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Democrats fixed many of the problems of the early 2020s [1]

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Date: 2024-11-02  

Liberal economist Noah Smith wrote an excellent piece highlighting the policy successes of the Democratic party over the last few years. Without these successes, Trump would likely have cruised to an electoral victory, spelling demise for the country. The policy successes of recent years have kept Democrats competitive, despite the unpopularity of inflation.

The Biden presidency will truly be looked on favorably by historians and possibly as one of the best administrations in US history. If Biden's choice to step out of the race leads to Harris’s win, his legacy will be cemented. In contrast, the GOP is unbelievably dysfunctional and unserious.

Here are various policy successes from the Democratic party:

Biden helped fix unemployment — In terms of absolute numbers and the employment percentage of prime-age Americans, unemployment is incredibly low.

Biden (and Powell) fixed inflation — The healthy economic recovery did come at a cost of higher-than average inflation, although other factors such as supply chain shocks from the pandemic also contributed. However, inflation has come down to target levels, and real wages rose despite inflation. More importantly:

this growth has also come with falling inequality, as the working class has taken a disproportionate share of the gains.

I wish the above point were more widely embraced. The last few years have proven that wealth creation will not necessarily continue to be funneled upward to ultra-wealthy individuals. Increases in wealth gains can happen toward the middle and bottom levels of wage earners.

Pro-policing Democrats fixed the crime wave — Reforms to prevent police abuse are critical, but strong police forces are necessary to address crime. The crime wave of 2020 and 2021 was short lived, as blue cities followed Biden's example of rejecting calls to defund the police. Crime is at historic lows.

Biden (belatedly) addressed the border crisis — Unfortunately, the broader public has become quite anti-immigration in recent years, in part due to the considerable increase in undocumented border crossings for asylum amplified by caricatures and misinformation from the anti-immigration right. Republican hypocrisy became obvious when they killed the bipartisan border deal at Trump's behest. Biden took executive action to address asylum crossings, although legal reform will be necessary to have a functional and humane immigration system.

Biden started to fix U.S. manufacturing weakness — The CHIPS Act and Inflation Reduction Act have caused a boom in US manufacturing, which is critical for economic growth and national security, given China's increasingly hostile behavior toward Taiwan and the US.

There are still important problems to address, which Harris will be far better poised to tackle, aside from the obvious requirement of preserving American democracy.

Full post here: www.noahpinion.blog/…

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