Lions, and tigers, and bears, Oh my! It’s that time of year again, and in the spirit of Halloween, the Republican Party has trotted out its tired but successful bag of frightening tricks just in time for Election Day. The menu items very rarely change. The themes are always the same. Let’s scare the **** out of White people in general and Republicans specifically. The electoral message has nothing to do with showing how effective their governing principles and policies are. The only objective is to scare the bejesus out of you.
The Republicans’ scariest themes in this election cycle are inflation and an impending recession. The Republican Party and the media are trying to convince Americans that inflation is a permanent condition that began on January 20, 2021. Some facts and circumstances show how absurd that position is. Prior to recognizing the COVID-19 global pandemic, inflation was already rising through February 2021. Certainly not at the rates we are currently seeing, but yes, on an upward trajectory.
From March 2020 through February 2021, the inflation rate ranged from a low of 0.1 % to a high of 1.7%. Not coincidentally, that was when COVID-19 killed nearly 500,000 Americans. For most of that period, no solutions were available, only mitigation measures like masks, physical distancing, and teleworking. The economy was tanking, we were hemorrhaging jobs, and the price for a barrel of oil was negative $37.63 on April 21, 2020. Oil companies were paying consumers to take oil off their hands. The price for a gallon of gas was $1.81. President Biden and his administration pledged to vaccinate 100 million Americans in his first 100 days in office. Instead, he and his administration overperformed by 100% and were able to distribute 200 million vaccination shots to Americans. In comparison, former President Trump’s administration distributed 12 million vaccinations in 41 days.
During the same time, vaccines were administered at this incredible pace; commercial activity went from 0 to 60 as if it was a Ferrari 812. Prices began to rise significantly, but Republicans refused to cooperate with Democrats to implement policies to mitigate the pandemic-induced inflation challenges. Instead, they did everything in their power to promote and perpetuate the existential threat of inflation. Republicans said the forewarning of this economic apocalypse was the price of gas. Firstly, can we stipulate that presidents are not directly responsible for inflation? The primary factors responsible for inflation in oil and gas are primarily global. Presidents’ administrations can only implement measures to mitigate the higher cost. Still, they cannot solve these problems individually, especially if you have the Republican Party vested in doing everything they can to reject your efforts to blunt rising oil and gasoline cost.
A recent Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) study identifies three major components contributing to inflation. They are corporate profits, non-labor input costs, and unit labor costs. They compared the average contribution of each of these factors to the growth in unit prices. They compared the period from 1979 to 2019 with the 2nd Quarter of 2020 to 4TH Quarter of 2021. For 40 years, corporate profits accounted for 11.4% of unit price increases. For the 2nd Quarter of 2020 to 4TH Quarter of 2021, corporate profits accounted for 53.9% of unit price increases.
On the other hand, labor costs only account for 7.9% of the rise in unit prices during the same period. Let me put it this way. If there was a product you needed or wanted and the item cost increased by 1.00 dollar, 54 cents would go into the seller’s pockets instead of the historically established 12 cents. Rather than being frightened, I feel righteous anger about that.
If that’s not enough to raise the hair on your neck, Republicans say there’s a crime wave upon us like we’ve never experienced. The strange thing about this crime wave is that it only occurs in States and cities governed by Democratic governors and mayors. Republican politicians will tell Americans, “We’ll protect you.” “If you elect us, you have nothing to fear.” Well, let’s look at the data.
Criminal acts are defined either as violent crimes or property crimes. Four criminal behaviors make up the category of violent crime. They are aggravated assault, robbery, homicide, and rape. Property crimes include arson, burglaries, larceny, and motor vehicle theft and damage. For this exercise, let’s look at the states and cities with the highest violent crime rates in 2022. The ten states with the highest violent crime rates are:
- District of Columbia (D)
- Alaska (R)
- New Mexico (D)
- Tennessee (R)
- Arkansas (R)
- Louisiana (R)
- Missouri (R)
- South Carolina (R)
- South Dakota (R)
- Arizona (R)
I take no solace or comfort in highlighting this fact, but Republican-governed states are “hellholes” by the Republicans’ definition. Seven of the ten highest violent crime rates are owned by red states. That fact invalidates any claims by Republicans that high violent crime rates are somehow endemic to democratic governance. The actual data destroys those rants.
The states of New York and California are used as avatars for rampant violent crime, but California is ranked 17th, and New York is 27th for violent crime rates. By no means is this anything to celebrate, but it’s disingenuous to be criticized by politicians and people when their house is not in order and worse than yours. On a more positive note, the top ten states with the lowest violent crime rates are evenly divided between states governed by Democratic and Republican governors.
If their lies and distortions about inflation and crime don’t work, the Republican Party resorts to “boogeyman politics.” What is “boogeyman politics?” “Boogeyman politics” is when you pick a person or a group to demonize and present them as a threat to the lives and livelihoods of the electorate. For example, publicans have taken the blood off to depict non-White immigrants as an existential threat to our nation and its White citizens.
There are three primary attacks made against today’s immigrants. The overarching one is the notion of open borders. Accusations that Democrats promote absurd unfounded theories like replacement theory are hurled about while Republicans still refuse to participate in improving our flawed immigration system. The closest our nation has ever come to having open borders was from 1880 to 1920, when approximately 20 to 25 million Europeans immigrated to the United States. It’s not hyperbole to say most Europeans only had to make it to our borders to enter the United States during that period.
The second narrative is that non-White immigrants are bound to commit crimes. The facts say otherwise. A study conducted by the Federal Office of Justice Programs, using Texas Department of Public Safety data, found that U.S.-born citizens are two times more likely to be arrested for violent crimes than unauthorized immigrants. They are also 2.5 times more likely to be arrested for drug crimes and four times more likely to be arrested for property crimes. This study analyzed six years of data.
The third narrative used to claim we should fear unauthorized immigrants is that they will take away jobs and negatively affect wages. I say used to because a recent Pew survey released June 10, 2020, reported that three-quarters of adults (77%) believe unauthorized immigrants mostly fill jobs U.S. citizens don’t want. Only 21% see their employment as a threat. Efforts to scare Americans about unauthorized immigrants taking jobs away have become a “swing and a miss,” according to this study.
As I finish writing this piece, almost all the election results are in, and predictions of a red wave have failed miserably. So instead of these elections resulting in a political bloodbath for Democrats, I describe the results as more of a political pinprick. Kudos to all of you that ignored the Republicans’ desperate scare tactics. When you have a political party with only one tool to convince you to support them, and that tool is fear, the political party will inevitably fail us in the end and, with unchecked power, eventually destroy us.
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