A Tossup?

New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (R) is being pushed to run for the Senate in 2022 (New Hampshire governors serve two-year terms). Republicans need a net gain of one seat in order to regain a Senate majority and take control away from the Progressive-Democrats. Sununu looks like he would have a good chance of winning that race, although it’s not at all a slam dunk.

On the Pro side:

A Republican majority would go a long way to block the Progressive-Democratic Party’s destructive economic, social, defense, and foreign policies. Those latter two, though, being controlled from the White House, would be hindrances and mitigations, rather than blocks, of President Joe Biden’s (D) dangerous failures.

More important than that, though, a Republican majority would protect the Supreme Court, whose Conservative, textualist—which is to say application of our Constitution and the statute(s) before them as they are written, not as a Justice might prefer they were written—majority stands at only 5-3-1, with Chief Justice John Roberts as the swing vote.

Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito on the Conservative side, and Justice Stephen Breyer on the activist side are aging; although none of them have any interest in, nor any health imperative for, retiring. But neither did Justice Antonin Scalia have any interest in retiring. A Biden replacement for either Thomas or Alito would severely damage the Court, and Biden replacements for both would ruin the Court for generations.

On the Anti side:

The long-term health of our nation requires Republican control of a strong majority of State houses and of State legislatures (IMNSHO). That’s where the future of our central government is built. Sununu is doing a bang-up job as New Hampshire governor, and a “replacement” governor candidate would not be a shoo-in for election in 2022. A Sununu decision to run for the Senate could well result in the retention of a Progressive-Democrat as a New Hampshire Senator and the loss of the Governor’s seat.

Additionally, a Sununu pickup in the Senate would not guarantee a net gain of that one seat. There are lots of vulnerable Progressive-Democrat Senators (and of Republican Senators); Sununu not being one of those pickups, whether by losing or by staying in the State house, would not substantially deprecate the chance of that gain, while his loss would have no impact beyond leaving New Hampshire’s Senate seating unchanged (and that risk to the governorship).

The Value of a College Degree

According to Credible:

High school graduates make about $39,000 per year, while those with a Bachelor’s degree earn $73,000.

Average student loan debt on graduation, though, runs a bit over $37,000, with a typical annual payment on that debt is more than $4,700.

Here are the annual incomes from some of the skilled trades, according to my arithmetic and data from Indeed. Based on 50-week years (because some vacation matters, even if it’s not paid):

  • Journeyman Electrician (an entry level): $48,500
  • Journeyman Plumber: $45,040
  • Welder: $44,020
  • Carpenter: $42,720
  • Pipefitter: $51,270
  • Ironworker: $48,640

Tradesmen, also, have none of that $37,000 of student debt coming out of their training.

Keep in mind, too, that doctors, lawyers, philosophers, teachers, and on and on, have no place to apply their skills (and no place to live or play in their off hours) without the trades to build those facilities, or without the trades to build the communications, power distribution, and transportation infrastructures to connect them and to provide the means by which to get to and from them.

The financial value of a degree might seem greater than the value of a certification in a trade, but its greater value depends on the prior existence of those trades.