NEW YORK — If the Left really believes what it says it believes, it should vote Right in today’s elections.
The Left — Democrats and their liberal brethren — profess to stand for the little guy. Democrats claim solidarity with women, underrepresented minorities, and the working class, especially blue-collar workers. Rising wages, minimum and otherwise, are an oft-stated wish. And overseas, arms control and nuclear non-proliferation are urgent priorities.
If liberal Democrats still cherish these things, they should vote Republican today — for the U.S. Senate, the House, governors’ mansions, city halls, and local school boards.
Why?
As much as it would pain the Left to admit it, the Republican leadership of President Donald J. Trump and the GOP Congress is delivering on liberals’ reputed goals far better than Obama and the Democrats ever did.
Voters should ask themselves this question: Are you better off now than you were two years ago?
For the U.S., and most Americans, the answer is: Yes. And for this, they can thank the Right’s policies that have secured peace and prosperity — tax reduction, deregulation, a pro-business tone, diplomatic resolve, and military might.
• As the self-styled party of women, Democrats should be thrilled with the employment situation for adult females. Over the last two years, joblessness for them has fallen from 4.3 percent in October 2016 (under Obama) to 3.4 percent last month (Under President Trump and a Republican Congress). For women age 20 and above, this is nearly the same unemployment level as in 1953 — under President Dwight David Eisenhower. Today’s 3.7 percent overall unemployment rate matches that set in December 1969 — under Ike’s vice president, Richard Milhous Nixon.
“Pretty much everything you could want in a monthly jobs report,” Jared Bernstein said Friday via Twitter regarding these latest statistics. The former economic adviser to Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden added: “Payroll gains way better than expected, nice pop in labor force participation, wage growth continues to strengthen, finally beating inflation (real gains!). Score 1 for ‘room-to-run’ crowd!”
• The Left claims to represent minorities. As such, liberal Democrats should be doing cartwheels over black unemployment. That metric has slid from 8.6 percent in October 2016 to 6.2 percent last month — slightly above its record-low reading of 5.9 percent in May. Some 1.2 million black Americans have found jobs since President Trump was elected.
Meanwhile, the latest data find that the number of blacks living below the poverty line has shrunk from 21.8 percent in 2016 to 21.2 percent in 2017 — another historical low.
• Hispanics, one more demographic group that Democrats say they embrace, have seen unemployment descend from 5.7 percent in October 2016 to 4.4 percent today — another record low.
• Blue-collar workers supposedly are among those for whom the Left labors. Americans in manufacturing jobs (long thought irretrievable) have grown from 12,325,000 in October 2016 to 12,785,000 last month — an increase of 460,000.
• Seeing poor people get ahead should bring tears of joy to Democrat eyes. So, break out the Kleenex: Americans below the poverty line dropped from 12.7 percent in October 2016 to 12.3 percent last year.
• Similarly, this news should set the Prosecco flowing in Berkeley and Cambridge. The number of Americans on Food Stamps plunged from 43.4 million in July 2016 to 38.9 million last July. By this measure, 4.4 million Americans shifted from dependency to self-sufficiency.
• Democrats are rarely louder than when they scream for health insurance. So, now they can shout a little less. Americans with medical coverage rose from 292.3 million in 2016 to 294.6 million last year — an improvement of 2.3 million. Many of those who have returned to work now enjoy group plans. Others use association health plans and additional choices that Republicans have authorized.
• The Fight for $15 is one of the Left’s most sacred talismans. The $15-per-hour wage, liberals believe, is the threshold beyond which social justice beckons. While they itch to impose this magic compensation floor by law, the GOP’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has let companies keep more of their money and voluntarily pay their employees this amount. Americans for Tax Reforms reports that at least 47 major companies have announced that their corporate tax cuts have allowed them to raise their workers’ minimum wages to $15 per hour or higher. Other firms likely have done this without fanfare.
• Democrats favor arms control and embrace nuclear non-proliferation. So, they should be ecstatic that the GOP’s policy of Peace through Strength has brought the number of North Korean atomic-bomb tests from two in 2016 to zero this year. Likewise, Pyongyang’s nuclear missile tests plummeted from 15 in 2016 (under Obama) to 0 in 2018 (under Trump).
The have-nots are enjoying these benefits even more than the haves. This should cheer Leftists. As a Wall Street Journal headline declared, “Lower-Income Americans Drive Up Consumer Sentiment in September.” Staff writer Sarah Chaney explained, “gains among households in the bottom third” propelled that month’s blast of good feelings. The University of Michigan’s September report, Chaney wrote, “noted that confidence among lower-income Americans was the highest since 2000.” Richard Curtin, the survey’s chief economist, said “the expansion has now benefited nearly all population subgroups.”
Since Election Day 2016, the GOP has accomplished something very special: The Left is achieving its reputed goals through the Right’s reliable methods. Thus, Americans across the political spectrum should lock arms today and vote for the Republican leadership whose conservative means have yielded liberal ends.
If the Left would stop resisting for a moment or two, they might realize that — thanks to the Right — they’ve never had it so good.
Deroy Murdock is a Manhattan-based Fox News Contributor and an emeritus media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.