United States of Rage

The United States of America is the world’s single superpower, has the strongest economy, runs the most robust national security apparatus, and is heading toward energy independence with the bonus of plummeting gasoline prices. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.5%. Fewer people are dying in foreign wars. The homefront is healthier than it has been in decades. Teen pregnancy is at record lows. Highschool graduation rates are rising. Everyone has a cell phone.

Yet a huge swath of this nation of 320 million people is combustibly angry, with a fury that is powering rabidly anti-establishment presidential candidacies in both major parties. Polls try to measure the intensity of the rage. A Rasmussen survey found that 67% of likely voters are angry at federal government policies, with 84% furious at Congress.

A Monmouth University poll reported that 68% of Democrats are ticked off that the parties in Congress spurn compromise, while 54% of Republicans shout back that the uncompromising parties lack principles.

Why is everyone so infuriated as President Obama’s eight years come to a close? The flashpoints are yuuuge in number, as one happy beneficiary would say.

Some are real. Some are irrational. They come from every direction in politics and society. They are hyped by partisan media and amplified on social media.

In these feverish and clashing currents, Americans are mad:

That a President who vowed to be transformative fell far short of making the seas recede.

That a President who vowed to be transformative succeeded in overbearingly expanding the power of the Oval Office.

That the Great Recession of 2007 to 2010 hammered the country disastrously.

That the country has been recovering from the Great Recession far more slowly than from earlier recessions.

That, since 1999, individual hard work and productivity helped increase the country’s gross domestic product while the national median income has declined by more than $4,000.

That upper-income families have a net worth seven times that of middle-income families, a record high.

That the 15 richest Americans acquired more wealth in the last two years than the bottom 10 million people combined.

That Obama shoved Obamacare down the country’s throat.

That many signed up for Obamacare, reducing the ranks of the uninsured, only to discover that premiums and deductibles are so high they are covered only for catastrophic illnesses.

That single-payer health care is a nonstarter in Congress.

That white police officers are needlessly and heedlessly killing African-Americans.

That legalization of same-sex marriage and civil rights for transgender people are changing the very foundation of the country they once knew.

That the National Rifle Association has a homicidal stranglehold on Congress.

That the government is conspiring to confiscate all guns.

That Obama would trample on the First Amendment rights of the Little Sisters of the Poor.

That Obama issued a unilateral order permitting millions of undocumented immigrants to live in the country without fear.

That millionaire and billionaire hedge-fund managers pay lower tax rates than the average working Joe and Jane.

That no top banker was strung up from a light pole on Wall St.

That regular workers are trapped in low-wage and part-time jobs.

That near-zero inflation has deprived seniors of Social Security cost of living increases.

That technology is radically changing seemingly every kind of work, often eliminating the need for human beings.

That, using Common Core standards and high-stakes tests, Washington seized control of local classrooms.

That astronomical college tuitions drive students deep into debt as they start adult life.

That arbiters of the good and holy make bigots of people who disagree with them.

That sensitivity monitors impose censorship on any expression they find offensive.

That unexamined racial attitudes drive people in the majority to unknowingly create hostile environments for minorities.

That radical Islamists are building a caliphate and have America in the crosshairs.

That Obama refuses to call the Muslim terrorism by its name.

That fear-mongering against Muslims, including millions upon millions who live in and preach peace, is a magnetic force in the Republican campaign.

That American’s global standing in the world has declined under Obama.

And so many more thats amid a uniquely churning presidential election in which candidates from both parties are seeking to ride the currents into the White House. Then what? Scorched earth ideological warfare? A President who is a vessel of rage rather than hope is unthinkable.