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Talking points to rebuke and persuade
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Why to Vote Democrat

Democratic Party Accomplishments

Immigration (fears debunking)

  1. Immigrants could increase the GDP by 4.8% and productivity by 1% over 20 years.
  2. Immigrants founded 40% of US Fortune 500 companies.
  3. Illegal immigrants pay $12 billion in state and local taxes annually.
  4. Illegal immigrants contributed $13 billion to Social Security in 2010 and won’t receive any benefit.
  5. Immigrants don’t compete for the same type of jobs as most citizens.
  6. Immigrants cover for a shortage of high-skilled professionals in high-tech and sophisticated businesses (companies which thrive and enrich tremendously the U.S. economy).
  7. Underpaid immigrants are a key component of lowering costs (especially in farming, construction and landscaping).
  8. USA’s population is aging. By 2050 there will be 90 million people over 65. There is need for new/young people to work, pay taxes, consume and assist the elderly.
  9. Illegal immigrants are about 44% less likely to be jailed.
  10. Between 1990 and 2013 unauthorized immigrants increased from 3.5 to 11 million while violent crime declined by more than 40% across the country.
  11. New York City has the largest percentage of illegal immigrants (500,000) and murders declined from 2,200 in 1990 to 290 in 2017.

Why I don’t need to respect the President

How to respond to someone telling you that you need to do so

  1. Trump didn’t win the 2016 election; even without considering the alleged Russian collusion, he lost the popular vote. The majority of Americans voted for a completely different platform. Trump is in the WH only because of a broken electoral system (Electoral Colleges “winner takes all”, which excludes who gets up to 49.9%)
  2. Mr. Trump has no respect for the judiciary and our intelligence agencies. He disrespects immigrants, blacks, Hispanics and Muslims, women, the disabled, veterans and war heroes, and entire other countries.
  3. A President should represent all the citizens in their country.  Most elected leaders (in the US and abroad) make inclusiveness and the defense of the democratic rules two strong points in their campaign platform, acceptance speech and their governing approach.
  4. So, when Trump will display some respect for the majority of Americans, the law and the norms of our democratic republic, including the separation of power among our 3 branches of government, then I’d consider respecting him.

Tom Malinowski priorities

Extracted and condensed from https://malinowskifornj.com/issues-all/ 

How to have a constructive conversation

by Robert Reich https://www.facebook.com/RBReich/videos/2083841821628403/

How to have conversations without political labels, without taking sides, and with empathy.

Search “inclusive, indivisible, non-alienating political conversation”.

  1. Don’t avoid political conversations with people with whom you would  likely disagree on issues.
  2. Don’t start discussing Trump, start on “kitchen table” issues like
  1. stagnant wages
  2. shrinking benefits
  3. rising costs (of utilities, transportation, healthcare, education)
  4. Environment protection, its effect on health, cost of disappearing natural resources
  5. Consumer protection
  6. Democracy, having a voice in government, being heard and listened to by those we elect.
  1. Make it personal, ask about the other person’s experience on these (or other) issues, share your stories, search common ground.
  2. Ask them why they think all of this is happening, listen carefully, let them know you are hearing them.
  3. If they start blaming immigrants, elites, Democrats, Obama, African-Americans, Globalization or others, stay cool, don’t tune out, ask them why do they think so.
  1. If immigrants may increase labor competition, push on lower wages, you can answer that we all benefit from that (or tomatoes would cost 3 times), that many Americans won’t do these jobs (at that pay). Also young immigrants are necessary to balance the demographic changes of aging Americans, diminishing youth population, and diminishing workers to support elderly.
  2. Globalization has some of the same effects (much cheaper goods from China). One strategy is to ask/encourage “lower wage” countries’ workers to demand higher pay.
  1.  Gradually move the conversation to “POWER”, who has it, who doesn’t have it, how do they feel (for example at work or in the street) and their friends and family.
  2. Ask them about the role of big corporations and Wall Street. For example why when their CEO’s break the law they don’t go to jail, why Wall Street got bailed out but homeowners whose mortgages were under water didn’t get any help, why big oil, big Pharma, big agriculture have subsidies and tax loopholes...
  3. How the system is organized, for whom? Why airlines are down from 12 to 4, only 4 ISP, why this concentration of economic power keeps raising prices (also in pharmaceutical and healthcare)? Why these corporations/people can declare bankruptcy and restart while students with debts or sick people with hospital debts or homeowners that can’t pay mortgages are not helped? Why the main benefits of the latest tax reform are going to big corporations and billionaires?
  4. Get to the core issue: Do they think any of this has to do with big money in politics? Is the system rigged? By whom, for whom and against whom? People are struggling while the political circle (and big corporations and billionaires) enjoy big money. See…? So far, not using any “political” labels, no right or left, dem or rep, capitalism or socialism, no Trump.
  5. Don’t forget some humor and you are not trying to convince that you are right and they are wrong. Just try to make them thinking of what’s going on, the abuse of power all around us, the sense of hopeless of simple people, the fact that the majority of people are having the same negative experiences

Reference

Immigration

Currently there are an estimated 11 million of illegal immigrants in the US (3.6% of the total US population) and about 47 millions of legal immigrants (14% of the total US population, similar share of several European countries, Canada Switzerland, Australia and Israel have more than 21%).

Since 2001, about 1 million persons a year become USA legal immigrants.

Economic

 

According to the "Bipartisan Policy Center", an immigration reform (that would legalize the majority of current immigrants and organize future influx) would boost gross domestic product by 4.8 percent and productivity by 1.0 percent over 20 years. Reform would also increase U.S. employment and raise wages. The Congressional Budget Office projects it would add 9 million workers to the labor force while slightly increasing wages over 20 years.

This expansion would have a powerful effect on easing our massive fiscal challenges. The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates that federal deficits would decrease by almost $1.2 trillion over 20 years.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/nov/18/why-immigration-is-good-for-us-growth/

The Partnership for a New American Economy estimates that immigrants are nearly 50 percent more likely to start a business than native-born workers. These businesses create jobs and bring more customers into the supply chain, which in turn generates more revenue for local governments and resources for communities across America.

Immigrants or their children founded more than 40 percent of U.S. Fortune 500 companies.

http://startupsusa.org/fortune500/

 

Legal immigrants pay taxes like the rest of us. Illegal immigrants pay property taxes, sales taxes and excise taxes. According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, illegal immigrants pay almost $12 billion in state and local taxes annually.

https://itep.org/wp-content/uploads/immigration2016.pdf

 

The Social Security Administration estimates that illegal immigrants and their employers contributed $13 billion in payroll taxes in 2010. This is money that illegal immigrants pay into the system that they will never receive back in benefits.

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/NOTES/pdf_notes/note151.pdf

 

The notion that immigrants work at the expense of American workers is not terribly compelling. They take a good number of entry-level jobs that American citizens show little interest in holding (low level jobs in restaurants and hotels, farming and construction).

 

Demographic

USA population is aging, by 2050 there will be 90 million people over 65, there is need of new/young people to work, pay taxes, consume and assist the elderly.

Immigration has been instrumental to balance the USA population age.

In 1970 there were about 20 million age 65-plus in the USA. Today, 50 million and by 2050 there will be 90 million. In 1980 this was 11% of the population. But in 2040 it will be over 20% (stats from Population Reference Bureau).

Population aging is a worrisome trend in most of the industrialized countries. Without young people, a country economy suffer from lack of demand (housing, education and everything else) as well as shortage of working people to replenish the treasury coffin as well as to care for the elderly (healthcare, hospitality and other services).

In the USA, the problem isn't as bad as other countries because immigrant population is adding younger people who maintain the workforce, and add new babies. Without immigrants the we  would be unable to care for our aging population, and simultaneously unable to maintain sufficient economic growth to maintain a competitive lead globally.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2016/09/30/trends-understanding-aging-and-immigration-are-critical-to-your-future-success/#74deb08f60b2

 

Cutting immigration rates in half would cost Social Security $2.4 trillion in lost payroll tax revenues over the next 75 years, according to an analysis of Social Security data by Nancy Altman, president of the Social Security Works advocacy coalition.

 

The healthcare profession is experiencing shortages in many key occupations that will worsen as the country ages. Caregiving occupations, in particular, are headed toward a crisis-level shortage of workers. And 18 percent of certified nursing assistants, and 27 percent of home care aides were immigrants, Census Bureau data shows (reut.rs/2w4tHsK).

 

A key issue in the housing market is an adequate supply of young people to purchase the homes of aging boomers. Immigrants account for 32 percent of the growth in households and 36 percent of growth in the number of homeowners during this decade, according to a 2013 study co-authored by Dowell Myers, an urban demographer and housing specialist at the University of Southern California.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-column-miller-immigration/aging-united-states-must-get-the-economics-right-on-immigration-idUSKCN1BP184

 

Immigrant workers do not cause any significant decline in wages or employment for U.S.-born citizens. Immigrants and U.S.-born workers usually do not compete for the same jobs, and immigrants are not the cause of any significant decline in wages or employment for U.S.-born citizens. Rather, immigrants “complement the work of U.S. employees and increase their productivity,” according to a review of research on the topic by The Brookings Institution (brook.gs/2xRz6jf).

 

Most Americans benefit greatly of the lower labor cost provided by immigrants. How many of us didn't hire a gardener or caregiver or carpenter immigrant that we clearly know is charging us much less of what an American worker would charge us?

 

Compared to 80 years ago, assimilation has recently been more difficult. This is due cultural trends like multiculturalism, which discouraged immigrants from participating in our culture and  concern over "cultural appropriation," which discouraged natives from participating in immigrant cultures.

Crime

illegal immigrants have lower incarceration rates and live in places with lower crimes rates than native-born Americans. Far from perpetrating a crime wave, immigrants actually decrease crime rates.

Based on census data, the numbers show that illegal immigrants are about 44 percent less likely to be incarcerated than native-born Americans. Focusing on prisoners between the ages of 18 and 54, 1.53 percent of all native-born adults are incarcerated, compared with 0.85 percent of illegal immigrants in the same age range.

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/07/12/illegal-immigrant-crime-wave-evidence-is-hard-to-find.html

 

Between 1990 and 2013, the foreign-born share of the U.S. population grew from 7.9 percent to 13.1 percent and the number of unauthorized immigrants more than tripled from 3.5 million to 11.2 million.

During the same period, FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48 percent—which included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder. Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41 percent, including declining rates of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary.

https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/criminalization-immigration-united-states

 

Nearly 800,000 undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children have received deportation protections under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. In the six years since the program started, only 2,127 DACA enrollees (0.27 percent) have been removed from the program after committing crimes or being identified as gang members, according to data from Homeland Security.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/08/22/mollie-tibbitts-murder-reignites-debate-over-immigrant-crime/1060792002/

 

A March 2018 study by the journal Criminology found “undocumented immigration does not increase violence.”

A study last year by Robert Adelman, a sociology professor at University of Buffalo, analyzed 40 years of crime data in 200 metropolitan areas and found that immigrants helped lower crime. New York City, for example, has the nation’s largest population of immigrants living in the country illegally — about 500,000 — and last year had only 292 murders among a total population of 8.5 million people.

 And Ruben Rumbaut, a University of California, Irvine sociology professor, co-authored a recent study that noted crime rates fell sharply from 1990 to 2015 at a time when illegal immigration spiked.

https://www.voanews.com/a/ap-fact-check-trump-off-mark-on-immigrant-crime/4451347.html