Saturday, October 14, 2017

Doug Saunders' nostalgia for a pre-Trump era

If you're a regular Globe and Mail reader you're no doubt well acquainted with Saunders' opinions re: POTUS 45. In Doug's world, 240 years of peace and freedom and progress vanished on the morning of January 20 into a massive flush heard 'round the world.

Doug's become a little obsessive about warning us of the dangers of Trump, to the point where he's reluctant to allow facts to get in the way of his obsession. Obviously, everything was better with Obama, whether it actually was or not. Or with Bush, or Clinton... and it goes without saying that America would be better off today if we had Hillary reading the teleprompter instead of Trump having unsupervised access to Twitter.

While we may never know what might have been, we should be able to agree on the historical record. Therefore I decided to do a little research after my bullshit detector spun a bearing as I was reading about the "Obama-era manufacturing renaissance in the United States..." in my Globe and Mail this morning.

What? There was an Obama era renaissance of manufacturing in the US? How did I miss that?

In actual fact, there was a net loss of some 300,000 US manufacturing jobs during Obama's tenure. Don't take my word for it; here's the Washington Post weighing in on the matter.

Enough with the fake news already, Doug!

1 comment:

  1. Coincidentally, this "Letter To The Editor" was also in Saturday's G&M; in a few sentences, it speaks volumes to Saunder's worshipping at The Altar of Globalization:
    If NAFTA dies, what do we gain?
    Re Canada, Mexico Vow To Remain At Negotiating Table (Oct. 13): Remember how hard many Canadians fought against the North American free-trade agreement because it was going to wipe out manufacturing jobs and export them where labour law was virtually non-existent? Remember predictions NAFTA would create massive inequality, widening income gaps between the wealthy and the rest? Remember critiques on how NAFTA would enrich corporations, which would off-shore profits etc?
    All these things have come to pass.
    Yet media coverage is focused on what a loss it will be to Canada if NAFTA ends. How about focusing on the things Canada might gain if NAFTA dies?
    Craig Proulx, Fredericton

    Have a good weekend.
    Ken

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