Politicians lie. It’s convenient for politicians to tell you everything in America sucks so they can sell you their legislative (read: taxpayer money, authoritarian) solutions.
I’m not a politician. I’m a citizen, like you, who is tired of the politicians manipulating all of us.
I don’t want to be a politician. I want to go to Washington, represent our state, fix the national debt, and come home. This is not a career change for me. It’s serving my country.
The lie the politicians are selling is that everything is terrible. More than half of Americans think things are worse than they’ve ever been. And politicians, bureaucrats, and technocrats seize the moment to exert more control, exercise more power, and enrich themselves with more corruption.
They claim the system is broken so rules can just be brushed aside or ignored while they take unilateral action to make things “better.”
Everything is not terrible.
In fact, as Caleb Petit noted in his recent article, Modern America is Great, comparatively speaking, things are much better than they were in the 1960s and 70s. Petit’s evidence:
We’re safer from random acts of violence than we’ve ever been before:
- Crime statistics are all down: violent crime, murder, rape, robbery, property crimes, all down (link).
- There were 2,500 bombings from 1971-1972, and 1,471 recorded terrorist attacks in that decade (link).
The economy is better.
- From 1970-1981, inflation averaged 7.3% peaking at 12.4% in 1980.
- Inflation from 2015 to 2022 averaged 3% peaking at 6.2% in 2022.
- Real income, personal income, and wages have all gone up (link).
- People also live longer, an average of nine years longer than in 1970.
- Even traffic fatalities are down.
So what, exactly sucks again?
Housing. The issues with housing have more to do with demographic shifts and regulatory constraints than anything else.
- The median age of first-time home buyers has stayed the same, but fewer people are marrying and it’s harder to buy a house on a single income (link).
- Financial regulations have increased the concentration in mortgage lending (as a result, no doubt of the 2008 crisis), and zoning restrictions have limited the supply of new homes (link).
- Also home prices have increased faster than household income, mostly due to the low supply (link).
That’s government making things worse, not better.
Hiring. It’s true we’re in a low-hire, no-fire stagnation right now (link). The Fed Chair said recently that the economy lost 92,000 jobs. We know people in our life waiting for a layoff and other people looking for work that are interviewing and not getting hired. All of this will be exacerbated when graduations commence in May and a wave of new graduates flood the market with inexpensive, but inexperienced labor.
Uncertainty does this. It makes companies cautious about hiring. It makes investors nervous about lending. Uncertainty makes everything worse.
Where’s the uncertainty coming from? You guessed it, government. Tariffs, challenges to the tariffs, more tariffs, more challenges. Shifting immigration policies and enforcement activity. Government shut downs, fraud allegations, leaderless, lawless agencies. Throw in a kidnapped Venezuelan president and a dead Ayatollah and you’ve got uncertainty. Uncertainty abroad means uncertainty at home.
But life in America still doesn’t suck. We still enjoy more freedom than our friends in Britain (link). Entrepreneurs are emerging, many of them operating digital businesses that provide flexibility and global reach (link). Our imports indicate cheaper products available to consumers and the rise of our services exports means segments like tech, finance, and travel all increased last year (link).
Outrage at the state of the world is a common tactic used by politicians to gain more power. If they sell you on everything sucks, then you’ll choose them to fix it.
But we know government can’t fix anything. Government intervention distorts markets, complicates simple social programs, and slows progress.
We know community engagement and free markets are better than government. Always.
So what should we do?
First, ignore the doomsday messages from the political parties who follow their dire predictions with an ask for a donation. Shame on them for trying to sell you misery.
Second, find a local group that’s making a positive impact on an issue you care about. Adopt a Highway, Homeless No More, your local church or synagogue. Get involved in being part of the solution. Where people gather to help one another, you’ll find hope and happiness.
Third, join a campaign that’s about the good and healthy stuff in our civic life. Our Kasie, South Carolina message is: we’re all in this boat together so we better start rowing.
We know the national debt is an issue, so let’s work on that. Getting it under control will bring down prices on everything.
I’m running for US Senate because I believe one million South Carolinians know our government doesn’t work for us. I want to change that.
Not gonna lie, it won’t be easy to win this thing. But it starts with telling the truth. You can count on me to always do that.
One million South Carolinians know the government isn’t working for us. So let’s do something about it.
Ready to get in the game? We could use your help. Complete the form below.