I was born in 1951 and grew up in a two-bedroom, one-bath rambler in St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis. My Dad never graduated high school and worked as a printing salesman. My mom was a real estate agent. We didn’t have much money, but I felt like the luckiest kid in the world. I felt I could do or be anything I wanted to be.
I don’t think kids (or parents) today feel the way I did when I was growing up. But I believe we can change that.
The ‘50s were a period when the economy grew from the middle out. Why? Because unions were strong, corporations valued their employees, our public schools were (better) funded, and parents didn’t have to sell their souls to put their kids through college. You could be middle class, afford to own a home, and go on a vacation! Imagine that.
But in the last several decades we’ve seen our economy and wealth grow at the top. There are now 735 billionaires in the U.S. When one of them, Donald Trump, was president, he and a Republican Congress passed a huge tax cut for corporations and high-income earners.
So here’s where the change comes in: electing people who believe what Paul Wellstone believed — that “we all do better when we all do better.”
By and large, the people who believe we all do better when we all do better are Democrats. President Biden and Democrats in Congress are committed to building the middle class so that every kid in America can feel like the luckiest kid in the world. And MVP is committed to helping them win.
Thanks!
Al
P.S. Then again, maybe Trump isn’t a billionaire. He seems to be having a hard time paying off a measly $454 million fine to the state of New York.
