Meeting Physical Force with Soul Force

Abby McCloskey, June 7, 2020, Dallas Morning News

“Where leadership is desperately needed to ignite our common bonds, many of our politicians squandered political capital to scratch the cheap itch of partisan trench warfare. In doing so, their ability to speak into the pain that our nation is going through has been irreparably sacrificed. Moments of maturity are easily overwhelmed by the thousands of tweets that suggest otherwise, giving people permission to tune out. Washington has never been bigger, louder. But it has never felt smaller, less relevant.”

PODCAST: Politics and Public Health

Abby McCloskey, Highland Park Methodist Church, May 27, 2020

Economist and Political Commentator, Abby McCloskey, explores why where you get your news affects your response to the virus, the science (and shame) of masking, and what it means to love God and your neighbor as the economy re-opens. Interview with Hannah Buchanan, Director of Adult Ministries.

Listen here: http://www.hpumc.org/letmein/?sapurl=LytlNjA1L2xiL21pLytndms2Z2t4P2JyYW5kaW5nPXRydWUmZW1iZWQ9dHJ1ZQ==

The Pandemic Has Exposed a Need for Better Paid Leave Policies

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, May 26, 2020

“When people feel pressure to go to work while ill or when a family member is sick, it is problematic during typical times. During a pandemic, it can be fatal...That said, policymakers should take caution in basing a permanent federal paid leave policy on this emergency experience. The environment we are in is unique, and there is a clear and meaningful distinction between emergency measures and policies necessary during usual times. Before making any permanent changes, policymakers should step back and reassess what we know about paid leave policies and what we have yet to learn.”

Republicans Should Be Playing Offense on Economic Relief

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, May 19, 2020

“Give Americans a path forward that instills confidence, security, and hope. Put meat on it. Let people know you are in it with them for the long haul. Republican politicians tend to do poorly on surveys about whether they “care about people like me.” Now’s the time to push against the caricature with compassion and urgency and targeted support.”

It's Time to Shore Up the Labor Market

Abby McCloskey, The Dispatch, May 11, 2020

“Some may argue we do not have the resources to do any of this, a federal debt crisis already looming. But a shattered labor force will make future economic growth even more evasive and our debt obligations infinitely harder to pay off. To be sure, America would benefit from a sign of commitment for tackling entitlement reform when the current crisis ends, as the lack of attention represents a threat to the workforce and economic growth (as if we needed something else to worry about). But leaving the driver of the debt in place while pulling back on our short-term emergency response would be foolhardy. No one benefits from mass long-term unemployment and a shrinking labor force, which will exacerbate the tragedy in which we find ourselves.

The reopening phase we are in will mean very little if there are no jobs available and no workers to be found.”

Reopening in Baby Steps

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, May 3, 2020

“After the economic destruction from the last two months, it’s clear we need a more calibrated approach than what we’ve been living before a vaccine is developed. That said, the hope of normal must be marked with a dose of realism. This is not getting through a series of reopenings without spikes in infection and we are in the clear come July. The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently said it’s not a question of if coronavirus will return in the fall; the virus most certainly will. This time must be used to get ready.”

NEW PAPER: The American Dream in 2020: How To Strengthen It

Aparna Mathur, Abby McCloskey, Erin Melly, “The American Dream in 2020: How To Strengthen It,” The American Enterprise Institute, April 23, 2020

“When we were researching and writing this report, a global pandemic was the farthest thing from our minds. In a matter of weeks, the economy has been overturned by COVID-19 and the response required to combat it. Economic opportunity has become not a question of how to climb the economic ladder and achieve the American dream, but how to survive when paychecks and livelihoods are threatened. Addressing the immediate needs of mass unemployment and financial insecurity are now the priority, along with repairing the underlying cracks in the system, which the pandemic more fully revealed, such as the lack of paid leave, crisis preparedness, and medical infrastructure. 

Even so, the impact and response to the pandemic underscores many of the core themes in this report. The latest research on economic opportunity and upward mobility highlights the importance of social capital for economic well-being. The power of community has become all the more poignant as we have retreated to more isolated lives required by social distancing. Oftentimes, local institutions and neighborhoods have a greater influence on economic outcomes than what is occurring at the federal level.”

How Coronavirus Will Change the 2020 Election

Abby McCloskey, The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 2020

“The trajectory of the coronavirus and the administration’s response are likely to drive what happens in November. While elections tend to be about a basket of issues — the economy, health care, climate, immigration, etc. — in a matter of weeks it’s boiled down to something previously unimaginable: who we want in charge of a pandemic.”

Coronavirus is weaving us closer together

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, April 12, 2020

”The virus has put unprecedented distance between us. By doing so, it may well pull us back together.

As many of us have left our offices, churches, restaurants and schools while the pandemic sweeps the country, there’s been a growing recognition of how much joy and richness was gained in community, how ubiquitous and fulfilling it was.

The absence has been glaring. Of hugs and handshakes and twinkling eyes. Of lively conversation, shared meals, casual hellos. We took the people around us for granted, not in a dismissive way, just in an it’s-always-been-there,” can’t-imagine-it-not-being-there sort of way. Zoom and FaceTime help, but can’t fully capture the magic.

A Future Of Work That Complements Family Life

Abby McCloskey and Angela Rachidi, Institute For Family Studies, April 2, 2020

“In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many workers have traded in their corporate offices for a makeshift workspace at the kitchen table. It’s been an unexpected adjustment, but the new rhythms of teleworking point to a promising future for families—one where flexible work practices support parents and their children alike.”

The American People Need To Know There's A Way Out

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 29, 2020

“How we get out of this, no one seems to know. Guidance and projections keep changing. The flu is worse. It’s wartime. It will be done by Easter!

It’s hard to know what to believe, but some things are increasingly clear. One, our current direction is unsustainable. A recession is marked by two quarters of GDP contraction. The pressing question is not whether we are going into one, but whether it will be the deepest in a century.

Goldman Sachs predicts a 24% economic contraction in the second quarter of this year. Unemployment estimates range from 10% to upwards of 20%, which presents not only an economic crisis, but a crisis of societal stability as desperation sets in. The enormous stimulus package will help the bleeding. But we can’t stay at a standstill for long and expect to have an economy when it’s over.”

Our era of invincibility is over

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 22, 2020

“We enter Lent more deeply this year. Some religious leaders have suggested that the coronavirus might be from God. I am no priest, but I believe this is a dangerous road. Bad things happen around us all the time: cancer, suicide, broken families, tornadoes, war, senseless violence. The world is fallen. Disaster randomly and chaotically strikes like a snow globe being shaken, and us within. The promise of the Gospel is that God gives us power, peace, love and wisdom in the midst of the chaos, in the midst of our difficulties. To our chaos, God gives order and meaning and purpose and power.

The church calendar is a beautiful display of this, with its rhythms of sacrifice and celebration all predictable and timebound, providing sense when things around us are senseless.”

On Super Tuesday, Texas Saved America

Abby McCloskey, The Dallas Morning News, March 9, 2020

“Biden could maintain solidly left-of-center policies, a broad coalition and — heaven help us — even reach out to conservatives in a 2020 campaign that stands against extremes on both sides.

If he does so, Texas may just take the role in November that it played on Super Tuesday, and turn the country’s temperature down a notch.”

What Could Go Wrong If Trump Faces Sanders In November?

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, March 1, 2020

“Imagine it’s November 2020. The last eight months have brought the most vicious, divisive, gloves-off election cycle in American history. Both sides have promised to trounce the other once in office, to deny legitimacy to anyone other than their wholly-committed followers, to push through radical campaign promises on purely partisan lines, and if stopped, to wield unprecedented executive authority to get their way. Most Americans are exhausted if not disgusted by the whole thing, ready for it to be over, concerned it is just beginning.” 

Americans are exhausted by our politicians who don’t offer solutions

Abby McCloskey, The Dallas Morning News, February 2, 2020

“How to best describe the state of our politics heading into the 2020 election? We could focus on the energized extremes, the heated division, impeachment, Twitter and the prime-time splash. How the very mention of President Donald Trump or take-your-pick of the Democrat candidates risks unleashing a diatribe instead of anything resembling a conversation.

But what if instead we talked about what’s missing? All that’s quiet, overlooked, not flashing across the headlines. What if we focused on the vast majority of people who increasingly find themselves unrepresented and exhausted, wishing our political adolescence would grow up to political adulting, and discouraged that it’s unlikely.

What if we focused on the big problems that are not being solved (or even discussed) because they require compromises, reforms that take longer than a soundbite to explain, and broad and durable coalitions to rally behind solutions.”

Trump is unpopular in Texas. The state won’t sit quietly.

Abby McCloskey, The Washington Post, December 31, 2019

“The Senate isn’t the only place where Donald Trump’s presidency hangs in the balance.

In Texas, the nation’s biggest, most important red state, Trump’s disapproval rating has consistently lagged behind many of the 30 states he carried in 2016. This potentially puts the state — a must-win for the president if there ever was one — in play for 2020.

To think Trump’s unpopularity in Texas is because of Twitter, or Ukraine, or the media, or a smear job by the left is to underestimate the problem. The reality is that Trump’s signature policies are out of step with what most Texans want.”

Impeachment will only send us further down the road of division

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, December 16, 2019

“We are a nation divided. President Donald Trump is likely to be impeached by the House before Christmas on a party-line vote. The Senate is likely to exonerate him on a close to party-line vote in early 2020. Thus the impeachment proceedings can best be thought of as road signs for the road we are already on, instead of a change in direction.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine what would change the country’s direction. Polarization in America began its epic climb up long before Trump ever rode his golden escalator down. The distrust, the energized factions, the exhausted middle, it is all much deeper, embedded in racial division, and changing culture, and loneliness, and social media, and so many other thorny factors that political scientists have struggled to unravel.”

The Strong Case For Paid Parental Leave

Abby McCloskey, Angela Rachidi, Real Clear Politics, December 10, 2019

““This is Not The Way We Teach This,” read the New York Times headline in response to a new National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) working paper that reported results from a study of California’s paid family and medical leave policy. Contrary to past research that suggested positive work and wage effects of California’s policy, this new study found that it decreased new mothers’ employment and earnings a decade out.”

The Rising Threat of Political Disengagement

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, November 19, 2019

“. . . . A new poll came out this week, confirming what many of us have felt privately, but turns out we have company. That even when you tune in, most people find it impossible to figure out what’s actually going on.  

And this is not just about impeachment. It’s about politics more broadly.   The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts poll found that the 47% of Americans report it’s somewhat or very difficult to know if the information about politics they have encountered is true. This holds irrespective of where one falls on the political spectrum, and irrespective of where the information comes from.  Majorities distrust information about politics from social media, government officials, or business. . . . “

Democrats’ Race to Extremes Thwarts Progress on Important Issues

Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, October 29, 2019

“A rule of thumb in the 2020 presidential cycle is to take the most progressive proposal you can think of, and then double it.  As a result, important issues are hidden beneath unserious plans.

For example, the once-too-liberal public option on the Affordable Care Act exchanges has morphed into a plan to obliterate private insurance all together. Enhanced background checks on gun purchases have morphed into mandatory buybacks. Abortion has gone from “safe, legal, and rare” to abortion on demand up until birth. 

And there’s more. . . . “