In a Times Picayune opinion column dated 8/12 titled, "Democrats Used To Be For The Middle Class, Not Anymore,," comes from the same writer who early on had to tell his readers that he was a conservative right off the bat. It is the conservative way of trying to wrap themselves in the mantle of the elite. With this commentary for PolitiDose in response to Mr. Morris opinion column comes from an American.
Morris commentary about democrats and the middle class is typical of what Trump and other republicans are trying to do to plant a fake seed because they see the democratic party has a chance to take control of the U.S. House in the November elections. They also dare not talk about the republican party in congress because they have no accomplishments to talk about. Morris is one of the many ditto heads who continue to inject Hillary Clinton into their commentary even though she has not held an elected office in almost 10 years.
Make no mistake, the middle class is still with the democrats for good reason. That is why Hillary won the popular vote in the 2016 Presidential election by a wide margin with 48% of the vote and why Morris thinks the democratic party has a chance to win the House in November. Then in two paragraphs, Morris makes a fool of himself with his lack of knowledge on the issue.
Morris makes note in one paragraph where democrats controlled the White House 16 of the previous 24 years prior to the 2016 election and controlled both houses of congress for 4 years during that time. Why go back just 24 years, why not 36 years and include the 12 years of Reagan-Bush 41. That would make republicans in control of the White House for 20 of the previous 36 years. And why mention that the democrats controlled congress for 4 years but be silent that the republican party controlled both houses of congress for 4 straight years under the George W. Bush administration. Those questions will be answered below but first lets look at Morris second paragraph.
Morris says during those 16 years of democratic control, they failed to stop the decline in working class wages or provide much hope for economic security in the future. Then he says President's Clinton and Obama pushed for free trade agreements that cost millions of blue collar workers their jobs. This paragraph is full of holes and the middle class actually did better on the democratic watch in that 16 year period.
Its obvious why Morris did not include the 12 years of Reagan-Bush 41. President Clinton's administration created more jobs in his 8 years in office than Reagan-Bush created in their 12 years in office and the middle class make up the majority of the job market. In fact you could throw in Bush 43 jobs created and Clinton would exceed all three in the 20 years Reagan-Bush 41 and Bush 43 served. And NAFTA was not even in effect during the Reagan-Bush 41 years. President Clinton cut deficit spending every year his first 4 years in office and then balanced the budget his last four years in office. Reagan-Bush 41 and Bush 43 never balanced one federal budget in the 20 years they served and in fact all three left office with a larger deficit than when they took office.
As for as the second paragraph, middle class income increased on average 1.6% annually under the Clinton administration, the fastest growth rate since the 1960's. Middle class wages did not decline on President Clinton's watch. President Obama inherited Bush's great economic recession and the loss of 700,000 jobs per month. But still managed to create approximately 13,000,000 jobs, where as Bush created approximately 1.5 million jobs. Job creation under Obama put the middle class back to work. Middle class workers wages did increase when Obama left office.
Morris claims that free trade agreements during the Clinton and Obama years cost millions of blue collar workers their jobs is fake news. Clinton and Obama created more new jobs in their 16 years than the previous five republican President even though NAFTA was not even in effect during some of those republicans terms in office. Obama and Bush 43 did have to contend with NAFTA but Obama still beat Bush like a drum on job creation for the middle class. When it comes to jobs and wage advances for the middle class, democratic administrations have the best record
Contrary to the Polls Morris mentioned in his article, voters attitudes swing from one election to another but it does not change the fact what party represents the middle class the best. Its like the Clinton haters who still believe she instructed the military to stand down during the Benghazi terror attack that was proved false in the three congressional hearings chaired by the republican party. And when you throw in the fake Russian ads in the social media people get caught up in the nonsense.
The bottom line is Morris and his ditto head conservatives will keep up the fake news drum beat but it does not change the facts of the democratic party's commitment to the middle class. And it won't change their conversation of talking and writing more about democrats when the republicans are running the country all because they have nothing positive to report about republican accomplishments.
Note; 18 months in office and the Trump administration has created less jobs than the Obama administration did during its last 18 months in office. So middle class workers did better under Obama than they have done under Trump so far. (see previous commentary on the subject)
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
