Gosh Joe Kennedy is young. And really good. Think people will rally?

[sheshe2]

112. You, Sophia say:

I think we Democrats have lost our focus on economic issues. When I was growing up in the post-FDR period, economic issues were really the reason Democrats won campaigns. Democrats did not focus on the justice issues having to do with equality. I agree with the focus on equality, but (and I'm a woman), we need to focus now more on economics than we do because the majority of Americans share an interest in economic security and at this stage we should focus on shared interests because in so doing we will forward the interests of minorities. We have to be able to do both things -- focus on justice and equality issues while improving the economy.

Please explain how we Democrats lost focus on economic issues. You do remember that Obama took office in a Great Recession brought on by greedy GOP and two wars paid for by a credit card? He kept us from sliding into a Great Depression.

The New Yorker
https://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/obamas-economic-record-an-assessment
snip/
It was another fairly strong report: a hundred and fifty-six thousand jobs were created in December, the unemployment rate was 4.7 per cent, and average hourly wages were almost three per cent higher than they had been a year earlier. As the President’s supporters were quick to point out, this was the seventy-fifth consecutive month of job growth, which is a record for the modern era. Since early 2010, 15.8 million jobs have been created.
snip/
But Presidents aren’t mere bystanders. The policies they carry out, in conjunction with Congress, matter a great deal. In times of acute danger, Presidents can give the economy a much-needed boost. Or they can prolong the agony. In the longer term, policies such as new spending programs, changes to the tax laws, and reforms of the regulatory code can have a major effect. Anybody who doubts this needs to read up on the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt or of Ronald Reagan.

You Sophia say:

I think that Obama did a pretty good job balancing those things but because of trade, many Americans think the economy worsened for them personally. They forget that while their really good job may have been moved overseas, and they are earning less, they can buy a lot with what they earn because the imported products are so cheap. It's a trade-off. Democrats have not pointed to the advantages of trade. And Democrats have not pointed out that if people don't buy the imported products, but buy American, jobs will return.

A pretty good job? I would say he did a fine job coming into office during a near Great Depression with the Republican traitors that met the night of his Inauguration saying the would do all that they could to make him a one term President. They swore they would do anything to see him fail. Did you forget this part of history?





Once again from the New Yorker.

But Presidents aren’t mere bystanders. The policies they carry out, in conjunction with Congress, matter a great deal. In times of acute danger, Presidents can give the economy a much-needed boost.

Or they can prolong the agony. In the longer term, policies such as new spending programs, changes to the tax laws, and reforms of the regulatory code can have a major effect. Anybody who doubts this needs to read up on the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt or of Ronald Reagan.

Obama’s policies helped lift the economy out of a frightening slump and set it on a path to steady, if unspectacular, growth. In fact, I’d call this his biggest achievement. The scale of the financial panic of 2008 and the extent of the job losses that occurred in the first months of 2009 should never be forgotten. By “a number of macroeconomic measures—including household wealth, employment and trade flows—the first year of the Great Recession in the United States saw declines that were as large or larger than at the outset of the Great Depression in 1929-30,” Jason Furman, the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, recounted in an exit memo that he posted online this week.

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No matter how hard we wish for things it will not ever happen over night. It also takes a hell of a lot of hard work to achieve our goals and having the obstructionist GOP vowing your demise on day one will not help us to get there quickly.

I will also say no to your stated priorities, economic justice goes hand and hand with social justice. One without the other means nothing because there will be no social justice if we only focus on economic justice. I want both and I refuse a half loaf when I can have a full one.