A few of our stories and columns are now in front of the paywall. We at The Chief-Leader remain committed to independent reporting on labor and civil service. It's been our mission since 1897. You can have a hand in ensuring that our reporting remains relevant in the decades to come. Consider supporting The Chief, which you can do for as little as $3.20 a month.
To the editor,
Several issues I have with the op-ed by Carter Myers-Brown (“Can the Democratic Party build a micro-level politics?,” The Chief, Nov. 29).
Mr. Myers-Brown omits arguably the four most important reasons Kamala Harris lost: celebrity overload, failure to renounce U.S. subsidizing of Israel bombing Gaza, lack of an economic plan, and no plan to address the border crisis. Best of the rest: Harris did not have a primary, didn't distance herself from the Biden administration, and did not stand for change the way President-elect Trump did.
He does not distinguish between legal immigrants, illegal immigrants, and so called migrants. While it may be true that immigrants increase the GDP, immigrants also send money to relatives in their country of origin, removing money from our economy. Illegal immigrants do depress wages.
He states Republicans instilled in Americans fear of migrants taking American jobs. How about fear of our government — city, state, and federal — going bankrupt caring for migrants? How about migrants committing crimes against Americans? The left will tell you all migrants are noble individuals that came here for a better life, the right will tell you they're all criminals, when the truth likely lies in the middle.
If the Democrats wish to take the White House in 2028 they must do three things. First, look in the mirror. Stop blaming others. Take responsibility. Second, reach out to the working people. Third, leave celebrities out of it. I don't care about female pop stars shaking their rear ends for me. I don't care about out of touch celebrities that don't live the life of a 9 to 5 grunt telling me how I should vote. I care about how the candidate will try and make my life better over the next four years. The work to be done is not simple itself, but the answer is.
Nat Weiner
1 comment on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here
reenjoe
Mr. Weiner, the costs and benefits of migrants (I'll use this term to refer to all undocumented people of foreign extraction) is not straightforward. It is true that migrants send between $70 and $80 billion dollars out of the country annually. That money goes, almost exclusively, to individuals in poor, rural communities. It is much more effective than foreign-aid supplied by the U.S. government.
They also pay over $100 billion dollars in federal, state and local taxes which offsets most of the money governments spend on aiding them, so they are hardly bankrupting those entities or we taxpayers. Migrants add $2.2 trillion dollars annually to U.S. GDP, roughly 8%. On balance, migrants add far more than they take and removing them, as Trump promises to do, will do more to bankrupt our government than the $80 billion that is sent back home or the assistance we provide for them here.
As for crime, peoples of all demographics commit crimes, including migrants. However, multiple studies have found that American citizens commit crimes at twice the rate of migrants. I would eagerly support deporting all criminals to the country matching their ethnicity, including descendants of those who arrived on the Mayflower.
Politicians of both parties should look in the mirror. Neither Beyonce, nor Joe Rogan, or Taylor Swift or Elon Musk have any understanding of working people. And we voters need to look in the mirror as well. Too many working people refuse to hear Democrats, even when they reach out. Lies become truth and "common sense" replaces expertise. That is a prescription for failure.
Thursday, December 5, 2024 Report this