Politics, the People, and the Puture

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I know; it should have been "the Future."  But the demands of alliteration sometimes override those of clarity.

I was recently getting anxious about the politics of my old school, and began to realize that the recent uncertainty in the future of our institutions, political and educational, are somewhat similar.  People are getting frustrated and angry.

What characterizes the political scene in present-day USA is the large volume of people who have been historically politically inactive who are stumbling into the political arena.  There were the Tea Party folks from around 2009, followed by the Occupy movement, and lots of other angry folks.  Anger and frustration are a significant common component of all these movements.

Some want to reduce taxes.  Some oppose Health Care, especially Obamacare, though we have to wonder how Obamacare has affected them negatively.  (We know why the Republicans don't like Obamacare: it was a success for the other party, that's all.  That's very petty.)

Others claim to want to reduce the budget deficits by cutting services.  Others want to reduce the deficit by raising taxes only on the rich 1%.  Some want to control guns.  Others want to hold back those who want to control the guns.  Some want to head out and confront Islamic terrorists.

Well, what do you think?  Does it look too alarming?  What these groups have not taken into account is people.

There are two basic sorts of people.  One sort gets really angry, and wants a once-and-for-all fix of something.  This is the sort of thing that ends up with tragedy, such as shutting down Social Security, or making a Constitutional Amendment that outlaws Gay Marriage.

The other sort is those who keep working at a problem without giving up.  There are those who are socially conscious, who want (1) equal pay for equal work, (2) a social safety-net for those who are in a bind, such as leave for new parents, or homes for those who have been released from prison; (3) facing down opponents of Choice, (4) those who demand labeling of potentially harmful foods and other products--sometimes going a bit too far, I suppose.

Notice that those who have been against taxes have been largely successful.  But unfortunately they have been more successful at reducing taxes for the very rich, and not for the rest of us.  But that's the sort of success that comes with staying with your objective over the long haul.

But now, they want quick fixes again, and they want to put someone like Donald Trump in the White House.  Unfortunately many of those who support Trump are supporting him for different reasons, and his "coalition" can be expected to crumble, because a lot of the things he promises, he cannot deliver.  So even if there is a horrifying overthrow of many programs we want, the Trumpers are not the sorts who will stay with it.  If they are, well, they deserve what they can get.

Obamacare was not a quick fix.  It was the first step in a long line of steps, whose direction will depend on the leadership of the Health Insurance Industry.  We want all eyes on them, and we want their profits made public, so that both health professionals and the general public can see how much they're being ripped off.  We need a kind of Economics that doesn't take unconscionable profits from what is essentially a public utility as a given.  (There is also a sort of monopoly that insurance companies have, using a variance on the anti-trust laws.  This loophole can be eliminated.)  So we must keep at incrementally improving Health Care, or scaring the daylights out of the Health Insurance business, so that they stop gouging people.

Those who want this next election to be a quick fix will be disappointed over the next few years.  But I wonder whether the rest of us have the stamina to keep pressing over the long haul.

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