Lynn Smith: Ignore the propaganda
Cynicism is the defensive stance we take to protect ourselves from becoming hurt or disappointed. Because a new generation of American cynics is fearful of imminent economic or social collapse, they’re trying to convince the rest of us that we require authoritarian rule to survive. Forgetting that we ditched kings centuries ago, they want more Hungary, and less United States. But I’m not buying their cynicism, and neither should you.
During the 1970s, it was undeniably true that Germany and Japan dominated technology and virtually all forward-looking industries. But now, from medical technology to our advanced manufacturing, and from our telecommunications infrastructure to our production of liquid hydrocarbons, the U.S. enjoys overwhelming market dominance. It’s no accident that Chinese President Xi’s recent visit to San Francisco was designed in part, to stimulate American investment in China during their protracted period of economic decline.
In the financial sector, our banks are central to economic operations the world over. Indeed, there are no remaining “global” banks, only American banks. And if we zoom out and look at total U.S. household net worth, it hit an all-time high during the second quarter this year, and the growth continues.
Demographically, we continue to accept a million legal immigrants every year, more than the total of all other industrialized nations combined, resulting in our vibrant and resilient economic growth. In fact, before politicians began using it as a cudgel to cripple their opponents, immigration was (accurately) viewed as America’s economic superpower.
During the last five years, the U.S. has experienced a decline in greenhouse gas emissions despite the growth of our population and our economy. Wind and solar energy costs have plummeted, and 80% of our new energy generation capacity now comes from clean energy sources.
The October Consumer Price Index showed a 0% change in month-over-month prices, a vast improvement over previous post-pandemic inflation data. The labor market remains remarkably strong, despite the FED's best efforts to cool it down, and the economy is now exceeding its pre-pandemic rate of growth. In fact, when compared to other G7 countries, the US has the highest post-pandemic GDP growth … with third quarter results at an astonishing 5.2%. And thankfully, our inflation is declining faster than all other G7 nations. If you’ve been dining out, or traveling, or doing holiday shopping, or buying a boat, or renting a house, you’ve undoubtedly observed brisk demand for products and services across all market sectors.
Since entering the White House, Biden has done more to reinvigorate American industrial policy than any other president during the last 75 years. His focus has been on those parts of the Midwest and South that suffered the effects of deindustrialization most acutely; he knows that it’s the left-behind rural areas that have disproportionately suffered from poverty, crime, addiction, and suicide. And Biden also knows this: A middle-class kid born in 1940 had a 94% probability of out-earning his parents during his lifetime, but for a similar kid born after 1985, those odds have dropped to less than 50%.
Without a doubt, many problems remain; income inequality, housing affordability, the cost of higher education, maternal mortality, illegal immigration, ballooning deficits, accessibility to affordable health care, and uneven outcomes in public education, all make my shortlist. Because elected leaders have jettisoned strategic thinking in favor of scoring on social media, they’ve hamstrung our progress.
My biggest concern is with those cynics that just make stuff up, simply to mask their fear of the complex and diverse population that we are. Sadly, they spend their days yearning for a simpler, purer country that never actually existed outside of their own imaginations. Afraid of pluralism, they’re using fiction to convince Americans that our country has become ungovernable, and therefore requires a strongman to rule with both cruel intensions and unchecked authority.
Because the world’s next leader will likely be chosen by about 100,000 American voters, split between four or five battleground states, we must ignore the (mostly Russian and Chinese) propaganda that’s being used to brainwash our fellow Americans every day.
I’ve just returned from an extensive trip to Australia and Indonesia, having traveled with non-Americans from all over the developed world. During dozens of unscripted conversations, they underscored what most Americans still believe: The United States remains the one “indispensable” nation. Even now, as a portion of our population seeks to return to our isolationist roots, the world still views our country’s leadership as vital to global stability.
My heartfelt prayer is that in 2024, Americans will take their vote as seriously as the rest of the world takes us.
— Community Columnist Lynn Smith is a retired wealth management executive who resides in Holland. Contact her at lynn.angleworks@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Lynn Smith: Ignore the propaganda
