Dear Democrats, It’s time to close the sale in asking for voters to cast their ballots for all Democratic candidates. Tallahassee, Florida’s Mayor Andrew Gillum at his Monday Night CNN debate with the host Jake Tapper did an excellent job with this. This is how its done.
TAPPER: Mayor?
GILLUM: Because my mother and father would have to get up so early they would drive us to my grandmother’s house where she would have a ritual to do two things before we left the door. Take her bottle of olive oil and build a cross on my forehead as a way to send us out in the world with covering. Then go to school, mind your teachers, get your lesson and bring that home. Bring it home for your family who get out there and work on somebody else’s job. Bring it home for your brother and sister.
What my grandmother was communicating to me was that it wasn’t just about me. It’s about all of us. And in Trump’s America we have been led to believe we have to step on our neighbor’s shoulder and their face and backs in order to get ahead. I reject that. We have an opportunity on November 6th as a collective, as a state, to say we deserve better.

It’s time for Democrats to get it, that Americans want their legislators to get out there to fight for making their lives better. Pointing out President Trump’s sins and lies is important in itself, but it is not sufficient to close the sale.
Here is why there are so many Americans who feel left behind and neglected by both the Republican and the Democratic parties:
Source for following data is EPI Economic Policy Institute:
From WWII Until about 1973, when US corporations productivity numbers increased to about 95.65%, the average workers’ pay wages increased to about 91%. There was a consensus that as corporations increased its productivity, revenues, profits, the workers participated in the division of the spoils.
After 1973, corporate productivity increased by 77% but workers pay increased by only 12.4%.
The gap between productivity and a typical worker’s compensation has increased dramatically since 1973Productivity growth and hourly compensation growth, 1948–2017
Year | Hourly compensation | Net productivity |
---|---|---|
1948 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
1949 | 6.24% | 0.74% |
1950 | 10.46% | 8.77% |
1951 | 11.74% | 11.07% |
1952 | 15.02% | 14.66% |
1953 | 20.82% | 18.17% |
1954 | 23.48% | 20.47% |
1955 | 28.69% | 25.67% |
1956 | 33.89% | 27.23% |
1957 | 37.08% | 30.12% |
1958 | 38.07% | 32.48% |
1959 | 42.46% | 37.48% |
1960 | 45.37% | 40.32% |
1961 | 47.83% | 44.49% |
1962 | 52.31% | 49.66% |
1963 | 54.85% | 55.26% |
1964 | 58.32% | 59.85% |
1965 | 62.26% | 64.60% |
1966 | 64.69% | 68.64% |
1967 | 66.67% | 71.12% |
1968 | 70.48% | 76.33% |
1969 | 74.39% | 77.41% |
1970 | 76.29% | 79.19% |
1971 | 81.65% | 85.19% |
1972 | 90.84% | 90.68% |
1973 | 90.95% | 95.65% |
1974 | 86.61% | 92.46% |
1975 | 86.46% | 95.98% |
1976 | 89.34% | 100.75% |
1977 | 92.81% | 103.51% |
1978 | 95.64% | 104.96% |
1979 | 93.23% | 103.56% |
1980 | 88.31% | 102.39% |
1981 | 87.59% | 107.64% |
1982 | 87.92% | 106.87% |
1983 | 88.48% | 109.81% |
1984 | 87.02% | 116.72% |
1985 | 86.38% | 119.80% |
1986 | 87.45% | 122.96% |
1987 | 84.66% | 126.36% |
1988 | 84.00% | 131.30% |
1989 | 83.72% | 130.03% |
1990 | 82.35% | 132.23% |
1991 | 82.00% | 133.99% |
1992 | 83.19% | 141.99% |
1993 | 83.45% | 141.47% |
1994 | 83.88% | 144.41% |
1995 | 82.75% | 147.50% |
1996 | 82.86% | 153.80% |
1997 | 84.85% | 159.82% |
1998 | 89.26% | 167.48% |
1999 | 91.97% | 173.81% |
2000 | 92.94% | 181.72% |
2001 | 95.59% | 186.46% |
2002 | 99.48% | 193.07% |
2003 | 101.56% | 200.72% |
2004 | 100.55% | 208.97% |
2005 | 99.71% | 215.29% |
2006 | 99.87% | 221.08% |
2007 | 101.44% | 217.07% |
2008 | 101.38% | 213.46% |
2009 | 109.28% | 219.48% |
2010 | 110.98% | 232.25% |
2011 | 108.45% | 235.24% |
2012 | 106.49% | 241.25% |
2013 | 108.38% | 239.89% |
2014 | 109.10% | 245.04% |
2015 | 112.44% | 246.44% |
2016 | 114.38% | 243.47% |
2017 | 114.70% | 246.25% |
1948–1973:Productivity: 95.7%Hourly compensation: 90.9%1973–2017: Productivity: 77.0% Hourly compensation: 12.4%
Notes: Data are for compensation (wages and benefits) of production/nonsupervisory workers in the private sector and net productivity of the total economy. “Net productivity” is the growth of output of goods and services less depreciation per hour worked.
Source: EPI analysis of unpublished Total Economy Productivity data from Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Labor Productivity and Costs program, wage data from the BLS Current Employment Statistics, BLS Employment Cost Trends, BLS Consumer Price Index, and Bureau of Economic Analysis National Income and Product Accounts
Updated from Figure A in Raising America’s Pay: Why It’s Our Central Economic Policy Challenge(Bivens et al. 2014)
After this time of 1973, The CEOs of these corporations which also donate heavily mostly to Republican Party candidates have made the conscious decision to end this balanced sharing of their spoils, leaving the middle class behind. Security safety net benefits disappeared like the pensions. Now most folks are on their own with 401k plans which are not as reliable in peoples being able to rely on a nest egg when they retire, and stagnant wages for years. They have lost any sense of security in being able to provide for their families.
See: Raising America’s Pay: Why It’s Our Central Economic Policy Challenge/ EPI
IT IS NOT THE OTHER (IMMIGRANTS, PEOPLES OF COLOR) WHO ARE TAKING AWAY THE JOBS FROM HARD WORKING MEN AND WOMEN. IT IS MOSTLY PEOPLES LIKE PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS CORPORATE BUDDIES WHO ARE CULPABLE FOR THE DECLINE OF THE MIDDLE CLASS.
While the republican President Donald J. Trump does his level best to decry the fact that foreigners are taking away the jobs from Americans, he has continued to this date to hire mostly foreign help (99%) to staff temporary positions (seasonal) at his many resorts, including at Mar-a-Lago.
Many corporate executives joined up with Koch backed organizations like ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council which started in 1973 where one of their major goals was to destroy the power of worker unions in the private sector. Currently, they would love to break up the public sector unions made up of folks like teachers, fire fighters, police officers, etc.
To add salt to these wounds. the Republican Party legislators have very recently openly advertised that they have plans to cut back on entitlement programs like social security, Medicare, Medicaid that workers have paid towards out of their paychecks for most of their working lives.
Try this out as a closing when asking voters to back Democratic Candidates, “It’s not just all about us. In Trump’s America we have been led to believe we have to step on our neighbor’s shoulder and their face and backs in order to get ahead. We reject that. We have an opportunity on November 6th as a collective, as a country, to say we deserve better.”
We get it that peoples need relief and we are working hard to protect their access to affordable, quality healthcare with mandated coverage for preexisting conditions; protecting workers’ rights to unionize; insuring that peoples who work full time are guaranteed a living wage at a minimum of $15.00 per hour; access to affordable, quality childcare so peoples can afford to work; protecting hard working peoples’ retirement savings; lightening the burden of student loans on young peoples.
Corporations need to get on board by participating in lifting up the middle class by rewarding and acknowledging their workers who have helped them to benefit from record profits, profitability numbers, revenues.
THIS IS A WAKE UP CALL! AS PER MSNBC REPORT ON OCTOBER 23, 2018, There are more republicans than democrats early voting in 9 out of 10 states. Nevada is the only exception. The president’s lies are working! Fight back, Go Vote!
ALL NON-TRUMPIANS AND DEMOCRATS, CONSERVATIVES FROM LEFT TO RIGHT, GET OUT TO VOTE!!!
Gronda, agreed. People who are voting for Republican candidates are not paying attention says this Independent and former Republican. Here are a few things to consider:
– the touted tax bill increased the debt by at least $1.5 trillion. If it helped middle class families so much, then why is the President touting another middle class tax cut? This tax law change is malfeasance in my view, with a now $22 trillion debt going up to $33 trillion by 2027. And, he wants another tax cut?
– we have damaged our relationships with our allies, when we could have enlisted their help to pressure China. The relationship damage dwarfs the impact of the inane tariffs.
– Americans want the ACA improved and stabilized. The GOP answer is to repeal it after defunding 89% of the adverse selection payments to insurers, defunding 100% of subsidies to insurers to help poor people and fighting Medicaid expansion. These measures have sabatoged the ACA increasing premiums on Americans to win a political argument.
– Civil rights for non-whites is under attack in America being cheer led by a divisive President.
– the environment is under attack by this President who sees a world as it stood thirty years ago.
Yes, the economy is currently doing well, but we have had 8 years of job growth and 9+ years of economic growth with a stock market rise dating back to March, 2009. The President has only been in office for 21 months.
Keith
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Dear Keith,
Thanks for all your added input and information.
I’m not sure the US economy is doing so well. The stock market is down today. The experts are indicating that the 3rd quarter growth to be around 2.9%.The trade war is a drag. The 3rd quarter GDP numbers will be out on Oct. 26, 2018.
As per News & World Report, Most economists don’t believe the good times seen in the second quarter of 2018 are indicative of what lies ahead for the U.S. The Federal Reserve is among several domestic and international institutions that have yet to meaningfully update its long-term economic projections in the aftermath of Trump’s 2016 Election Day victory. Most recently, the Fed projected GDP growth would only hover between 1.8 percent and 2 percent over the long term.
And with America’s central bank raising interest rates, the stimulative effects of last year’s tax overhaul fading as the months and years go by and mounting concern over international relations and rising government debt, it may be too soon for the administration to get used to economic reports similar to those seen out of the second quarter.
Loewengart said next year is a “big question mark, and that’s a time horizon investors should be thinking about.”
He pointed to several warning signs that Wall Street may not be fully anticipating, including weakness in the housing sector and “ballooning government debt issuance that seemingly no one is talking about.”
Hugs, Gronda
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Gronda, the 2Q2018 results were inflated by companies buying and selling in advance of the tariffs. The Trump adminstration and GOP have used this quarter as a trend, when it was propped up. Keith
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