around Mar-a-Lago licking Trump’s boots and hoping for a job in the next Trump administration.

You will recall that is what most of the Republicans did who opposed Trump’s nomination for the presidency in 2016. Even Mitt Romney bent the knee to Trump after the election. Lindsey Graham called Trump a “race-baiting xenophobic religious bigot” among many other things, concluding with “tell Donald Trump to go to hell.” http://tinyurl.com/yh59tz3b Then Graham, like McCarthy, became one of Trump’s strongest defenders.

Read Liz Cheney’s book and you will understand more deeply, if you don’t already, why Donald Trump must never set foot in the White House again. Also subscribe to Heather Cox Richardson’s newsletter for amazing daily insights into America’s descent into hell.