The myth of Republican economic prowess

And the dumb Dems who let it persist

Why does the American voter continue to believe Republicans are better for the economy than Democrats? And why do the dumb Dems allow it?

Going back about a century we have Republican President Herbert Hoover. He was elected in 1928 on a promise to help farmers by increasing tariffs on agricultural products. A year later the Great Depression struck and then those Republican economic wonks gave us the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Bill.

After it passed there was an initial increase in leading indicators, then the bottom fell out. According to Wikipedia, “U.S. imports decreased 66% … and exports decreased by 61%…. U.S. gross national product fell from $103.1 billion in 1929 to … $55.6 billion in 1933.” In other words, Republican leadership made the Great Depression much, much worse. Yet, until this year I have never heard a word about this from Democrats who, by their silence, allowed the myth of Republican economic prowess to grow and embed itself in the overall beliefs of most Americans, myself included.

Democrats Roosevelt and Truman held the White House until President ‘I like Ike’ Eisenhower came into office from 1953-1961. If Republicans were like Ike today, I’d be a Republican. He expanded Social Security and developed the interstate highway system, which though it killed Route 66, allowed high speed hitchhiking, along with whiskers on kittens one of my favorite things back then. He also warned us against the military-industrial complex which deserves a statue in and of itself.

In 1957-58 he did lead us into what was for the rest of the country a ‘mild recession’ but for us in Detroit it was a full fledged depression. My father lost his job at Chrysler and died of that depression a year later. Still, I like Ike. There’s always an exception.

Next we have Republican Ronnie ‘I-I don’t recall’ Reagan. ‘Reaganomics’ was a repudiation of the social progress programs of the New Deal and its aftermath. He initiated the Republican war on labor unions by firing striking air traffic controllers, expanded the absolutely unwinnable war on drugs and started his own dirty little war in Nicaragua by making illegal arms sales to Iran and funding, along with his near-Fascist cronies like Adolf Coors, the Contra rebels. All of this in order to overthrow a duly elected government. Due to his tax cuts and expanded military spending, he tripled the national debt. Yet the public remembers him as one of our heroes thanks to the public relations ineptitude of the dumb Dems.

Hard on the heels of Reagan came George H. W. Bush who “negotiated and signed the North American Free Trade Agreement” though it was not ratified until after he left office. In creating NAFTA he also created the great American Rust Belt, meaning manufacturing jobs were whooshed away as managers sought lower wages and less government regulation. He famously also told us, ‘No new taxes’ which proved a lie and left office with America in an economic recession.

But I remember him as authoring or at least allowing the savings and loan crisis which cost US taxpayers $123.8 billion in savings and loan losses and another $29.1 billion to the thrift industry. During HW’s time 296 thrifts closed along with 1.043 banks. This allowed Big Daddy Big Bucks, aka Bush’s cronies, to pick up real estate properties at pennies on the dollar. It’s enough to make you holler, ‘Republican’s suck when it comes to the economy.’ You’ll have to take a deep breath to get all that out at one time.

Then after Bill Clinton balanced the budget up pops the next Bush from the oil fields of Texas and our economic surpluses are swiftly made military minuses as we disrupt the entire Middle East so that Bush Jr. can make up for what his father failed to do, that is march on to Bagdad. His absolutely senseless war with Iraq created the situation from which the ISIS crisis was born, a crisis we live with today.

Regarding the economy he was equally inept. While Republican Hoover gave us the Great Depression, GW’s lack of leadership led us into the Great Recession where capitalism died only to be reborn by the public’s money. In other words, small ’s’ socialism saved the lie of capitalism. The International Monetary Fund called it the most severe economic and financial meltdown since the Great Depression. Yet, Republicans are considered better for the economy than Democrats, and the dumb Dems continue to allow that to happen.

Personally, my individual wealth fell by 50% during that time, and my experience was echoed not only across America but around the world. And, according to the US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, it was avoidable, meaning if an alert Democrat had been president you can be sure it wouldn’t have happened.

Now we have Donald Trump, a clueless egomaniac in his first term and a wanna-be global czar in his second, whose ridiculous, economically unsound and unreasoned tariffs have started something I’m calling the Great Flush in which we are just beginning to swirl.

With all that material off the top of my head (and with the assistance of Wikipedia) as fodder against the lie of Republican economic supremacy, why have the dumb Dems allowed it to persist? Maybe because the Democratic Party is the flip side of the same coin as the Republicans, the weaker side, the dark side, the flaccid side.

No wonder the ranks of the Independents are growing. We need a new coinage and Donald Trump, unbeknownst to him, is leading us there. Republican economic superiority? Bah! Humbug!

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