Image: Pict Rider - Getty Images
Angry Americans
It is hard not to notice that people are angry these days, some very angry, and it’s not a personally healthy state to be in, but it is also not healthy for our democracy. People feel something is terribly wrong in America, and it is not being changed through our democratic processes of majority rule. It is dividing our nation, our communities, and our families. This dividing of America is providing an opening for demagogues and autocrats to step in with simplistic solutions that further divide us. What is different today from a few decades ago is that the grievances—along with the simplistic solutions —are being stoked by social media and by rightwing news networks like Fox News.
Unfortunately, there are real reasons for people to be angry. More than half the population are truly struggling and are falling farther behind while they see the other half appearing to be living quite comfortable lives, however, more and more of these middleclass folks are also struggling. Much of rural America is really hurting.
You read the various studies that show half the population cannot handle a $1,000 set back—like needing a major repair on their car that they depend on to get them to work each day. All this is occurring in the richest nation the world has ever seen where the billionaire class continues to grow, and where many of them pay little or no taxes.
With respect to the anger from the individuals who have truly gotten the short end of the stick, the MAGA leaders have done an excellent job of focusing that anger away from the real issues and redirecting it toward various conspiracy theories and untruths blaming those they label as the “elites” along with religious, ethnic, racial, gender and LGBTQ minorities along with refugees.
The Grievances of the Liberal, Educated Middleclass
On the other side, the “elites”—the liberal, educated and professional middleclass and upper-middleclass crowd—are angry because they see American democracy being undermined. They see their elected representatives in totally safe gerrymandered districts able to completely disregard them and impose ignorant and unpopular laws on them.
Roe v. Wade, for example, which polls show is supported by somewhere between 62% and 66% of the population, will probably be reversed or gutted by five unelected individuals on the U.S. Supreme Court. The recent appointees to the Supreme Court have basically misrepresented their positions on “settled law” in their confirmation hearings, won confirmation by a few votes and can now reverse a 50-year-old ruling and the will of the majority on an issue that can be life or death to some Americans.
|
|
Yes, we need an honest non-political court that is governed by our constitution. Unfortunately, that is not what we have now. We have a political court. Recent polls show that only 40% of Americans have confidence in our Supreme Court. One thing we can do is to have U.S. Supreme Court justices confirmed by a two-thirds vote so we end up with less political people being rushed onto the court by people like Mitch McConnell. Unfortunately, as long as we have leaders like McConnell who is “win at all costs and to hell with the damage it does to our democracy,” it won’t happen.
So What is Happening in Wisconsin?
In Wisconsin, we have extreme rightwing Speaker, Robin Vos, who won his election with only about 20,000 total votes and about 6,000 more votes than his opponent in what the federal courts described as extreme gerrymandered districts. Issues like expanding Medicaid and getting an additional $1 billion from the federal government to provide more health care insurance to Wisconsin residents, or legalizing medical marijuana, supported by 80% of Wisconsin residents and important to many Wisconsinites including children with epilepsy, cannot move forward in the State Assembly because of one person, Robin Vos. Over the past year it was pathetic to see Vos, who is not a dumb guy, do a 180-degree switch in his positions because a recently defeated president demanded that he lie to Wisconsin.
Vos correctly said that Biden won Wisconsin in the 2020 election as every examination of the election had concluded. Then Trump got wind of that and yanked Vos’ leash demanding he go down to Mara Lago. When Vos returned, he was a new boy preaching the Big Lie. Unfortunately, Vos seems to care about only two things, amassing as much power as he can for himself and using the levers of state government to assist his private businesses.
People Need to See Hope and Fairness
People need to see hope in order to tolerate actions like the blatant politicization of U.S. Supreme Court or the structural flaws in our constitution, such as two senators per state no matter their population, or the electoral college. If there is hope to have a decent life, people are willing to accept less than perfection in their government.
In American, that hope has been education. If you work hard and play by the rules, you can get additional education whether it is technical training at an MATC or a four-year college. You have a path forward in your life. With Republicans continually cutting back on proposed K-12 funding or the fact that college is becoming unaffordable to many, people are not seeing a way forward to themselves, but more importantly, for their children.
The current path in America is making the rich richer, but the majority of Americans angrier with the status quo. We can change a lot of this, not all, but we need to have fairness. First, we need to have fair elections in honestly drawn legislative districts, and an end to all the forms of voter suppression. We need to start pushing back on the lies and misinformation that is misleading a large segment of the population. We also need to provide more opportunities for a path to a decent job and a middleclass life for all our citizens. And we need to cut back the influence of the wealthy special interest groups. We definitely have some work in front of us if we want to see our democracy survive and flourish.
