Another Good Jobs Report, New CNN/MSNBC Hits, Greetings From the ASDC
Joe Biden is a good President, and the country is far better off today
Good morning all. Writing from Phoenix this morning where Tom Bonier and I will be presenting to a gathering of the Association of State Democratic Committees (ASDC) in a few hours about the 2024 election and what comes next. I will be sharing some impressions from my discussions here in posts next week. So far I’ve been able to see Hopium friends like Jaime Harrison, Anderson Clayton, Jane Kleeb and Ken Martin. As I discuss in my MSNBC clip, below, what I am finding here is that our party leaders from across the country are aware of what’s in front of us and ready to get to work (after we rest up of course).
As I have a full day here today’s post will be a bit shorter than most, but let’s get to it:
Another Good Biden Jobs Report - The monthly jobs report was released this morning and it came in strong and steady - 227,000 new jobs, another 56,000 in upward revisions, average hourly earnings up 0.4% and 4% over the past year (well above inflation) and the unemployment at 4.2%. Here’s a graph from this morning’s Washington Post and a reminder of how deep and disruptive the Trump recession was:
A few updated charts on job creation under the six Presidents - 3 Dem, 3 R- since 1989 when the Cold War ended and a new age of globalization began:
This one has one of the more amazing stats from our economic work. The last 3 Republican Presidents saw 10,000 jobs per month created on their watch over 16 years. That’s 120,000 a year - half of what was created last month alone - over 16 years.
Since 1989 52 million jobs have been created in America. 50 million, 96%, have been created under Democratic Presidents. Essentially all of them, over 36 years:
As I wrote a few days back in my post, Learning How To Tell Our Story More Effectively, here’s a recap of what the Biden-Harris Administration is leaving Trump, an America far better than they found it:
The Biden-Harris job market has been the best since the 1960s. Wage growth, new business formation and the # of job openings per unemployed persons have been at historically elevated levels. Inflation has been beaten, gas prices are low, interest rates are coming down and our recovery from COVID has been the best of any advanced nation in the world. The dollar is strong. GDP growth has hovered around 3% for all four years of Biden’s Presidency and the stock market keeps booming. The uninsured rate is the lowest on record. Through historic levels of domestic production of renewables, oil and gas America is more energy independent today than we’ve been in decades. Crime, overdose rates, the flows to the border and the deficit have come way down. Biden’s big three investment bills are creating jobs and opportunities for American workers today and will keep doing so for decades if Trump doesn’t gut them. We’ve begun stripping away the requirement of a four year college degree for government employment and other jobs too. We’ve lowered the price of prescription drugs, capped insulin at $35 and this year all seniors will enjoy a $2,000 Rx price cap. The Iranian-Russian-Hezbollah-Hamas axis in the Middle East has been deeply degraded. The Western alliance has been rejuvenated…..
I was on CNN and MSNBC yesterday. In the CNN clip we talk Pete Hegseth and Trump’s unacceptable nominees. In the MSNBC clip I talk to Stephanie Ruhle about my faith in the Democratic grassroots (all of you) to keep bringing it this election cycle as you’ve been bringing it again and again in recent elections (after we rest up of course). Enjoy, wince, and get fighting:
What Happened, What Comes Next - Our approach to the big post-election conversation has been to go slow, listen and learn, and right now I still have far more questions than answers. My latest thinking about it all can be found in my new re-imagination post and video that I released yesterday (please read, watch!). To help us learn from others I’ve launched a new What Happened, What Comes Next discussion series. Here are the first five of those talks, along with two relevant segments from my fall Closing Strong series with Tara McGowan and COURIER Newsroom:
Ken Martin - MN Dem Chair, A Leading Candidate For DNC Chair On The Future Of The DNC And Democratic Party
Anderson Clayton - On Our Impressive Downballot Wins in North Carolina
John Della Volpe - On Trump’s Gains With Young People
Joe Trippi - On The Power Of Networks And The Need To Build Our Own
Rep. Abigail Spanberger - On Winning The Virginia Governors Race in 2025. Learn more about Abigail | Volunteer | Donate To Her Campaign | We have already raised more than $10,000 towards our $100,000 goal!
From Closing Strong:
On The Need For Pro-Democracy Media - With Tara McGowan and Dan Pfeiffer
Beyond MAGA Creators - Russia’s influence on the Republican Party runs deep with Stewart Stevens and Jiore Craig
I’ve also set up a thread for paid subscribers to offer their thoughts on what this wonderful and plucky community should do next. I’m grateful for the many comments we’ve received so far. Weigh in if you can in the coming days, and note that an annual Hopium paid subscription is now 10% off through the end of the year for those who may want to sign up or give a bit of Hopium as a holiday gift.
Here’s another one of my favorite Presidential quotes from my spring visit to the FDR Memorial:
Keep working hard all. Proud to be in this fight with all of you - Simon
It's frustrating to see certain Dems embracing Trump/GOP framing- eg, Khanna and Moskowitz legitimizing DOGE. Being prudent with taxpayer dollars isn't at all the same thing as the destruction Musk envisions, even though they're conflating the two. This is a big challenge for the grassroots- what to do about the Dems who love to be anti-Dem? (Why? To get attention? To show how "reasonable" they are, but without using Dem framing or showing any nuance/context?) We need to develop strategies that not only come up with strong Dem narratives, but also are a way to express displeasure with Dem electeds without devolving into the public circular firing squads that the media salivates over.
This is in regards to the information war, from Pat Kreitlow, founding editor of “Up North News”
“Conservative media is an iron dome of outlets and strategies, sheltering their audiences from news and information that would change how they view the people on their ballots.
Despite losing his gerrymandered dominance in the Wisconsin Legislature, give Assembly Speaker Robin Vos a little credit—even with a setback that large, he feels no pangs of conscience that would lead him to do anything differently with his smaller majority. Truth be told, it’s progressives who need to make some changes in order to win more elections, and a recent interview with Vos provides one example when it comes to talking to voters about things like taxes, spending, and our public schools.
When Vos was recently asked about state Superintendent Jill Underly’s plan to propose major education spending investments in the next state budget, the Speaker had a succinct response—that he would oppose a “massive increase in education spending, when we just gave the largest increase in a generation like 18 months ago.”
Short and sweet—and not the full story at all.
Your neighbor certainly doesn’t know the full story. He or she just heard a short and sweet summary that makes sense on its face. If progressives are to improve election outcomes, they need their neighbors to hear that Robin Vos answer and then think to themselves, “Wait, that doesn’t match what I’ve heard over and over again about how state school aid hasn’t kept up with inflation for 16 years in a row.” Or, “Wait, that so-called ‘largest increase in a generation’ was a budget gimmick. A ton of that money never went to schools except in name only.”
But our neighbors don’t know these things. They’ve probably never heard them—or maybe they did once during a brief door visit from a candidate or volunteer. However, they hear things like what Vos said over and over again instead of the actual facts on school spending.
On my radio show recently, Chris Thiel from Milwaukee Public Schools, outlined the conservative budget gimmick—how the legislature was able to claim it allocated $1.2 billion to schools even though about half of it ($590 million) went directly to property tax relief. There’s nothing wrong with property tax relief, but it’s wrong to call it the “School Levy Tax Credit” if it never goes to schools. That’s just plain old mislabeling.
“It isn’t funding that you can buy a crayon with,” Thiel told me. “You can’t heat a school building with it. You can’t pay a teacher with it.”
Yet Vos and Republican lawmakers are gaining traction with the message that there was a $1.2 billion allocation to our schools, even though it’s a lie. In the upcoming state budget debate, they will repeat their talking point to every education ally who tries to call them out on it during public hearings of the Joint Finance Committee. I’m not saying the allies shouldn’t come testify. I’m saying their points need to be heard far beyond the committee hearings and well beyond the few crazy weeks of an election campaign.
This is only one example, but it properly illustrates what progressives need to do going forward. Spread the facts. Relentlessly.
For far too long, far too many of us have imagined facts as individual helium balloons that would, in time, float above the fray of misinformation and gently land upon a voter at just the right time—with one really good piece of political mail or one really good political TV ad or one really pleasant candidate visit. But that’s not how it works. Right-wing media has successfully stymied factual information by creating an “iron dome” of outlets and strategies. Those little fact balloons are under assault like no other phase of our lifetimes—buffeted by “bothsidesism,” “whataboutism,” and of course, “alternative facts,” originally known as disinformation.
There is only one way for an iron dome to be overcome and that is for it to be overwhelmed.
Building a long-range ecosystem for messaging and media is a column for another day. But use this simple example from Speaker Vos to ask yourself how progressives can use every platform (radio shows, social media, newsletters, etc.) and every format (videos, graphics, text, conversations) to turn just one fact into many messages, delivered year-round. Truly, the mission for progressives is to turn each little balloon into an army of drones. Facts are on their side, but the messaging battleground is not.”