Let’s get right to your Saturday morning analysis.
While Republicans are historically viewed as the best party to handle the economy, in fact, Republicans – at least in their Reaganite trickle-down incarnation – are bad for the economy and bad for people in general. By nearly any measure, they perform worse than Democrats when in charge.
In a statistical ranking of 4 key categories (GDP growth, job growth, inflation, median household income) – Post WWII – 6 of the top 8 (75%) performing Admistrations were Democrats and 5 of the bottom 6 Administrations (83%, excluding Trump’s 2nd term) were Republicans.
The job creation numbers are about as stark as it gets. Post WWII, Democratic Administrations created over 2 ½ times more jobs on average per year than Republican Administrations: Democrats created 84.9 million jobs (2.12M/year) while Republicans created 32.2 million jobs (805K/year). It’s even more stark since Reagan left office after enshrining the fraud of trickle down economics into our tax code and economy: since 1989, Democratic Administrations created over 39 times more jobs on average per year than Republican Administrations: Democrats created 50.6 million jobs (2.53M/year) while Republicans created 1.3 million jobs (a measly 80K/year).
These stats are even more stunning when one realizes that since 1989, Democrats have generally taken office after each respective Republican Administrations has essentially run things into the ground (see my post from yesterday: "What Do We Do Now?").
________________________________
Now that we’ve set straight the misconception that Republicans are better for the economy, let’s turn to another myth: Republicans rule when it comes to national defense and the military.
IMHO, Republicans have historically believed in throwing money at our military to build bigger bombs, planes, ships, etc. To them, it’s simple: more power = more might. Democrats have historically, at least in the Post WWII era, taken a more nuanced approach, looking towards a combination of diplomacy, negotiation and economic relation-building to supplement and complement our still brawny military might.
Remember, the United States spends an insane amount on its military. In 2025, it spent 1/3 of all military spending worldwide and as much on its military as the 7 other largest military budgets in the world combined (and that includes ahistorically large military spending in Russia and Ukraine due to the war they are currently engaged in with each other).
I wrote about Trump, Iran and his requested budget increase back in April. I still think there is a completely valid democratic line of attack in the last sentence of that post: “Paraphrasing of Trump’s words - “we need to increase our military budget so we can’t afford healthcare and childcare and all these individual things” is an ad that writes itself…”
And to revisit another post from earlier this year, I’m still convinced that posing Republican policies/actions vs. Democratic policies/actions can be distilled down to one word: choice.
As I wrote previously,
“Every policy decision. Every spending decision. Every personnel decision. Every budget decision. What do they all have in common? They all involve making a choice.
Every one of these choices is - and should be but is not always viewed through this prism - revelatory. Each choice reveals priorities. Each choice reveals values. Each choice reveals character. Each policy/political choice reveals allies and enemies and favored constituencies as well as disfavored groups.
I’m wondering if the simple message of this election might be: “This election is pretty simple. My opponent had a choice to make: he chose X, I choose Y.
…
The key here is that by presenting everything your opponents say as a “choice”, it implies that it doesn’t have to be this way. Of course, this should be said explicitly as well: “My opponent Senator Bumfuck chooses to vote for spending an additional $200 billion for a war the American people don’t want; I would choose to use those funds to make sure every single American has access to basic, quality and affordable healthcare.” How about, "My opponent made a choice to vote for tax cuts for billionaires; I would choose to raise billionaire taxes to pay for better public schools and true energy independence instead of relying on oil controlled by sheiks in the Middle East.”
Another way to put it: “It doesn’t have to be this way. We can make different choices.”
Which brings me to the present day. In just one year or so, Trump and Hegseth, two of the most incompetent and unqualified people in our nation’s history to lead the military, have basically destroyed - organizationally, physically, reputationally, and, I would argue, spiritually - the very institution they were entrusted to oversee while spending more and more and more and more and more. To wit:
They illegally renamed the Department of Defense the Department of War (words matter, and I cannot understand how the media has just rolled over and accepted that phrasing when only Congress could legally rename the Department)
They cut civilian expertise through workforce reductions, negatively impacting everything from logistics to acquisitions to intelligence to cyber capabilities to nuclear weapons
Weakened independent weapons testing and oversight (the GAO says this is… bad)
Cut back on military research, including ending a drone research program just when Ukraine was revolutionizing modern warfare with drone technology
Declared the military “woke” and destroyed careers of able and deserving distinguished service members simply because they were people of color and/or female
Undermined and weakened alliances, including NATO, pursuing more of a “go it alone” strategy”
Replaced merit standards with ideological standards when it comes to military promotions and responsibilitites
The result?
Entered a war with Iran – Trump’s Folly – with no real strategy on the whim of a malignant narcissist, ignorant madman
Depleted our missile and most advanced weapons stocks, weakening our ability to deal with our biggest adversaries - China and Russia
Drove countries away from purchasing U.S. weaponry (maybe not such a bad thing, though, to rein in the military-industrial complex)
Achieved the “own goal” of allowing a much militarily weaker enemy to destroy most of our bases in the middle east
Scored another own goal by showing an enemy that they could actually disrupt the world economy simply by controlling and threatening shipping lanes without even expending much, if any, military assets
Made it an “own goal” triplet by mismanaging the financial resources of the military as a whole and the navy in particular, deferring maintenance, depressing morale and literally driving servicemembers to extreme actions while broadcasting our weakness to our enemies
Hegseth hid the damage to the main U.S. base in the Middle East, putting politics over the safety and support of military needs and the safety and well-being of those who serve.
Our military spending/strategy is now subject to the whims of one person, Trump, who insisted on a new class of battleships that are outdated and serve no true current day military purpose
Hegseth insanely pushed for testosterone testing to meet a more “lethal” and “male standard”
Trump insisted that aircraft carriers return to using antiquated steam catapults at a cost of billions of dollars
Trump, insanely, is insisting on physically restructuring aircraft carriers at a cost of billions to return to previous generations because – he doesn’t’ like the look of modern carriers
There’s so much more.
The overall big picture is one of a military being run on ideological grounds (instead of an empirical and strategic basis) by incompetent and unqualified civilian leaders, leading to unnecessary financial, tactical, alliance, and morale issues without any clear strategic plan other than being more manly, less woke and subject to the crazy ignorant whims of a malignant narcissist octogenarian President who avoided military service with bogus claims of bone spurs in his feet.
Democrats should not shy away from reclaiming the mantle of the responsible, effective and realistic military leaders they have always been (see WWII, Bin Laden killing) by avoiding unnecessary wars (Iraq, eventually Afghanistan) and combining smart military prowess with diplomatic engagement for a more secure United States and less dangerous world.
Repeat song because I love it and its my perogative:
Country Joe and the Fish - The Vietnam Song
