OUT OF SYNC
Did the midterms make our politics better? Make it possible for more Americans to prosper and the country to move forward? I don’t think so. Here are some thoughts on why:
1) In many places, Democrats are out of sync with the voters. And they don’t seem to be able to get in sync.
I am talking about working class American voters in particular.
Why does a good candidate like Tim Ryan fail in a state like Ohio? He seems to have had a resonant message: centrist, pro-managed trade and anti-elitist.
He certainly was more genuine than J.D. Vance, who made a Faustian bargain he did not have to make and seems to have little idea about why he wants to be a U.S. Senator.
Is the problem the culture wars? An overhang of years of Democrats talking down to people and embracing the “global economy,” which destroyed Ohio’s economy?
Hard questions have to be asked, because it is not clear that any Democrat can win a statewide race in Ohio.
Except for Sherrod Brown, whose secret is actually the same as Mike DeWine’s: He has been around for years. He has run one statewide race after another for two generations. And that matters in Ohio.
Look at Florida and Texas. The Democrats had candidates for governor in those states, Beto O’Rourke and Charlie Crist, superior not only to their Republican opponents but superior to many Democratic candidates who won in other states.
But I am not sure any Democrat can win a statewide race in Texas or Florida. As in Ohio, good candidates are apt to stop trying.
And one-party rule, by either party, at the state or local level, leads to malfeasance and corruption.
2) The working class is out of sync with its own interests.
An auto worker, firefighter or cop in Toledo, or a truck driver or barber in small town Pennsylvania, needs to ask himself: What did Donald Trump do for me while in office? What is he even promising to do for me now? When does he mention the forgotten Trump man in his rallies?
What is Mitch McConnell’s plan for job creation?
Or Kevin McCarthy’s for control of inflation?
There is no plan, no legislative agenda whatsoever.
The only plan is to foment and exploit resentment.
Whatever Joe Biden’s failings, he has created hundreds of thousands of jobs.
When does the working class wake up? When does it vote its interests rather than its reactions and emotions?
3) The press is out of sync with its duty.
The American press has lost its way. It first let itself be absorbed by the electronic media, and its need to entertain, and now is led by social media.
The press no longer calls balls and strikes, but takes sides.
It no longer concentrates on factual truth and, on the opinion side, on provoking thought and providing context. It has become ideological.
The press is failing to inform the public.
And the public has ceased to care. Much of the public gets its news from Facebook and Twitter.
CNN and Fox are echo chambers for their tribes.
The press runs scared yet continues to condescend to its readers and listeners.
And, as a result of all this, ignorance reigns, buttressed by prejudice.
The press needs a rebirth and a rediscovery and renewal of its mission, for the sake of democracy.
4) The people are out of sync with “the people.”
It is not my impression that many Americans are worried about the Constitution or constitutional limits on presidents — be the president Barack Obama or Donald Trump. Or about a constitutionally limited Supreme Court, be it activist left or activist right.
I am not sure many Americans deeply treasure the idea of the peaceful transfer of power. Or the notion that state election officials may belong to a party but must act as if they are impartial jurors when counting votes.
We need to add a clause to the Pledge of Allegiance. After “and to the republic” and before “for which it stands,” we should add “and the ideals and institutions.”
For the country is not just factions jousting for power and mutually assured destruction, but a set of ideas and customs that raise us above the tribal and bind us.
A few weeks ago I was part of a panel discussion and another panelist said that, “the system held,” on January 6, 2021.
Did it?
Thanks to the January 6 committee and the reporting of Bob Woodward and others, we now know that we were very close to a constitutional crisis.
Many House Republicans voted against certifying the election. The Speaker, the vice president and members of Congress came very near to physical harm. The military was near a showdown with the president. The system held but shook.
And we benefited from the sheer ineptitude of Donald Trump and the people he relied upon at that moment. They were no better at overthrowing the government than managing it.
I don’t know if the system is up to the challenge of people who do not really believe in it — to people using the system, the Electoral College for example, in order to undermine it.
One can make a case for various electoral reforms, including direct election of the president.
But it seems to me that the deeper, and also more obvious, problem is a crisis of leadership, character and citizenship.
Our leaders don’t know our system. Or they are not loyal to it above themselves and their party. The same is true of our citizens.
Hannah Arendt said that voting is not the maximal expression of citizenship but the minimum. The voting booth is too small a space for democracy to grow and flourish.