In considering what people say, we can often take it with a grain of salt or understand it literally. Essentially, the listener can choose.
With political speech, most of us will choose the former. For example, did we really expect Mexico would ever pay for a border wall across the southern U.S. despite being led in chants that would be the case? Did we think that Obamacare would be replaced by something better? Were we patiently biding our time waiting for a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary? How about a 5-year ban on White House and congressional officials from lobbying or a hiring freeze on federal employees? These are just a few of the 55 broken promises noted by Politifact about former President Trump. The same organization found that Trump compromised on 23 promises and kept 24.
He compromised about taking no vacations by labeling them as working vacations and taking the vast majority at his resort properties. His 380 days of personal time in 4 years are 52 days more than Obama took over 8 years. OK, picky, picky, enough already, right? He, at least, presided over the greatest economy in American history.
Oops! Well, it turns out even if we block out the recession associated with Covid, this was not the case. Dean Baker, co-founder of the Center for Economic and Policy Research perhaps gave the most apt analogy. “While Trump can take some credit, I see it like the relief pitcher who comes in the 9th inning with a seven-run lead and then boasts about winning the game.”
Recall the promised 4% GDP growth did not happen. During Trump’s pre-pandemic 3 years, GDP showed a slight uptick to the Obama final 7 years but is equal to the Biden post-pandemic years. The federal budget deficit greatly increased despite promises to the contrary. The tax cut did not cause a growth spurt in GDP nor an increase in business capital investment which actually started to decline after a short upward trend. Nonetheless, unemployment hit an all-time low under Trump — until Biden did better. Gosh, people that track and check such things sure can cause a problem with political ”talk.”
But, then again in this case, what can we expect from someone that spouted over 30,000 lies while in office?
Maybe we would expect that the veracity of anything he has to say should be questioned. But this has certainly not been the case.
Trump’s pronouncements/talk have proven to have severe consequences. Think of the motivation in storming the Capitol or the increase in violent threats to those that disagree with him or even preside over elections and legal proceedings that counter his wishes.
It is hard to say that folks that are seemingly riled up by Trump are hearing him literally. Is it that he is giving license to release pent up discontent? I, among others, tend to think it is the latter.
There are undoubtedly justifiable reasons to be discontent. In researching information for this column, I came across some figures on disposable income per capita that were more striking than I anticipated. When NASDAQ looked at each administration since LBJ in figures adjusted for inflation; the disposable income per capita has decreased under every single administration from over $130,000 to just over $46,000 today (remember this is inflation adjusted). This is quite a big drop that almost everyone since that time has been experiencing. This can undoubtedly affect well-being and lead to sensitivity to find out what is wrong.
I say almost everyone is in this boat — meaning a majority of working people. That is because we know some people are really thriving – as in the huge increase in the number and richness of the mega wealthy plus things like outlandish corporate CEO compensation and corporate holdings. Are we being suckered into things like culture war animus with the help of showman billionaire political figures and their wannabe’s so that we stay distracted from the thievery built into our present times?
Yet knocking down our democracy any more than it already has been does not seem like the right approach. The talk emanating now from candidate Trump is extremely ominous to how our democracy is supposed to function. There are good foundations in our Constitution to work from rather than resort to something akin to a civil war mentality (hopefully not in reality as some extremists may wish) which can only benefit the ultra-rich.
If we act upon talk that leads us in the direction of misguided “retribution,” there can only be severe consequences for (the almost) everyone. It makes more sense to look deeply at our discontent to understand which talk is or is not cheap, comprehend talk that is dangerous and plays upon our emotions, and choose to adhere to “talk” that can help us find a better path forward for everyone.
W. Laurence Doxsey, Retired, Former Director of Office of Sustainability for City of San Antonio, former Environmental Officer for U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, former Sustainability Officer for City of Austin, resides outside Medina.
