Forget the Media. 2018 Was an Excellent Year
If you give the
mainstream media any credit, then you’re likely convinced that the world is crumbling.
Our economy is crashing, the environment is corroding around us, international
affairs are the worst ever, and violent crime is rampaging out of control.
Poverty is choking the life out of people around the world, and everything is
just bad all of the time.
It’s absolutely
ludicrous that they stick with this narrative. It’s easily debunked. The
mainstream media says 2018 was terrible because Donald Trump was President the
whole year. In reality, 2018 was pretty much the best year humanity has ever
experience by every conceivable metric, and it was the United States that led
that prosperity. Forget the negativity; 2018 was awesome.
Economics - We
can’t talk about the state of the country or how good a year was without
including the economy. Let’s cover the bad news first. The last quarter of 2018
hit below expectations. Stock markets tanked pretty hard, and they erased a
fair amount of wealth in the process. Even while that was happening, the year
closed with the highest wage growth we’ve seen in close to 20 years, record-low
unemployment, and the first annual 3-percent GDP growth since the early 2000s.
Those things happened
while very bad stock markets were hurting the overall bottom line. If stocks hadn’t taken that turn and just stayed flat, the GDP
would have been close to four percent for the year, and effective wages would
have been nearly half a point higher.
This shows us that the
economy in 2018 was massive. We added almost $2 trillion of new wealth to the
country, and despite what leftists will say, that wealth was spread all around.
We know that because poverty levels hit a record low. Then, they continued to
sink through the year.
That’s probably related
to the all-time low unemployment numbers we saw for minority groups in the
country. Black and Hispanic employment numbers have never been better anywhere
at any time in our planet’s history. That alone sounds like a pretty good year.
Part of the strong
economy came from America finally achieving energy independence. We’re now the
largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, and we’re number two for
coal production. We’re exporting more than importing in all three areas, and
that means that we are beholden to exactly zero foreign countries to maintain
our status quo. Oil embargos and dirty politics with the Middle East are things
of the past. Energy independence is possibly the most important thing that has
happened to our country under Trump.
International Standing
- You’ve heard enough about Trump’s success with North Korea and against ISIS,
but those wins actually started in 2018. The first ever peace talk between the
U.S. and North Korea was this past year. Things accelerated quickly, and while
there’s still a lot of negotiation left to do, North Korea went from a
perpetual nuclear threat to a burgeoning trade partner in the matter of months.
It’s a huge win for the whole world.
Similarly, we’ve seen
the need for American military interference shrink globally. The effective
defeat of ISIS and taming of Russia and Syria has dramatically reduced one of
the greatest humanitarian crises in modern history. Add to that the pressure
we’ve applied to Iran, and the Middle East is the most stable it’s been in
decades. It’s still a region of turmoil, but ignoring progress doesn’t do any
good, and big progress has been made.
While that happened,
Trump signed a number of international trade agreements this past year,
including a replacement to NAFTA. Those agreements are part of the robust
strength of our booming economy. They’re also part of why Trump has risen to be
one of the most popular leaders in the world. Seriously, Trump’s domestic
approval rating is currently better than that of Theresa May, Angela Merkel or
Emmanuel Macron.
The Other Good News - If none of that was enough, 2018 saw
national declines in murder and violent crime. It saw the U.S. continue to lead the world in reducing
so-called greenhouse gases (despite leaving the Paris Agreement), and it was
the third consecutive year that observed a decline in global temperatures.
If you want a summary of
2018, it might go something like this. Every issue that the left said would
bring the sky crashing down actually improved in 2018. The economy, global
temperatures, violence, humanitarian problems, poverty and every other primary
concern saw dramatic improvement over the last year. Ignore the media. 2018 was
great, and 2019 has every potential to be even better. Let’s celebrate that now
is the best time to be an American.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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