Investing in America doesn’t require a stock portfolio
19th August 2024 · 0 Comments
Extreme Republicans’ attacks on VP Kamala Harris’ running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are dystopian. Their criticism of Walz, a former public school teacher, coach, congressman and National Guard veteran, for not owning stock, investments, or real estate shows they are out of touch with mainstream Americans.
Fox hosts Jeanine Pirro and Jesse Watters claimed Walz “never invested in America” because he doesn’t own stocks. Watters said, “That’s crazy. So, he’s never invested in America.” Pirro responded, “Never invested in America, that’s right.”
Watters is the epitome of an elitist. He is the son of Stephen Hapgood Watters and Anne Purvis, a teacher and child psychologist respectively. Purvis is the daughter of Morton Bailey Jr., the publisher of Better Homes and Gardens magazine. Surely his grandpa had stock.
Pirro is a former New York judge and district attorney – the first woman to serve in either role. Clearly, she was blinded by the bright lights of show biz and chose to become a television show arbitration judge as opposed to a district attorney and state attorney general.
The duo’s comments show how willfully financially illiterate they are of working Americans.
The stock market is a public marketplace in which stocks and other financial instruments are bought and sold. Stocks represent shares of a portion of ownership of a company.
The country’s economic health is measured by employment and production growth. Americans, including Governor Walz, invest in the American economy every day. Jobs and careers, blood, sweat and tears, make the American economy the best in the world.
Americans who purchase goods and services, pay retail taxes, and spend money, keep companies on the stock exchange, turning over massive profits for their shareholders and stockholders.
Most Americans don’t own stocks, bonds, or cryptocurrency. According to Gallup, only 58 percent of Americans report owning stocks, with the wealthiest 10 percent owning 89 percent of all U.S. stocks.
Walz, 60, and his wife, Gwen, reported earning $166,719 in 2022. The majority – $115,485 to be exact – came from Walz’s salary as governor, while $51,234 was earned by Gwen’s salary as an educator. The couple paid $24,062 in federal income taxes, according to USA Today.
This most recent attempt to diminish Walz is falling on deaf ears, including some Republicans. Republicans for Harris organizers said more than 70,000 people joined a live call last week, where speakers urged Republican participants to get behind Harris through volunteering and publicly supporting her campaign.
More and more Republicans are seemingly rushing to microphones to distance themselves from former President Donald J. Trump’s campaign. Why? Because Americans are tired of the “doom and gloom,” and racist jargon Trump and J.D. Vance are dishing out.
And although the former president is doing his best to distance himself from his hired guns’ 2025 Policy Plan, it’s clear their 900-plus pages offers a recipe for a dictatorship, injustice and enslavement.
Anyone who can lie as much as he does and make stuff up wholesale – such as Kamala’s rally crowds are AI-generated and no one is there, and Trump’s January 6 insurrection crowd was bigger than Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1963 March on Washington audience – is indicative of someone who is unfit to again be elected to the presidency. Full me once, shame on you; fool me twice…..
Trump’s racist insults got him elected in 2016. Still, the death of one million Americans from COVID-19, a new generation reaching voting age, abortion bans, book bans, voter suppression and the whitewashing of Black from American history, and Trump’s unceasing lies indicate that if Americans turn out in massive numbers, this presidential election will be different.
America has a chance to elect its first woman as president. A competent, judicious, empathetic leader.
This article originally published in the August 19, 2024 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
