Dixie seduced again
Ask almost anyone around these parts and they will tell you the Republicans stand for low taxes, low debt and high economic and job growth. Conversely, Democrats bring high taxes, more debt, job losses and hard economic times. I invite those entertaining this fantasy to Google up the question “Under which party does the U. S. have the best economic performance?” and view the numbers.
The Federal debt can only be realistically evaluated in relation to national income (GDP). The higher our income the more debt we can safely assume, and vice versa. According to studies since World War II Republican presidents have incurred far more debt than the Democrats with the exception of Obama. And he inherited the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. By immediate and decisive action Obama prevented the economy from totally crashing, and that required incurring more debt.
The stock market moved mostly sideways under Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon/Ford and Carter. Under Reagan and Bush 41 it began a healthy climb and then shot up dramatically during the Clinton years. The market went both ways under George W. and has been ascending to new records under Obama. One has only to look at the performance charts to see that the market almost always performs better under the Democrats.
A study of private sector job creation by economist Stephan Stoft based on U. S. Department of Labor statistics revealed that over a 72–year study period (1939–2011) 58 million new jobs were created under Democratic administrations and 26 million under the Republicans. By anyone’s math, jobs were created more than twice as fast under Democrats than under Republicans.
Net economic growth is probably the most inclusive long–term measurement of all. A study by The Economist magazine indicated that since 1945 the U. S. economy has grown at an average rate of 2.54 percent per year under Republican administrations and 4.35 percent under the Democrats. As in job creation and other areas, economic growth under the Democrats has been almost double the growth under the GOP.
Considering these facts, why would anyone in his or her right mind vote Republican? While I can’t definitively answer that one, the reasons must be based on something other than the economic data.
After South Carolina’s staunch segregationist Democratic Senator Strom Thurmond defected to the GOP after the 1968 Civil Rights Act, the stampede was on and the traditional Democratic “Solid South” became solidly Republican almost overnight. But I might add that Thurmond’s segregationist principles didn’t extend to all rooms of his house.
To retain the southern blue collar vote the Republicans promised three things dear to their hearts now that segregation is a dead issue: to restore school prayer, to ban abortion and to cancel gay rights. But after 50 years church–state separation has even expanded, Roe v Wade is still on the books and gays are gaining new rights almost daily. Will somebody please explain the Souths’ continued blind loyalty to the GOP? As usual, they’ve been had.
George B. Reed Jr., who lives in Rossville, can be reached by email at reed1600@bellsouth.net.