Edition V - 2024
UNSPOKEN AND HIDDEN: AMERICAN DEFINITION by Rick Alan Rice
Even speaking as a progressive, each time I turn on my television I wonder about the faces I see on my screen. It may be the channels I watch – I watch all the “liberal” channels – but I see a lot more “people of color” on my TV than I actually see in real life.
SIDE NOTE: Out in the exurb, where I live, the Black population is said to number only about two percent of the whole, and yet I seem to see Black people everywhere I look when I venture down into the village. Am I just sensitive to Black people (who I grew up with), or are they actually “under-represented” in our village count?
The Black population in America only amounts to 14 percent of the whole, and yet I might get the impression, from the media, that we are a 50-50/Black-White nation. Among all the White talking heads, you get a smattering of Latino and Asian correspondents, but mostly, on the minority side, I see Black people.
I find this interesting in many ways – America is still figuring out how to behave in light of our founding history of racism and human slavery – and I wonder about the extent to which this wicked history is figuring into our present media, and our political dilemma.
I particularly wonder about its effect on our current election cycle.
When Barack Obama was elected President of the United States, breaking the color barrier, I was skeptical about the apparent global euphoria. Was America growing up? Growing out of our history of wretched, racist behavior? In retrospect, Obama’s election seems to have set us back into retrograde.
I found Obama to be a decent human being, fair and just and a good representative of our nation. I didn’t find him particularly effective as a President, but allowed for the probability that we are in a post-effective era. We citizens can no longer agree on when Presidents of either party do well, make things better for Americans.
Obama’s election seemed (to me) to liberate a Black incentive to make demands the Black community had never felt empowered to demand before. It was as if “their time” had finally arrived. (The concept of reparation took wing.) That seemed (to me) to light a fire under the White Supremacists among us, who exist in quietly larger numbers than surveys seem to capture. It began to feel to me that a war was brewing below the surface to match the noisy kerfuffle taking place in open view.
In 2016, that quiet war removed Democrats from the power of the Oval Office, and elevated the most-unlikely racist, Donald Trump – “unlikely” only because serious people had always considered Trump a criminal clown, not to be taken as other than comedy. His overt racism was on record, as a landlord refusing Black tenants, and in his bloodlust response to the “Central Park Five” incident. He spent money advertising for the execution of accused Black and Latino defendants who turned out to be innocent.
And, of course, Donald Trump was behind the Obama birth certificate story, the claim that he could not be legitimately elected president because (the claim went) he was not born in America. Obama, in Trump’s narrative, was a foreign agent, one of the “other” that he fears if they are people of color. He seems to have no problem with the meanest kind of White authoritarian leaders (read Putin and Viktor Orbán).
What a pickle!
The Democrat Party – once the party of the working class – has ceded that mantle to the Republicans in favor of championing minority causes, including really minor issues of sexual identity. The Democrats call the Republican ticket weird, but in truth the White supremacists on the political right are a lot more “typical” of the American zeitgeist than are the underdogs the Democrats have chosen to crawl into bed with.
To me, there’s the problem with the Democrat Party, which has caused many former devotees to leave for Independent status. Those folks would never drift into the evil realm of the Republican party, which has veered right off the road and into the ditch of fascism, but the working class despondent no longer relate to the Democrats. Who would?
There’s the problem. Kamala Harris should be winning in huge fashion against her criminal rival. She probably will win the popular vote, probably by a big margin.
Then again, who knows? There are words going unspoken in the minds of American voters, even given all the sound and fury on the surface of election year politics. We are a people who see good intentions turn to unintended consequences, and who have seen bad intentions make chaos of our streets.
Democrats win the popular vote and, in recent history, lose in the electoral college. That archaic system of “electors” – these “anonymous” folks who are the real recipients of our voting franchise – determine the election outcome.
They were put in place in 1787 to ensure that the wealthy White owners of the newly established states would remain in power - forever. They wrote our founding documents as if they were Democrats, but their inner thoughts were Republican, as evidenced in the Federalist Papers.
This election, we are probably going to realize some form of American definition. I truly hope we don’t veer into the meanness that seems to exist in the hidden hearts and minds of who we Americans actually are.
There is a real shift among young American voters - particularly male voters - toward Republican ideals, including a belief in the game aspects of our economy. The RCJ used AI to answer this question that is somewhat baffling to older citizens, who are skeptical of young people in general, so naturally have concerns about their devotion to this alternative currency. According to our AI search, cryptocurrencies have become particularly attractive to young people for several reasons:
High Profit Potential: The possibility of making significant profits quickly is a major draw. Many young investors are enticed by stories of people who have made substantial gains in a short period.
Technological Appeal: Growing up in the digital age, young people are naturally inclined towards new technologies. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology represent cutting-edge innovation, which appeals to their tech-savvy nature.
Financial Independence: Cryptocurrencies offer a way to achieve financial independence outside traditional financial systems. This is particularly appealing to those who may feel disenfranchised by conventional banking and investment methods.
Accessibility: Investing in cryptocurrencies is relatively easy and accessible. All you need is a smartphone and an internet connection to start trading, which lowers the barrier to entry compared to other forms of investment.
Community and Social Influence: The strong online communities and social media influence surrounding cryptocurrencies play a significant role. Platforms like Reddit, Twitter, and Discord are filled with discussions, tips, and success stories that encourage young people to get involved.
Decentralization and Control: The decentralized nature of cryptocurrencies means they are not controlled by any single entity, which resonates with young people who value autonomy and control over their finances.
Gamification: Many young people are introduced to cryptocurrencies through play-to-earn games and other gamified experiences, making the process of earning and trading digital assets more engaging and fun.
Among Donald Trump supporters’ principal arguments for supporting him is their contention that the U.S. economy performed far better under Trump, versus how well it has performed under the Biden administration.
I think it is important to note that conditions change from one two- and four-year period to the next, largely out of the control of whoever happens to be in the Oval Office. Trump inherited a strong economy and was riding high, then the Covid-19 pandemic hit, and all economic factors were reset. The supply chain, that is everything to a demand and supply economy, was broken on a global level, and so Trump saw his numbers go kaput.
Biden came in to office, in part, to restore an economy that had been broken by the global pandemic. It was also one recovering from historic Trump tax cuts for the wealthy, and an incredible increase in deficit spending. Biden has overseen a post-pandemic economy, and comparing Trump’s four years with Biden’s is comparing apples and oranges. That said, here is how it looks.
Still, even if the data comparisons can’t be viewed as exactly analogous, they reveal some things important to the final five weeks of this U.S. election season. Here are six factors that economists consider in judging the wealth of an economy, Trump and Biden compared.GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (GDP) is virtually the same under both Presidents. In fact, U.S GDP has stayed the same – around 2.2 percent annual growth – since 2000.
UNEMPLOYMENT averaged 5.01 percent under Trump, though the number is skewed by the pandemic shutdown of the economy later in his term. After ballooning during Covid, the unemployment rate under Biden has fallen to 4.1 percent, evidence of a soft landing from the economic disruptions of the pandemic.
The INFLATION rate under Trump was a low 1.9 percent, but “When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in 2020, bringing a brief but severe recession along with it, the Trump administration declared a state of emergency and passed stimulus measures such as the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act in an attempt to provide relief to individuals and businesses.” That stimulus package sparked an inflation in prices that carried into the Biden administration. “The average year-over-year inflation rate under President Joe Biden so far is 5.2%. Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, a $1.9 trillion stimulus package to help the country recover from COVID-19. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic recovery and after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 caused gas prices to soar, inflation rose to record levels not seen since the 1980s. Inflation peaked at 9.1% year-over-year in June 2022, the highest increase in 40 years. The Fed responded by raising interest rates 11 times since March 2022 in an attempt to cool the stubborn inflation.” (Quotes from Investipedia)
The CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDEX (CCI) was extraordinarily high when Trump took office in 2020, and it got higher during his term in office, until the pandemic hit. CCI dipped dramatically, rose a bit when Biden was elected, but then was dragged to historic lows by dissatisfaction with the inflation rate.
Regarding INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION, Trump came to office following an “industrial mini-recession in 2015 and 2016.” There were 7,000 manufacturing jobs lost, but they rebounded “bigly” under Trump, as the economy added 462,000 manufacturing jobs in his first two years. Then the pandemic hit, and 1.4 million manufacturing jobs were lost. About 770,000 of those manufacturing jobs had returned before Trump left office. But the combined job losses in 2019 and 2020 resulted in a net loss of 188,000 manufacturing jobs at the end of Trump’s presidency.
Biden experienced a similar pattern, growing the manufacturing base by 754,000 manufacturing jobs in his first two years, then experiencing a slowdown, until more than 173,000 people were employed in manufacturing than had been before the pandemic.
When Biden took office, manufacturing jobs continued to ride the post-pandemic recovery bump. In Biden’s first two years in office, there was a gain of 754,000 manufacturing jobs. By mid-2022, there were more people employed in manufacturing than before the pandemic, according to the BLS. “But as was the case under Trump, the rise in manufacturing jobs stalled in Biden’s third year in office. Between January 2023 and July 2024 — the latest data available — there has been a gain of just 11,000 manufacturing jobs.” And from January through July of this year, there has been a loss of 13,000 manufacturing jobs. (Quotes from factcheck.org)
PERSONAL INCOME AND SAVINGS - the former has suffered under inflation, though during the pandemic that was a significant spike in savings eventuated by the inflation-feeding stimulus checks. Americans saved and then when the pandemic was deemed ended, we started buying stuff. The biggest beneficiaries were the restaurants, airlines, and hotels, but as all that pent-up energy was literally being spent, Americans were racking up big credit debt. From Vox.com/politics – “Americans are pulling from their now-depleted savings and amassing record-high debt on credit cards and other revolving plans in which consumers can repeatedly borrow money up to a set limit and repay in installments. Young adults in particular, many of whom are also struggling with high student loan debt, are increasingly falling behind on their credit card payments. This might be part of the reason many Americans still yearn for the economy of 2019, when they had more cash on hand and didn’t have to resort to putting purchases on a credit card.
BALANCE OF TRADE – we primarily think in terms of our balance of trade with China. Trump touts his negotiation acumen against archrival China, but (from Bloomberg.com) - “When new numbers come out Wednesday they are likely to show the US goods deficit with China in 2023 hit its lowest annual level since at least 2010 and did so while his rival Joe Biden was in the White House. As a percentage of GDP the story will likely be even more dramatic. At 1% of US GDP the deficit will be the lowest since 2003, shortly after China joined the World Trade Organization.”
As of this writing, the U.S. economy seems in good shape. The stock market is hitting record highs. Food prices are back to where they were in 2019. Posing the question of America's economic health to ChatGPT, the AI referenced poynter.org, pewresearch.org, bloomberg.com, nbcnews.com, and nytimes.com and came up with this summary of America's economic condition: "Economists have mixed views on the current state of the U.S. economy. On one hand, data shows strong indicators such as low unemployment, robust job creation, and a growing economy driven by consumer spending. However, public sentiment remains largely negative, with many Americans concerned about inflation and high interest rates. This disconnect is partly due to the lingering effects of the pandemic and the perception that prices are still too high. Additionally, opinions are highly polarized along partisan lines, with Democrats generally viewing the economy more positively than Republicans."
Grass Valley, California
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