"Like victory gardens in WWII" - exactly. I didn't live through WWII, but I grew up on Hogan's Heroes reruns and often think about these times in those terms.
Thank you so much for the work you do. So many platforms and media outlets are GETTING ridiculous with their train wreck fetish. Just last night I was on YouTube when I spotted an MSNBC story about fresh new bad Biden Polls. I had to tell YouTube not to recommend news channels anymore. Your newsletter has helped me regain sleep - as I'm terrified of next year. Thank you for NOT putting out another "we're fucked and it's hopeless"/ despair message. Along with Heather Cox Richardson you seem to be one of the few with an ability to conjure hope and motivation without sugarcoating what we face on this country.
Actually all the far right hysteria is getting pretty tiresome. It’s just more bullying attention grabbing and I’m not buying it.Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Indeed. I just hope it doesn't wear people down - turn people into defeatists. I mean I guess it's my own problem BUT it did a number on me. Ok so Morning Joe was never a poster child for journalistic integrity - but it's hard to weed out the hacks/tools from those who actually report the facts or show intellectual curiosity.
Grateful for your continued work. Saved yours for last today and it’s the most uplifting and factual piece. Based on actual data; what a concept. (Should have started the day with Hopium and possibly avoided a stress headache!)
This echoes exactly what you're saying about the simplicity of the questions/answers and the contradictions between the economy writ large and personal situations:
"...people are not acting the way they do when they believe the economy is bad. They are spending, vacationing and job-switching the way they do when they believe it’s good.
"We called back voters who said the economy was “poor” or “only fair” to find out why they felt that way, when the metrics, and often their personal finances, tell a different story."
Also, this was a key tidbit.
"Younger people — who were a key to President Biden’s win in 2020 but showed less support for him in the new poll — had concerns specific to their phase of life. In the poll, 93 percent of them rated the economy unfavorably, more than any other age group."
And, then this gem:
"Certain campaign promises aimed at them, like forgiveness of student loan debt and subsidies for child care, were struck down by the Supreme Court or didn’t pass in Congress."
The issue, is Biden/Dems need to be better at connecting-the-dots; it's not the "Supreme Court" and "Congress" that struck down Biden and Dem's efforts to forgive education debt and provide needed coverage for child care—it was/continues to be, MAGA Republican Justices and MAGA Republican members of Congress who are blocking the progress that Biden/Dems want to deliver to working families, denying Americans the freedom to succeed and thrive (whether that's politically, physically, or in this case, economically), just so they can ensure a wealthy, well-connected few don't have to pay what they owe or be held accountable, thereby ensuring the minority rule for MAGA Repubs (regardless of who their candidate may be for President).
Once again, it comes down to effective messaging for the Dems to help voters understand who will serve their best interests, and who will literally oppose/deny those interests...
What I hear from young people and some others in lower income brackers are very real concerns - high housing and rental costs, huge college debt burdens, affordable health care coverage still falling short, etc. All of these problems have been present and growing for decades now, but for a variety of reasons, Biden and Dems are being unfairly blamed for them as if they just suddenly appeared.
Reasons for this misunderstanding include:
- Republicans only pull out these issues when it suits them and hide them under the rug all other times - and too many in the media meekly follow their lead;
- There were too many other distractions to focus on under Trump;
- Too few people are aware of all Dems are doing or trying to do on health care, affordable housing, etc. - and again, the media spends too little time covering policy differences;
- There is plenty of blame to go around re: housing costs among local governments and older generations more interested in appreciating home values than affordability for rising generations;
- There is too much disinformation blaming Democratic spending programs for inflation, rather than the real culprits - the COVID and Ukraine War supply chain disruptions (again a major problem of inaccurate reporting).
In short, we’ve got our work cut out for us separating facts from fictions here - while listening to and sympathizing with those dealing with legit economic issues.
The tagline Dems should have been yelling from the housetops for decades:
We Make America Rich.
Double entendre fully intended.
Dems have allowed Pubs to to ride the Reaganomics/trickle-down claptrap to success at least since Kennedy's proleptic surrender to trickle-down with his massive 1964 tax cuts for the rich — fifteen years before trickle-down! This even while "fiscally responsible" Pubs skyrocketed deficit spending — it's great way to win elections — and tanked investment, GDP growth...choose your economic measure. Any measure.
Unfortunately many on our team are squeamish (or far worse) about the word "rich."
Easy way to help - join A Biden a Day and get good news to post every day -
https://www.facebook.com/groups/613417987640841/
This is why I subscribed. You offer a glimmer of hope in a sea of negativity. Thank you.
"Like victory gardens in WWII" - exactly. I didn't live through WWII, but I grew up on Hogan's Heroes reruns and often think about these times in those terms.
Thank you so much for the work you do. So many platforms and media outlets are GETTING ridiculous with their train wreck fetish. Just last night I was on YouTube when I spotted an MSNBC story about fresh new bad Biden Polls. I had to tell YouTube not to recommend news channels anymore. Your newsletter has helped me regain sleep - as I'm terrified of next year. Thank you for NOT putting out another "we're fucked and it's hopeless"/ despair message. Along with Heather Cox Richardson you seem to be one of the few with an ability to conjure hope and motivation without sugarcoating what we face on this country.
Actually all the far right hysteria is getting pretty tiresome. It’s just more bullying attention grabbing and I’m not buying it.Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Seriously the mainstream media can't help themselves. Seeing the crew of Morning Joe pout over bad poll numbers accomplishes NOTHING
I can’t even watch them anymore. Tiresome.
Indeed. I just hope it doesn't wear people down - turn people into defeatists. I mean I guess it's my own problem BUT it did a number on me. Ok so Morning Joe was never a poster child for journalistic integrity - but it's hard to weed out the hacks/tools from those who actually report the facts or show intellectual curiosity.
Grateful for your continued work. Saved yours for last today and it’s the most uplifting and factual piece. Based on actual data; what a concept. (Should have started the day with Hopium and possibly avoided a stress headache!)
Not sure if you caught this, Simon - but worth a read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/20/upshot/economy-voters-poll.html
This echoes exactly what you're saying about the simplicity of the questions/answers and the contradictions between the economy writ large and personal situations:
"...people are not acting the way they do when they believe the economy is bad. They are spending, vacationing and job-switching the way they do when they believe it’s good.
"We called back voters who said the economy was “poor” or “only fair” to find out why they felt that way, when the metrics, and often their personal finances, tell a different story."
Also, this was a key tidbit.
"Younger people — who were a key to President Biden’s win in 2020 but showed less support for him in the new poll — had concerns specific to their phase of life. In the poll, 93 percent of them rated the economy unfavorably, more than any other age group."
And, then this gem:
"Certain campaign promises aimed at them, like forgiveness of student loan debt and subsidies for child care, were struck down by the Supreme Court or didn’t pass in Congress."
The issue, is Biden/Dems need to be better at connecting-the-dots; it's not the "Supreme Court" and "Congress" that struck down Biden and Dem's efforts to forgive education debt and provide needed coverage for child care—it was/continues to be, MAGA Republican Justices and MAGA Republican members of Congress who are blocking the progress that Biden/Dems want to deliver to working families, denying Americans the freedom to succeed and thrive (whether that's politically, physically, or in this case, economically), just so they can ensure a wealthy, well-connected few don't have to pay what they owe or be held accountable, thereby ensuring the minority rule for MAGA Repubs (regardless of who their candidate may be for President).
Once again, it comes down to effective messaging for the Dems to help voters understand who will serve their best interests, and who will literally oppose/deny those interests...
What I hear from young people and some others in lower income brackers are very real concerns - high housing and rental costs, huge college debt burdens, affordable health care coverage still falling short, etc. All of these problems have been present and growing for decades now, but for a variety of reasons, Biden and Dems are being unfairly blamed for them as if they just suddenly appeared.
Reasons for this misunderstanding include:
- Republicans only pull out these issues when it suits them and hide them under the rug all other times - and too many in the media meekly follow their lead;
- There were too many other distractions to focus on under Trump;
- Too few people are aware of all Dems are doing or trying to do on health care, affordable housing, etc. - and again, the media spends too little time covering policy differences;
- There is plenty of blame to go around re: housing costs among local governments and older generations more interested in appreciating home values than affordability for rising generations;
- There is too much disinformation blaming Democratic spending programs for inflation, rather than the real culprits - the COVID and Ukraine War supply chain disruptions (again a major problem of inaccurate reporting).
In short, we’ve got our work cut out for us separating facts from fictions here - while listening to and sympathizing with those dealing with legit economic issues.
"Americans increasingly use polls to vent, not to vote" - David Brooks
Here is an organization doing important work to help report local news with integrity in the US and worldwide: https://thegroundtruthproject.org/
And, NOPE Neighbors’ (Simon was their recent guest) social media “Truth Squad” has a training December 5th; sign up link is below:
https://www.mobilize.us/nope/event/593159/?utm_source=website
The tagline Dems should have been yelling from the housetops for decades:
We Make America Rich.
Double entendre fully intended.
Dems have allowed Pubs to to ride the Reaganomics/trickle-down claptrap to success at least since Kennedy's proleptic surrender to trickle-down with his massive 1964 tax cuts for the rich — fifteen years before trickle-down! This even while "fiscally responsible" Pubs skyrocketed deficit spending — it's great way to win elections — and tanked investment, GDP growth...choose your economic measure. Any measure.
Unfortunately many on our team are squeamish (or far worse) about the word "rich."
Get over it. Win elections.
Full-throated, unapologetic *economic* populism won FDR four straight terms, resoundingly every time.
Maybe Dems should try that.
Herbert Hoover used nasty, Trump-style cultural populism and he did win...once. Who you gonna go with there?
There are even very fertile fields for that messaging on the populist (working class) right.