Congratulations to Douglas Carswell, leader of the conservative Mississippi Center for Public Policy. He sees what many Americans refuse to acknowledge: No matter which political party has held the power in Washington, our country has done remarkably well for many years.
Carswell’s weekly email acknowledged that no matter who gets elected president this week, there will be an outbreak of “doomerism” from the losing side. That’s easy to predict, since the most ardent supporters of both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are certain the world will end if their candidate loses.
Carswell disagrees: “Whatever happens, Americans should avoid catastrophizing about the outcome,” he wrote. “Life in this country has been getting better over the past few decades, despite rather than because of some of the politicians America has had.”
You can read Carswell's email here. It included a chart that makes it plain how our country has changed for the better since 1970:
• Economic output (gross domestic product) is up 321%.
• The population of America has increased by 63%.
• Energy production has increased by 42%.
• Carbon dioxide emissions have increased by only 17%. This low figure comes in spite of the giant gain in GDP during the last half-century, and despite the fact that the number of vehicle miles traveled is up 194% during that period.
• The release of “common pollutants” is down 78%, meaning our country is a lot cleaner than it was in 1970 despite all the economic growth and population growth.
The chart includes red and blue shades to show which party had control of the White House across the 54 years. You can see clearly that many of the categories show a consistent rate of change, no matter whether a Democrat or a Republican was president.
The most important number in the chart may be GDP, as it measures the health of the entire economy. The line tracking this growth runs at a steady 45-degree angle, up and to the right. There were a couple of blips during the Great Recession in 2009 and the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, but each time the economy recovered within a couple of years and production resumed its increase.
Other charts in the email say American life expectancy is approaching 80 years. There’s been a downward dip the last few years, which may be attributed to the rising rate of drug overdoses, but that’s since been reversed.
The homicide rate is at a half-century low of 4.7 people per 100,000 population. Prior peaks have been 8 in 1970, and around 10 in 1980 and 1990.
Finally, the definition of “poverty” has changed greatly: “Among those officially classified as poor, 99 percent live now in homes that have electricity, water and a fridge,” Carswell wrote. “95 percent have a television. 88 percent have a phone. 71 percent own a car. And 70 percent have air conditioning. In the early 1970s, many Americans simply didn’t have many of these things.”
Is America problem-free or perfect? No chance. Far from it. We’ll always have problems, and we’ll always disagree over what to do about them. But neither is the country as bad as its worst critics believe. Carswell’s personal story is relevant to this point.
He is a former member of the British Parliament who came to the United States in 2021 to lead the public policy think tank. He’s been here less than four years, yet he recognizes what so many native-born Americans prefer to overlook.
— Jack Ryan, McComb Enterprise-Journal
