Who to Hate

The quality of the average American life has fallen over multiple generations. While some may still dream of home ownership, a white picket fence, a couple of cars in the driveway, and stable employment with a company that is more like an extended family, the so-called American dream died long ago.

In 2016, 63 million people voted to elevate a man to office that had a track record of lying, fraud, failed businesses, and sexual assault. In 2020, after a controversial administration that undermined sanctions on a foreign adversary, colluded with a foreign adversary, abandoned allies and international treaties, attempted to extort governments received 74 million votes (losing the popular vote in 2016 and 2020, and losing the electoral college in 2020). While the GOP has made “Securing the Border” their number one issue for the 2024 elections (in spite of undermining legislation and funding to secure the border), they have been less vocal about the explosion of the national debt -which grew by $8.4 trillion dollars under just one term of the Trump administration -a 25% increase in just four years.

Regardless of political party affiliation, voters should be working to elevate leadership with the integrity and intellectual capacity to address the growing complexity of foreign and domestic issues. And leadership should be primarily focused on national security, improving the life of the average American (not the billionaire donor), and slowly rebuilding the American dream for all. Instead, we are readily divided and misdirected by Australian billionaires like Rupert Murdoch (among others),

who are delighted to provide a massive ‘news’ platform to spread lies, propaganda, and disinformation while any remaining hard-earned savings (like our own social security) are shifted to the obscenely wealthy.

Nothing I write or cite will undo the damage that has been inflicted by the small billionaire class upon all of us.

I can write that immigrants are not the cause of your diminished quality of life or economic opportunities, but you have already been trained to counter with “caravans of drug peddling criminals are flowing through the porous border.”

I can write that women exerting control over their own bodies are not the cause of your diminished quality of life, however, you have been trained to say “I’m pro-life -therefore we should regulate women’s bodies.”

I can write that catastrophic climate change is causing suffering and death in the form of massive wildfires in California and Hawaii, blanketing the United States with smoke from Canada, causing extreme rain, flooding, and other events in the Southeastern United States, however, you’ve been trained to say that “Climate change is a liberal hoax intended to harm Aunt Betty’s $200 investment into Exxon or Chevron.”

I can write that since Republican Richard Nixon instituted the Environmental Protection Agency, the air quality has improved in places like Pennsylvania and California, you’ve been trained to say “big government is trying to regulate every aspect of our lives and the ‘Free Market’ will take care of everything.”

I can write that healthcare in the United States is among the most expensive in the world and the focus on profit and investor return (instead of patients and public health) leads to mediocre outcomes compared to other systems. Nevertheless, you’ve been trained to say “I heard people wait for years in Canada to be seen by a doctor, or I want government out of my healthcare.” -except for regulating women’s bodies, not to mention that wanting government ie.- public health administration out of healthcare means you want Wall Street analysts and private equity fund managers to make your healthcare decisions for you.

I can write that the United States has a significant problem with gun violence, that instead of learning in a safe environment -teachers and children must train in ‘active shooter drills’ and America’s kids must be equipped with a bulletproof backpack. Instead of discussing this continuing crisis you have been trained to say “2^nd Amendment! and you can pry my gun from my cold dead hands.”

I can write that the economic premise of the GOP, which is slashing income, estate, corporation, and investment gains taxes for the wealthiest Americans -the concentration of wealth to the very top, does not grow the U.S. economy. It does not lead to more opportunities and higher-paying jobs. It leads to making the already obscenely wealthy -more wealth -while stealing your quality of life, and that of future generations. Regardless of the evidence provided by trustworthy analysis and evidence, you have been trained to yell “Socialists.” And this without understanding that our economic system is a hybrid system with some elements of socialism baked in, and working well.

I can write that the framers of our Constitution envisioned an America where people of any faith could be free to practice their faith (or not practice any faith) without fear of government intervention or reprisals. A separation of Church and State. You’ve been trained to say that “America is a Christian nation.” -a repudiation of the U.S. Constitution.

I can write that no parent of color should have to worry about those entrusted to serve and protect the public applying unreasonable or deadly force to their children.

I can write that the founders knew that the United States should and would evolve toward “a more perfect Union”, that it was imperfect at the beginning, and future generations of citizens should work together toward equity, justice, and democracy. You have been trained to blindly parrot “Make America Great Again”, without regard for what that means. Was it great during the “Trail of Tears” -the systematic genocide of America’s indigenous? Was it great when the South attempted to secede from the Union because they prefer slavery and inequality? Was it great on March 16, 1968 during the My Lai massacre? Was it great when Emmett Till was murdered? Was it great in 1898 when white supremacists succeeded in overthrowing a democratically-elected multiracial local government? Was it great when 35 miles of California coast was blanketed by oil because of an oil rig catastrophe? Was it great when the FBI destroyed a free breakfast program for impoverished children in 1969? Was it great when we singled out Chinese Americans during a period known as “Chinese exclusion”. Was it great when we forced Japanese Americans into concentration camps? Was it great when in 1896 the Supreme Court rendered their decision to mandate racial segregation in Plessy v. Ferguson? Was it great when Nixon was pardoned for his crimes against the American people?

The reality is, the founders knew we were imperfect from the beginning. And we also know that evolving toward a “more perfect Union” is not a straight-line. However we reached a point in which labor Unions were strong, the middle class was thriving and growing. There were both decent wages and decent returns on investment. There were not only Social Security and Medicare, providing a foundation of retirement security for an aging population, there were employer-sponsored pension plans, and employers covered healthcare premiums for medical, dental, and vision coverage. Schools had “duck and cover drills” because we were rightfully concerned about potential attacks by Russia -we did not have ‘active shooter’ drills because of concern about a madman, blessed by the intentionally misinterpreted rights bestowed by the 2^nd Amendment to have an assault rifle, a high-capacity magazine, and a penchant for dead children. The progressive tax system was more equitable. Executive pay ratios (compensation to CEO’s and executives) were 20-50 times the average worker salaries, not 300 times.

Elected leadership with integrity in the United States have largely been replaced by the corrupt and the incompetent. Instead of electeds like Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama, we now have Marjorie Taylor Green, Ryan Zinke, Lauren Boebert, J.D. Vance, Joe Manchin, Krysten Sinema, Ron Johnson, Bob Menendez, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar, Scott Perry, Elise Stefanik, Kay Ivey, Greg Abbott, Ron DeSantis, Kristi Noem, Andy Biggs, Jim Jordan, Chip Roy, James Comer, and more. At what point did we decide that elevating the corrupt, the incompetent, and/or sociopathic entertainers and criminals would lead the United States toward equity, justice, and democracy?

For better or worse, the United States once possessed great promise to demonstrate that self-governance through a form of democracy could become a beacon of what is possible.

Instead, we are becoming a textbook case for how extreme wealth inequality cannot co-exist with any meaningful form of democracy.

The control of news and media by the wealthy (Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Bezos) as a mechanism to manipulate the majority of people to vote against their self-interest should be quite clear for future history books (if actual history is taught to future generations). A society must be well-educated, well-informed, and engaged for any form of meaningful democracy to form and continue. Education, information, and engagement have all been undermined and subverted in the United States for multiple generations. Higher education has become unaffordable. The flow of information now moves through a handful of sources controlled by people like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Rupert Murdoch. These are the people who misdirect the fear and hatred of far too many voters. They would have you believe the problem with America is the immigrant doing backbreaking work in the agricultural fields of central California, not the individuals who have accumulated massive wealth -from your labor, from lobbying efforts to lower their tax liability, and from externalization of their costs to all of us.

And civic engagement has been intentionally eroded through voter suppression, toxic political campaigns, attacks on government, and economic uncertainty.

The 2024 election cycle goes well beyond the potential elevation of a corrupt, incompetent criminal like Trump. A “MAGA” Congress can continue to obstruct any progress the country could make toward immigration reform, wealth inequality, climate, and even being a trusted ally and partner for the rest of the world. While unconscionable to consider, while a second Trump administration would be the end of the American experiment, a second Biden/Harris administration, paired with MAGA control of the Senate and/or the House would simply prolong the eventual demise of the American system.

Like a child that once had unlimited potential for greatness, it will be an egregious failure on all of our hands, if we do not set the United States back on a determined path of justice, equity, and democracy for all.