Initial aerial scans of North Korean environs indicated that they resembled Air America: no radioactivity. Later tests found that indeed a fissile missile might have whistled by. But for now the 300 million citizens of our great nation can still sleep soundly in their beds. Whoa?! Did you just say 300 million?
Yep, our great nation has just reached this milestone. Three hundred million hardy souls make up our polity, and that is just counting citizens. Nor are we stopping there, we grow apace. The milestone is not our capstone. But it occurs to me that it is a touchstone. It tells us something very important about our state of affairs and also reflects positively on our affairs of state. If you ask me, this is a very good reason to cast our votes for Republicans in November.
Why so? Because it doubles the significance of the employment statistic. Let’s start from the Carter presidency, when we ran a consistent national unemployment rate about 8%. Now we have halved that to 4%. Month after month, with hardly a pendulum swing, we hear a number in that range. This is a major achievement in its own right, one that argues against electoral boat-rocking.
Now add the demographic growth and the good news is compounded wonderfully. We hit the 200 million mark sometime in 1969, so when Carter left office in early 1981, we were at about 230 million. Think about it: where a quarter-century ago we could only put 92% of 230 million people to work, we now have 96% of 300 million folks cashing paychecks. This is an absolutely stunning accomplishment.
In truth, the invisible numbers enhance this scenario further. You and I would never do such a thing, of course, but most homeowners in this country have a cleaning lady. That, for the uninitiated, is a person who comes to your home, takes $10 an hour in cash and leaves your floors freshly mopped. These are a few million more workers engaged in an intrinsically - other than the tax evasion—legitimate, productive occupation. (I would mention babysitters, au pairs and nannies, but I don’t want a swarm of IRS agents descending on our placid suburbia.)
The illicit maraschino cherry on top of this Monday-through-Friday sundae is the illegal worker. Whether an alien who has no right to be here or a green newcomer without a green card, this fellow is pulling his weight in the workplace. By all accounts, we have more work looking for immigrants than immigrants looking for work. In terms of security and long-term demographic considerations, we may not be too thrilled with the presence of these folks. In terms of employment and productivity, we have to acknowledge their contribution.
Bottom line, the employment situation is top of the line. The American economy is firing on all cylinders and not firing any people. It is fashionable in Republican circles to attribute all this success to the Bush tax cuts, but frankly I am agnostic on that score. The size of those cuts were modest, modifying and modulating at best, mostly symbolic. Still, the business climate engendered by the sum total of presidential and congressional policy is paradisiacal—other than the $2.50 gallon of gas.
In these situations, we look to the maxims, axioms, epigrams, proverbs, apothegms, truisms and homespun bits of wisdom. You know the ones I mean. The recommendation against peering at the dental work of bequeathed equines. The injunction to leave well enough in solitude. The admonition to avoid interfering with efficaciousness … er, "don't mess with success" does sound better. The exhortation against trading equines halfway across a pond. (Sorry about all the clichés, but you can’t educate a canine to new legerdemain.)
It’s the economy, stupid. Keep it simple, stupid. Unless you want to talk homeland security. Last time I looked the homeland has not been bombed since the eleventh of September in ought-one. Osama Bin-Laden is in a cave. Saddam Hussein is in a cell. His sons are in perdition. Khalil Sheikh Muhammad is singing like a canary. Al-Zarqawi is riddled with bullets. Hamza was flattened by a missile. Anyone else want a piece of us? Don’t get stuck on stupid.
The pocketbook voter should vote Republican. The security voter should vote Republican. The last thing a voter needs to do is the American equivalent of a renegade nuclear test in an otherwise strong economy—just to "send a message" to congressional Republicans. As they say on Air America: “You never know who might be listening.”
