Today will hopefully be the beginning of the end, although the beginning of the end should have happened weeks ago when it became obvious that Trump lost the election. The Electoral College meets today and, although I do expect a few rogue electors, Joe Biden should emerge with an Electoral College majority to cement his win. It will be interesting to see if the vote in the Electoral College, following Trump’s losses in over 50 lawsuits, including two in the Supreme Court, will be sufficient for some Republicans to finally acknowledge what we have all known for weeks – Joe Biden is the President-elect and Donald Trump needs to begin packing.
For a man who claimed, when he was elected, to be the guy who would ‘drain the swamp’ in Washington, I can’t remember a presidency during my lifetime that was so filled with mudslinging, convicted felons and other swamp creatures. Trump didn’t ‘drain the swamp’. He just made it his swamp by bringing in all kinds of ‘invasive species’ that wreaked havoc on the existing ecosystem. The fact is that even if Washington DC was a bit swampy before Trump arrived, it now more closely resembles the La Brea Tar Pits. And when historians and paleontologists comb through the remains in the coming years, they will be awed by all of the carnage that has been wrought.
I continually ask myself how people can so rabidly support this man. When you look at the facts, the only thing that makes any sense to me is that Trump has been very effective at pushing the buttons of racism, xenophobia and ‘religious freedom.’ Some argue that it’s because of Trump’s strong record on the economy. That is another myth that continues to be propagated by Trump, Fox News and other right-wing media outlets.
The fact is Trump’s economic record is one of the worst of any president since World War II. Trump will leave office with fewer Americans employed than when he came into office.1 Economic growth under Trump has been smaller than the previous 12 presidents.
“Trump’s economic record ranks near or at the bottom compared with other presidents,” concludes Moody’s chief economist Mark Zandi, who compared the economic results of all presidents from the last 70 years. “The economy under his watch has performed very poorly.”
To be sure, the deadliest public health pandemic in a century has devastated economic activity during this last year of the President’s term. But responding to unexpected catastrophe — from hurricanes to terrorist attacks to civil unrest to financial crises — represents a big part of the job. And, as Zandi notes, Trump’s bungled coronavirus response has exacerbated and extended damage to jobs and output.”1
He did push through the massive tax cuts but that did not translate into investments in manufacturing jobs as promised. The additional corporate profits went to things like share buybacks that benefited shareholders rather than workers. Yes, the stock market is up and returns have been impressive. However, that primarily benefits the wealthier citizens of this country. “Through the third quarter of 2020, Zandi says, the least wealthy 50% of Americans own just 1.9% of the nation’s net worth, while the top 1% own 30.5%. The surging pandemic promises make that disparity worse before Trump leaves office”.1
When you add in the negative impacts from the trade wars, more restrictive markets for American products overseas, and the disastrous response to the pandemic, the economy under Trump has been a disaster for most Americans.
So, why does this myth continue to prevail? It is just another part of the ongoing misinformation campaign waged by Trump and Fox News. I am currently reading a book entitled, “Hoax; Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth,” by Brian Stelter. The incestuous relationship between Trump and Fox News is really quite disturbing and unprecedented in modern American history. Although a lot a people religiously watch Fox News to get their ‘news’, it has really become nothing more than a propaganda machine for Trump. It’s difficult to tell if Trump tells Fox News what to say or if Trump listens to Fox News to decide what to say. In either case, it’s a dangerous thing for American democracy.
If anyone on Fox News says anything that displeases Trump, he is on the phone immediately and /or will launch a vicious Twitter attack against that person. Thus, you don’t have objective news coming out of Fox News, you have Trump-approved propaganda. That’s how this myth about Trump’s economic performance perpetuates. That’s how this whole nonsense about how the election was ‘rigged’ perpetuates. Unfortunately, a lot of people think they are getting the ‘truth’ from Fox News. Nothing could be further from the truth.
With any luck, the Electoral College will do their jobs today and reaffirm Biden as the President-elect. So, once that’s done, Biden will be sworn in on Jan. 20th regardless of the bullshit Trump, Fox News and all of his supporters try to say and regardless of how much noise they make. Jan. 20th can’t come soon enough for me – and that’s the truth.
The Republican’s will propose a new bill after the election to repair the Nation’s highways. The bill is called the “My way or the highway.” bill.