Don’t rely on false narratives to judge economy

By Kelly Fenton

A democracy cannot remain strong – or even survive – when misinformation and lies are used as weapons to push false narratives for political gain.

This sort of thing derives from – and leads to – cynicism and a turning away from our civic responsibilities out of sheer exhaustion and confusion.

Take for example the recent spectacle downtown in which a member of our community attempted to (falsely) portray the county’s economic condition as dire by blathering on about 'Biden-omics,' a Fox News buzzword that means nothing in actuality, while offering free pizza.

If you really and earnestly wanted to talk about Biden-omics and if you really cared about what’s good for our country you would be celebrating it, be it a record-setting stock market, hundreds of thousands of jobs being created every single month, wages that are consistently outpacing inflation, inflation that is on the decline and well below that of European countries afflicted by the exact same post-pandemic inflation that was no one’s fault, least of all President Biden’s. Our robust economy is the envy of the industrialized world. Now that is a fact.

And so many of those jobs are being created right here in Wisconsin to repair long-neglected roads and bridges and other infrastructure. In every county in the state.

This is why it is so galling to behold the circus we saw downtown by someone who almost certainly knows better. We should care about the good that is happening in this country, not a spectacle to score empty political points.