After pointing out that Americans tend to return sitting presidents who preside over economic good times to office, the editors of USA Today propose some strategies that Democrats might use to offset that advantage. The best is that they should abandon their present catastrophizing. Here’s the worst:
When Trump tries to argue that electing a Democrat would result in tanking the economy, the nominee might also point out that since World War II, the economy has done better under Democratic presidents than Republican ones. In particular, Democratic presidents have been more fiscally responsible. They ran up big deficits only during wars and deep recessions and, on two occasions, in 1969 and 2001, bequeathed budget surpluses to their Republican successors.
Of the four alternatives
- Running a large surplus i.e. “paying off the debt”
- Running a small surplus
- Running a small deficit
- Running a large deficit
which do you think is the best? I think that running a small deficit is best and it’s pretty easy to explain why. Running at a surplus means that the government is removing more money from the economy than it’s putting in. How is that a good thing? The only thing that would be worse would be removing a lot more money from the economy than is being put in.
Running at a surplus has almost always resulted in a recession but it’s a lagging indicator. That’s certainly not something that should be bragged about.
Running at a large deficit, as President Trump is, under our present heavily financialized economy is doing pretty much what you’d expect—it’s producing asset inflation, something else the president is bragging about, mistakenly in my opinion.
No, running at a small deficit is best. Which of the Democratic presidential candidates is advocating that?
The headwinds favoring President Trump’s re-election are substantial. Although Democrats would do well not to underestimate them, they should do their best to paint the most optimistic picture possible of the United States and its future. Historically, that’s the posture that wins elections.
optimistic?
Truth is this country was deeply flawed since the beginning. Founded on genocide, slavery, racism, it’s flag causes citizens to fall to their knees in shame. I’m not being sarcastic. All these things are true. And this message is the glue that holds the Democratic coalition together. The candidates can’t be optimistic without sounding suspiciously like Trump. Nattering Nabobs of Negativity.
Nah. There are thrree things that hold the Democratic coalition together. Self-interest, affiliation, and the Republicans are pretty selective in where they look for allies.
The proposed strategies by USA Today are very weak and they don’t address the obvious counterarguments that Trump can make against a Democratic candidate, especially on taxes. So I think the debt will be completely irrelevant in this election for reasons that should be obvious.
Dave, if that is bad news I’m all for it. For one thing, if Trump is not reelected, we will have effectively elected the Intelligence Community to the Presidency. Those superb experts who missed 9/11, the bathroom server, the Crimean annexation, and so much more. Who seem to spend more time spying on potential threats to their sinecures than actually spying on threats to our nation. Who spent the 24 years before Trump along with the State Department running foreign policy to suit themselves and their egos and pocketbooks. Who during that last quarter-century have likely accumulated dirt on every politician and notable in the land for use to manipulate or blackmail. I didn’t vote for them, you didn’t vote for them, nobody voted for them. Right now it’s a choice between hurl and sick to my stomach. I don’t feel like cleaning up messes.
The current Democratic POTUS candidate lineup hate America, despise you and me, and want to replace us with an foreign-born electorate in order to make themselves rulers for life, all on our dime. Oh, and also cure problems that either don’t exist, they don’t want to fix, or know they can’t fix, again with our bank accounts, because we stole the money in the first place. And if you object treat you like a convicted criminal. And I haven’t even addressed the SJW and political correctness they would impose.
Self-interest:
For forty years I was given advice and literature by the Teamsters union touting the benefits of voting Democratic ticket. My self interest is my pension. A lot of drivers are slow, but I noticed that the D’s voted for the Butch Lewis Act in the House only when they were sure it would never pass the Senate. In 2009, when they controlled all three branches, they passed a law, later rejected by the Treasury, to slash that pension. They LIE. The self interest is NOT on the part of the electorate, but on the part of the lifetime officeholders.
If you want to speculate how government would be, ruled entirely by democrats, just observe how VA’s policies and tone has quickly and stridently evolved, becoming strikingly more intolerant since democrats took control of the state legislature. The latest of awful democrat bills circulating there is to make it a criminal offense to even “criticize†a high state government official! Free speech basically has become anathema to this newly configured democrat party. And, while they glorify diversity, it only applies to what their latest virtue-signaling rhetoric demands.
I don’t need to speculate. Unless you live in San Diego, neither do you.
I was in a Costco parking lot this morning when a guy approached me with two petitions to sign. I normally just wave people off. But, this time I gave him the time to explain the petitions’ policy positions. One dealt with supporting the constantly attacked prop 13. The other was against Newson’s proposition weakening our gig economy. I signed both, and asked him if he had another one for Newson’s recall. The response was that he would gladly pass such a petition around “for free!†Nonetheless, I don’t see CA waking up, anytime soon, on how the Democrat’s majority legislature governance is bringing the state down in education, income inequality, homelessness, taxation, weakening our voting system, middle class viability, etc..
Well it could be bad news if Trump is re-elected.
Second terms are notorious for scandals, crisis and unpopularity.
Has there been a successful second term since Eisenhower?
Obama – ISIS
Bush – financial crisis
Clinton – impeachment, Al Qaeda
Reagan – Iran-Contra
Nixon – Watergate
Blue Dog Democrats should start their own party and let the communists and Woke Diversity Intersectionality vertigo-inducing radicals have the husk of the old one. Good candidates don’t care to walk that tightrope dragging their entire past apologetically along.
“The current Democratic POTUS candidate lineup hate America, despise you and me, and want to replace us with an foreign-born electorate in order to make themselves rulers for life, all on our dime.”
Who would that be? Dent describe any of them I have heard? When do they say they hate America?
Steve