Some people (whom we call conservatives) won’t ‘believe’ any kind of evidence that disputes their stories.
The New Republic, yesterday: At Long Last, Americans Are Starting to See the Truth About the GOP, subtitled “A businessman can set this country right. Republicans are better for the economy. Republicans love the military. Lie, lie, and lie. ”
But the last three Republican presidents—Bush, Bush, and Trump—have been disasters. The first Bush oversaw a double-dip recession and a massive savings and loan scandal that looted the treasury. The second Bush started a costly and tragic war based on lies and nearly brought the global economy to its knees. Trump, you know about—corruption, fascism, and staggering incompetence.
… From 1989 to 2026, we’ve had Democratic presidents for 20 years and Republicans for 17.4 years. Care to hazard a guess as to the number of jobs created under Democrats vs. Republicans?
Answer: It’s 49.8 million versus 1.9 million. That isn’t a typo. Fifty million to two, basically. Democratic presidents have also done far better than Republicans on median household incomes, GDP rates, the Dow Jones index, and even deficit reduction. Dramatically so on deficit reduction.
Then,
So why do people usually believe the Republicans are better for the economy? Three reasons.
First, the GOP benefits from being the party of big business, which just leads people to assume that they must have a better handle on profits and loss (they certainly do on the latter). People see that nearly every Wall Streeter and corporate honcho is a Republican, and they take their cues from that.
Here I will cut in. The hoi polloi doesn’t understand that running the government like a business would be to make the wealthy — the shareholders — wealthier. Not the customers. The purpose of the government isn’t to run it like a business. The stock market doesn’t reflect the average person’s experience at the market.
Second is the Republican skill at propagandizing, and third is that the Democrats are awful at doing the same. Democrats, like rationalists, like scientists, think evidence will prove something. It doesn’t, for most people.
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Again, does evidence matter to the conservatives?
NY Times, guest essay by Steven Rattner (who “served as counselor to the Treasury secretary in the Obama administration”), today: Trump’s Broken Promises, in 11 Charts [gift link]
“Promises made, promises kept.” Other presidents have employed variations of that phrase, although few with the gusto of President Trump; he even proclaims it on the White House website. When it comes to the economy, though, “promises not kept” would be a more apt description of the first 19 months of Trump 2.0. And many of the promises he has kept are causing as much damage as critics predicted. All in all, while Mr. Trump continues to boast about the “greatest economy we’ve ever had, by far,” the record to date falls far short of that lofty pronouncement.
One example above. Also about balancing the budget, the national debt, bringing back manufacturing employment, tariffs, and so on.
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Politicians need to get elected, and be subservient their bosses. Pundits aren’t so constrained.
Robert Reich, yesterday: An Open Letter to Scott Bessent: Why You’re Wrong and I’m Right, subtitled “But you’re the one with power, so your error is dangerous”
It’s about the K-shaped economy and how according to Bessent, Clinton fired him, Reich.
(By the way, Scott, Bill Clinton didn’t fire me and Berkeley won’t, either. But your boss has a well-recorded tendency to fire his Cabinet secretaries, so I’d be careful if I were you.)
Very analytical. In a way conservatives never are. Charts. Data. Reich ends,
Go ahead, Scott — attack me with all the ad hominem arguments you want. But you need to know the reality I’m talking about. You’re the one with the power. I’m just a retired professor. Your failure to comprehend the struggles facing average working Americans makes me worry that you and your boss will continue to pursue policies that worsen them.
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Trump keeps aligning with authoritarians around the world.
Paul Krugman, today: A New Level of Trumpian Evil, subtitled “North Korea is the worst government on Earth; Trump prefers it to the prosperous democracy next door”
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About Christian Nationalism. KQED this morning.
KQED Forum, today: Rep. Jared Huffman Warns about the Power of Christian Nationalism in Congress, subtitled “Huffman lays out his arguments and calls for a secular democracy in his new book ‘No Prophets.'”
With a transcript. America is full of religious believers and apologists, even as more citizens are identifying themselves as nones. Finally, this abandonment of irrationality is filtering up into elected officials In this interview I heard him say things that I never thought an elected official would say. I’m buying his book.
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I love watching videos where you see can see the orchestral performers play. Here’s Bernard Haitink conducting Bruckner’s 4th.
How does a conductor work? By waving his arms at the orchestra? No: most of the time the conductor has rehearsed with the orchestra to arrange the tempo, to have certain passages emphasized, and so on. Just as a play director has gone over it and over it again. And the final performance is the result — almost rote, by that point.
