Why do myths like “The GOP handles the Economy better” persist?
I recently engaged in a political discussion with a fellow yoga teacher. If you’ve ever met a yoga instructor, you’ve likely encountered a peace-loving free spirit often immersed in Eastern philosophy, vegetarianism, and practices designed to foster compassion and equality. Yoga teachers, in my experience, tend to be either apolitical or progressive. Despite being deeply involved with Yoga and yogic spirituality, this particular colleague — a white, male, Christian, ex-military officer from Virginia — leans conservative and votes Republican. I think I let out an audible gasp when he shared his political inclination, especially given that we had just taught a yoga class together that morning, we were still wearing our yoga whites. I asked him how he could reconcile his right-wing politics with the yogic principle of ahimsa (non-harming), a central tenet in Yoga. He replied that he’s not MAGA, he did not vote for Trump (not the 2nd time, anyway). He said he votes Republican because, “as everybody knows, the GOP does a better job handling the economy.”
Excuse me? The economy? Everybody knows??
The contrast between his statement and the economic reality, now and in the past 100 years, could not be more stark.
It’s late May 2023, we’re just hours away from a potentially catastrophic global economic collapse that could wipe out tens of thousands — if not millions — of jobs, earnings, savings, stock portfolios, homes, lives. All because a few extremists in the majority GOP House decided to hold the economy hostage over what should have been a procedural raising of the debt ceiling. It appears that cruelty is the point. Elected GOP officials — the MAGA faction specifically (is there really any daylight between MAGA and the Republican party anymore?) — have made it clear as ice shrapnel that they will use any means necessary to dismantle popular social nets like Medicare, Medicaid and yes, most definitely Social Security (no matter how loudly Marjorie Taylor Greene shouts “liar” at President Biden). These programs are offered FREE by the governments of every other developed nation on earth to their citizens. The idea of bringing a smidgen of opportunity, dignity or kindness to ordinary or underprivileged Americans — let alone income redistribution — disgusts the white, Christian, conservative ruling class so profoundly, that they will do anything to impede it. Including crashing the global economy.
Today’s GOP stands for nothing but hatred + authoritarianism = fascism. They long ago ceased showing the slightest interest in governing. They do not even pretend to try to solve a single one of America’s problems. They’ve made a Herculean effort to repeal Obamacare in order to take healthcare coverage away from more than 16 million Americans, with no alternative healthcare plan offered, ever. They are clearly unconcerned about the opioid crisis, covid, inflation, unemployment, the housing crisis, Ukraine, China, climate change or the budget deficit … much less the gun violence problem they’re responsible for creating. Even more telling: 100% of Republicans in Congress voted against an infrastructure package, for god’s sake! They’re even opposed to building roads and bridges! GOVERNING JUST ISN’T THEIR THING. What they are really interested in is going after Hunter Biden’s laptop, impeding Americans from voting, inciting mobs to attack “woke” libs, taking away women’s and LGBTQ rights, handicapping education to make Americans dumber, continuing to kill and incarcerate Blacks, nullifying separation of church and state and, apparently, crashing the global economy. If this behavior were coming from a foreign power, you better believe we would take up arms against them!
At the heart of GOP culture wars lies their deep-rooted fear of the inevitable demographic shift sometimes referred to as “the browning of America”. The U.S. Census Bureau projects that Whites will become a minority in America in the year 2045, a projection that fills Republicans’ empty chests with sheer terror. It’s a fear so weighty they are willing to trigger a massive recession that would surely wipe out much of their own stock portfolios, ha! They don’t seem to have thought this through. Then again, thinking isn’t MAGA’s thing either. These are guys who refute science, dismiss climate change, promote book banning, advocate teaching creationism in schools, see women as baby factories, despise gays, support violent insurrections and stealing elections, repudiate even the most common sense gun control initiative and destroy economies. Why ANYBODY would vote for them baffles the mind.
Debt ceiling fiasco aside, I was taken aback by my fellow yoga teacher’s assertion. Everybody knows the GOP does a better job with the economy. Seriously?
There’s no way to cushion this: Republicans SUCK SPECTACULARLY at handling the economy. They always have, even before they started employing extreme terrorist tactics to further their fascist agenda. The economy performs notably better when there’s a Democrat in the White House. You name an economic indicator — GDP growth, job creation, productivity, budget deficits, even stock market performance — they ALL do considerably better under Democrat leadership. It’s not even close. This has been the case for 100 years, as we can glean from the following statistics:
· RECESSIONS. There have been 17 recessions in the US in the past 100 years. During 13 of them (76%), a Republican has been U.S. President. That includes all the biggies: the Great Depression, the recession of 1981, of 2007 and of 2020.
· GDP GROWTH: Historical GDP growth was highest under Roosevelt, Kennedy, Johnson, Clinton (all Dems), and lowest under Bush father, Bush son, and worst of all under Donald Trump.
· JOB CREATION: The nation’s fastest-growing job markets took place under six Democratic presidents (Roosevelt, Johnson, Carter, Truman, Kennedy, and Clinton), while the slowest job-generators in a century have all been Republican presidents (Eisenhower, the Bushes, and of course Trump, the biggest loser. He’s the only president in the past 90 years to lose more jobs than he created).
· THE DEFICIT: While Republicans pretend to be deficit hawks, they consistently leave materially greater deficits than their Democrat counterparts, with Trump being the “King of Debt”. He increased the federal deficit by a whopping 40% during his single term, without even starting a war or funding any infrastructure projects.
· BY STATE/COUNTY: Per the Brookings Institute, districts that vote Democratic have experienced GDP growth of 35% since 2008, whereas Republican districts saw their output decline.
Per a recent NY Times analysis (Why are Republican Presidents so bad for the Economy?, NYT Feb 2021): “Since 1933, the economy has grown at an annual average rate of 4.6 percent under Democratic presidents and 2.4 percent under Republicans. In more concrete terms: The average income of Americans would be more than double its current level if the economy had somehow grown at the Democratic rate for all of the past nine decades. If anything, that period (which is based on data availability) is too kind to Republicans, because it excludes the portion of the Great Depression that happened on Herbert Hoover’s watch.”
Wow. Our incomes would be MORE THAN DOUBLE today if we’d had no Republican presidents in the past century! That’s depressing. The GOP is unfortunately still around and still wreaking havoc with the economy. Their recklessness has become an existential threat.
Yet: “Everybody knows that Republicans are better at handling the economy.”
According to a 2022 ABC News/Ipsos poll, “On both the economy and gas prices, 36 percent of Americans trust Republicans more than Democrats — 12 and 14 points higher than the percentage of people who trust Democrats on those issues.”
So, why does the myth of the GOP as the superior custodians of the economy persist, generation after generation, despite being completely and utterly false?
The GOP may be horrible at managing the economy and the country, but they are quite adept at spreading misinformation. With the assistance of Fox News, the GOP has become masterful at disseminating fake news and outlandish conspiracy theories, and at gaslighting its constituents — tactics long used by authoritarian regimes around the globe. In fact, SPREADING MISINFORMATION APPEARS TO BE THE ONLY REMAINING SKILL SET IN THE GOP TOOLBOX. That’s it, that’s all they offer. MAGA has succeeded at replacing reality, in the minds of their constituents, with a whole alternative reality replete with cabals of baby-eating liberals, jewish space laser beams and human trafficking pizzerias. Papa Putin would be proud of his disciples in America!
Every time Democrats succeed on behalf of the American people — like when they created Obamacare, capped pharmaceutical drug prices, implemented a historic infrastructure plan, passed the first ever piece of legislation designed to fight climate change, achieved historically low unemployment levels, when they created a strong alliance of nations to stand with Ukraine — the right-wing media apparatus went into full attack mode to tear them down. Never mind that millions of Americans benefit; if it’s coming from Democrats, the enemy, then it’s awful. That’s how fiction like “the GOP does a better job at managing the economy” crept into the American psyche, the result of many years of misinformation.
Countering misinformation and disinformation is extremely difficult. That’s why one-on-one conversations, like the one I had with my fellow yoga teacher, are essential. I am passionate about liberal politics, I read a lot and I love me a good debate! My passion comes across loud & clear, that’s what engages my debate opponents. The key is to be respectful, avoid making it personal or accusatory. In this case, it sure helped that we share a love of yoga, have mutual friends, and did I mention we were teaching yoga on a week-long cruise in the Caribbean? We were both relaxed and open. (By the way, I would never bother engaging with a full-blown MAGA Q-Anon whack job, that’s a waste of time).
I don’t know if I succeeded at changing my yoga friend’s mind, or his vote. But I can tell you he listened to me attentively and he asked questions. He was not defensive; he honestly seemed to be processing this “new” information I shared regarding GOP vs Democrat handling of the economy. One can only hope.
