[Note: I thought we could finish the political class myth deconstruction in two posts but we also needed yesterday and today, four posts total, to finish up what is becoming a very interesting and apparently widespread problem, courtesy of the American political class.]
But what if what they tell is not the true reality? What if we are getting all worked up and headed in the wrong direction for a mythical problem that does not exist or for a mythical solution that resolves nothing? All it does is send us chasing our tails while the same inept politicians get reelected over and over based on nothing more than their own greed, their rigging of the election processes, and the myths that they feed us and control us with.
So starting earlier this week, we are going to look behind the myth curtail and reveal what is the true reality. With that truth we may finally start resolving some of the major issues of our times. Lord knows the political class has failed miserably over the past fifty years in eradicating poverty, winning the lost war on drugs, fixing our failing public schools, securing our borders, etc.
Maybe it is because we have allowed them to work on myths that they created and not the true problems of our age. Keep in mind the following wise words of Groucho Marx over the next few posts: “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.” Sounds like myth building to me.
1) If you were to listen to politicians, particularly those that lean Democrat and liberal, one would think that America never progressed out of its racist past where white slave owners reigned over black slaves and the Jim Crow laws of the south were still in effect. This myth allows politicians to stake out positions and “energize their voting base” to get themselves elected over and over based on this issue that they constantly raise and harp on.
But is America still a racist country, based on reality and actual data, or is that a myth that allows politicians to divide us and set one voting bloc against another? While we fight and argue with each other, they can then get by without resolving new major issues that affect us all but instead, root for the antagonisms to grow and fester which helps them stay in office.
Let’s look at some real life data in graph form that was recently published by the Independent Journal Review. More details and similar graphs on racism in America can be found at the original article:
According to this graph of Gallup poll results, the acceptance of interracial marriages is quite high in America and trending upwards, a good sign for racial harmony and a bad sign for the myth. The positive, increasing trend held firm whether or not a Democrat or Republican was President and actually jumped the most, by about 14 percentage points from 65% to 79% during the Bush administration.
Now in a perfect world, one would want that graph to top out at 100%. But given that the acceptance rate is up more than four fold since 1968 and still apparently trending up, we are in good shape relative to racism in this measure, despite what myths on racism Democrats and liberals may put forth.

Same results in this interracial marriage trend chart, newly married couples have a much higher percentage of interracial couples being married than the percentage of currently married couples. One would expect this kind of result given the growing acceptance of interracial marriages we discussed and observed in the first chart above. Another good sign that the races are growing closer and more accepting of each other.

Another anti-racism myth. The percentage of Americans who would vote for a qualified African American for President is actually quite close to the utopian level of 100%. This trend is also growing steadily, has grown steadily regardless of what party controlled the White House and Congress, and is up more than double since 1960.
This might dispel any sub-myths that liberals put out that people disapprove of Obama’s performance in office because he is an African American. This chart would indicate that they disapprove of his actions because of his incompetence and inability to lead and bring forth change, not because he is not white. The key word in the survey was “qualified,” maybe the current President does not meet that criteria.
And finally, relative to the rest of the world, we are a very tolerant society. When people were polled around the world, and asked to pick from groups of people they would not want as neighbors, less than 5% of Americans chose “people of another race.” Compare that level of tolerance to the levels in India and the Middle East, and parts of Europe, who were a lot less tolerant of other races living next door to them as neighbors.
Is there still racism in America? Probably yes. Will there always be racism in America? Probably yes. But to listen to the politicians tell us how bad it is without heeding the above data that is actually very good and trending better in these charts, is to cater to their myth of hatred and disharmony that they use for their own good and not for the growing harmony between all of us.
2) One last myth before we wrap up this series. Democrats and liberals, particularly those in the northeastern part of the country, are always harping on the myth that they take better care of the poor and needy within their areas than the rest of the country. They point to more government welfare programs, more government job training programs, more government housing programs, higher minimum wage levels and all kinds of other political, higher tax levels that funnel money to those in need, and government initiatives to help the needy and poor. If only the rest of the country would be so generous and pro-government, all the needy in the country would be better off.
But is that assertion true or is that a myth also? Does having a very proactive, heavily indebted welfare state actually help the poor and needy? Or is that also a myth?
One way to explore that possibility is to look at income equality. Do those states that have a much heavier government hand in helping the needy actually help them and balance out the income inequality levels that liberals and Democrats are always harping on?
There is actually a government statistic that measures income inequality called the Gini coefficient. I will not try to explain it here, I am sure there are explanations on the Internet if you are interested. The U.S. Census Bureau annually calculates the Gini coefficient for the 50 states and the District of Columbia. According to their analysis:
- According to 2012 Census Bureau data (the latest available figures), the District of Columbia, New York, and Connecticut have the highest measure of income inequality of all the states.
- Wyoming, Alaska, Utah, and New Hampshire have the lowest Gini coefficients.
- The three states where income inequality is the most unequal—Washington, D.C., New York and Connecticut—are dominated by liberal policies and politicians and extensive, and expensive, welfare programs.
- The top three states with the lowest Gini coefficients and thus the lowest income inequality generally considered conservative red states.
- An exception in the northeast, the state with the lowest Gini coefficient is New Hampshire (.430), which has no income tax and a lower overall state tax burden than that of its much more liberal neighbors Massachusetts (Gini coefficient .480) and Vermont (.439).
- Texas is often viewed as a deep red state with very conservative roots and California is held up as the model of liberal, more heavy handed government. Thus, it is no surprise that Texas has a lower Gini coefficient (.477) and a lower poverty rate (20.5%) than California (Gini coefficient .482, poverty rate 25.8%).
- Those states with a higher minimum wage than the rest of the country, e.g. Connecticut ($8.70), California ($8), New York ($8) and Vermont ($8.73), have significantly wider gaps between rich and poor than those states that don’t have as a high a minimum wage.
- A Cato Institute report found that the higher the welfare benefit levels, the higher the Gini coefficient.
- States with high income-tax rates aren’t any more equal than states with no income tax.
This administration has expanded the earned income tax credit for the poor, increased the food stamp assistance program by 50% or so, continually extended unemployment benefits, etc. But the reality of these interventions by the welfare state government, despite what liberals will tell you, has resulted in over 20 million Americans unemployed or under employed, a substantial drop in the median American household income in the past four years, and a national Gini coefficient that is worse now than the last day of the Bush administration.
All of these income inequality programs sound good on paper, they should work, but the reality is they are a myth. They make the income inequality numbers worse, the rich do get richer not because of anything they do but because the political class in this country do not know how to grow the economy. Growing the overall economy, and not the welfare state, which would get some of those 20 million Americans better jobs and offset the growing income inequality programs that the Obama administration, and others, have put forth.
John F. Kennedy once wisely said that “a rising tide lifts all boats.“ Rather than perpetuate the myth that income inequality is all-important, and then put forth programs that actually make income inequality worse, it would be better for America if the political class focused on economic growth via lower taxes, fewer regulations, simpler tax processes, etc. But that would reduce our dependence on politicians and reduce their power and control over their lives, a reality that they would rather disguise in a myth.
Okay, it took longer than I expected but we killed ten political class myths in just four days using reality checks and real data. Not bad, but I am assuming we will be coming back to this topic since the myth machine in Washington and state capitals around the country never rests.
The first post in this series can be viewed at:
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