So, in his latest “conversation” (in which, as usual, nobody else but him gets to talk), Glen Sturtevant – the Republicans’ nominee for Virginia State Senate in the 10th district – argues that only those at “the very very top” have experienced an economic recovery, and that “it’s been bad for six or seven years.” Sturtevant makes these claims with a straight face, without any indication of self awareness or irony, which would be laughable if it weren’t so absurd.
First off, just to remind Mr. Sturtevant of recent history, the “Great Recession” began in 2007, which was actually eight years ago, with George W. Bush having been in the White House since 2001. Since President Obama took charge in January 2009, the economy has rebounded tremendously, with 65 straight months of private sector job growth, amounting to 13 MILLION private sector jobs under Democratic leadership. Now, Glen Sturtevant might not consider these 13 million Americans to be “real people,” but guess what, they really are.
As for Sturtevant’s implicit argument that the rich have continued to get richer, there’s a lot of truth to that, but since when did Sturtevant’s Republican Party – the servants of the wealthy and powerful, the top 0.1% in other words – care about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer? What, are they all Bernie Sanders now?
Also, note that Sturtevant doesn’t talk about how Republican “supply side” and “trickle down” economic policies (e.g., making the tax code much more regressive while trashing the power of working people in this country) have contributed heavily towards that concentration of wealth at the “very very top.” Yet again, Sturtevant shows no evidence that he’s at all aware of any of this reality. Nor does he mention that here in Virginia, the legislature and/or governor’s office has for years been following economic policies of/by/for the corporations. Nor does he mention the impact of sequestration and other right-wing austerity measures on Virginia’s economy.
So what’s Sturtevant’s argument here, in the 15 seconds he’s on camera spewing his talking points? In short, there isn’t one, other than that people should vote for him because he will somehow, magically, “rebuild Virginia’s economy,” no doubt following the same right-wing policies that contributed to most of the economic problems we face today. Make sense? Make you want to vote for him? Nope, didn’t think so.
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