Hey there, 

Welcome back to another edition of Virginia Capital, Dogwood’s economic policy newsletter that puts workers first. 

There’s a lot of despair in the air right now. I feel it myself. I sense it in colleagues and on phone calls with family. So today, I want to share something that gave me political hope. It comes courtesy of my editor, who despite our disagreements about coffee, art, and the use of question marks, occasionally comes up with a decent idea. 

He recently shared this video by New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie on how the goal of an authoritarian regime is to make you think you are helpless even when—and especially if—you are not. 

Bouie points out how President Trump and his allies want to hype up all their victories to spread the illusion that fighting back is pointless. They want us to miss all the ways their deeply unpopular movement is losing in the courts and at universities and law firms that aren’t bowing down. Bouie’s reminder for us is that we can still stand up and fight back for the future we want.  

“You can still freely dissent in this country,” Bouie says. “You can still freely politically organize against the administration. You can still freely join with tens of billions of your fellow Americans to say that, ‘We don't want this.’”

Below, I look at how Virginia Republicans in Congress are withholding their support for restoring union rights to federal workers and consider the bifurcated nature of our economy. 

Plus, I share a new book about a guy who gets laid off and starts delivering mail in rural Virginia.

(AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Actions speak louder than words. 

It’s a cliche, but an important one, especially in our era of information overload and endless scrolling of warped social media feeds.

People are saying things all the time about supporting this cause or that cause, and it costs them nothing. Because by the time you realize they were insincere, you’re already tuned into something someone else is saying. 

Take President Donald Trump’s attack on workers. 

By attack, I mean his order to take away collective bargaining rights from over a million federal workers, including many in Virginia and his administration’s vilification of public servants who dedicate their lives to a cause or an issue, only to be kicked to the curb.

And now, the Trump administration is threatening even more firings of federal workers to stoke fear and anger in the already heated debate over a government shutdown. 

But, as mentioned above, there are ways to fight back. 

Democrats in the US House and Senate are doing so by supporting legislation to return collective bargaining rights to the federal workers that Trump took them away from. 

Virginia’s two US senators are on board, as are all six Virginia Democrats in the House. 

But not a single Virginia Republican has come out in support of the legislation. I’m not talking about their rhetoric, which to a person, is almost always ostensibly pro-worker. 

I’m referring to a petition in the US house to force a vote on the legislation that’s, as of this writing, two signatures shy of reaching the threshold needed to do so. Three other Republicans have joined Democrats, and a source tells me that bipartisan support for petitions like this are rare. 

So what’s stopping Virginia Republicans like US Reps. Jen Kiggans and Rob Wittman, both of whom Democrats are targeting in the midterms next year, from doing so? 

As Wittman said as a candidate in 2022: America needs “an agenda that is pro-worker.” 

Now’s the time for their actions to match their words.

Mark your calendar 🗓

Join Dogwood on Tuesday, September 30 in Northern Virginia for an evening of panels exploring the issues shaping Virginia’s political future. Learn about the real-world impact of the upcoming elections and how they affect communities across the Commonwealth.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Candi Mundon King, Virginia State Delegate
• Carly Seward, Global Real Estate Advisor, Activist
• Rae Pickett, Communications Director, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Virginia

What to Expect:

• Panel discussions on key topics influencing Virginia elections and ways residents can take action
• Opportunities to learn how communities across Virginia are being affected
• A chance to connect, listen, and engage with fellow residents and Virginia leaders

Space is limited, so reserve your FREE spot today and join the conversation shaping Virginia’s future. RSVP here.

• Democratic nominee for governor, Abigail Spanberger, penned an op-ed in The Washington Post criticizing her opponent on economic policy. 

                                                                                                                                                                        

• Michael Pope at Radio IQ reports that 42% of Virginia renters spend more than 30% of their income on rent, a figure that’s alarming housing advocates amid the affordability crisis. 

   

• A yarn manufacturer is laying off more workers at a plant in Carroll County in Southwest Virginia, Matt Busse at Cardinal News reports. 

(rc.xyz NFT gallery/Unsplash)

One of the sad, ugly truths about our country is that in times of economic crisis, many big companies and wealthy households do just fine while the rest of us struggle to adapt. 

In fact, big companies often benefit in downturns as smaller competitors with less capital close up shop, creating more market consolidation and less competition. I reported on this tendency back in my time as a financial reporter. 

Something similar is happening now as indicated by recent reporting on consumer spending. 

Last week, Bloomberg reported that consumers in the top 10% of the income distribution accounted for 42.2% of total spending in the second quarter. It marked an increase from the first quarter and was the highest level in data going back to 1989, the year I was born. 

That’s like saying for every 100 apples, 10 people are buying 42 of them, leaving the other 58 apples to be distributed among 90 people. Or at least that’s how it kind of sounds to me. I was an English major, not a mathematician. 

But it also helps explain how the economy appears to be doing fine at a high level, even as people struggle to get jobs and inflation tightens its grip on household finances. And if the economy is being propped up by such a small cohort of spenders, then any change in their attitudes will have an outsized effect on everyone else. 

As one economist told Bloomberg: “If they turn more cautious in their spending, for whatever reason, the economy will suffer a recession.”

(Sean Boyd/Unsplash)

A new book details the account of a man who returns to his roots to become a US postal worker in Blacksburg after getting laid off from his white collar job. 

The book’s lengthy title is, “Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home.” It’s by Stephen Starring Grant. 

Grant was laid off at the beginning of the pandemic after two decades of working in advertising and marketing. His job search came up empty except for a position as a part-time letter carrier with the US Postal Service that paid $18.50 an hour and came with healthcare. 

Grant’s book details his struggles to learn the complicated work of sorting and delivering mail on a rural route in Virginia. It’s also an ode to public service and manual labor, according to a review in The Atlantic. 

“In Grant’s telling, postal workers bring order and predictability to a country that can feel like it’s unraveling, especially during crises that starkly illustrate how reliant we are on the federal bureaucracy,” The Atlantic review says.

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