American Discontent

At.mos.phere: the gaseous envelope (air) surrounding the Earth consisting of oxygen, nitrogen and other gases extending to a height of 22,000 miles and rotating with the Earth; a pervading or surrounding influence or spirit or general mood; a general tone of a work of art like a play or a decorative element of furnishing like a restaurant.

Sometimes the things we see around us become so commonplace that we don’t see them at all.

They are the ones that can hurt us the most…like the stress we know about and deal with and the stress we don’t recognize which makes us sick.

We have seen the water levels of our rivers, lakes, oceans rise without ever returning to previous levels;

rain and snow storms that drop months of rain or snow on one area in a matter of hours leaving flooding and landslides where none had existed;

firefighters who no longer fight forest fires but fire storms – burning millions of acres;

pilots who encounter unexpected and significant downdrafts in an otherwise smooth flight causing fear and concern;

Twice as much pollen causing allergic illness never seen at this time of year.

But if the atmosphere – which we cannot see or hear or taste – has caused these major climate changes, why shouldn’t it also be causing a madness in the minds of already troubled citizens resulting in an ever-increasing, seemingly random violence overtaking our cities… every day.

City subways – once safe – have now become a danger pit – people pushed off platforms into oncoming trains, people slashed as they enter or leave a subway car, passengers subject to mad rants and even guns, subway personnel struck by hammers as they do their jobs.

And never enough police – anywhere!

At one time we had hospitals and medical institutions which specialized in housing and treating the mentally ill. In time, they became nothing more than holding pens and we closed them.

And then we had homeless in the streets rather than in shelters because crime flourished and the homeless feared staying there.

And now they are wandering in the streets often harmless looking – until they are not.

And we have genuine criminal behavior: stealing from pharmacies so frequently that many pharmacy chains have given up locations and closed; many more locking shelves or keeping them bare certainly making it more inconvenient for shoppers and staff.

And those who break into homes when owners are away on vacation and then either refusing to leave or stealing rooms full of furniture.

Or those making carefully timed raids on big name retail stores…stealing tens of thousands of dollars of merchandise within minutes and then running away.

And then, of course there is Covid. Is, not was.

COVID

This viral disease killed millions and sickened far more than that. It did what no other communicable virus has done: it moved through our new atmosphere…literally unseen and undetectable until respiratory or gastrointestinal or cardiac or immune systems were sickened…sometimes to death, sometimes as long, serious, chronic illnesses with no cure in sight.

The pandemic and the new atmosphere it lived in changed lives for millions and millions of people. The disease affected the minds and behaviors of millions who were not otherwise sickened or hospitalized.

What is most stunning is that these changes have resulted in an era of national discontent. Millions feel that the government failed to protect us from Covid. They see now how weak our medical, educational and criminal justice systems are and how these weaknesses caused where we are as a nation.

They point to the mental health problems of teenagers and see the several years of lost education because of interrupted schooling. They discount that the public education system failed to teach teachers how to deal with long-distance learning. They fail to see that teenagers live in their IPhones, a purposefully addictive response which by its very nature is a lonely activity.

Studies indicate that much of the blame is being placed on the incoming Biden Administration. The accusation is that Biden wanted to quickly move past the Covid crisis to initiate major government programs unknown in the Trump Administration.

Looking at the facts indicates that too many Americans are permitting feelings to overwhelm judgement; emotional discontent not facts.

THE COVID SAFETY NET

Tens of millions of Americans no longer feel that government works for them. But this is what government did do to help during the years of Covid:

Unemployment Insurance: In 2019, unemployment insurance kept 500,000 people out of poverty. In 2020, weekly unemployment checks of $600 and more kept 5.5 million people out of poverty.

Despite higher prices – especially in the cost of food – due to supply chain problems then but simple price gouging now – the safety net was robust buffering people against eviction, poverty, hunger.

Americans learned that government can help when critically necessary but not until then.

The Federal Government stepped in during Covid and required the States to secure everyone enrolled in Medicaid. 21 million people became eligible for Medicare. Children’s Health Insurance was extended between February 2020 and December 2022.

Congress increased food stamp benefits by 15%.

All students received free meals. Despite millions out of work in 2020 and 2021 the numbers of people experiencing hunger did not increase.

Congress approved $46.5 billion in rental assistance to prevent evictions…for the first time in history.

In 2021 Congress expanded child tax credit payments for the entire year. Parents received $300 a month for each child under age 6 and $250 a month for all those older than 6. These payments cut the child poverty rate in half that year. Just being able to buy food was reported as a genuine help.

After these benefits were removed, child poverty doubled the next year. So did evictions.

Once States forced people on Medicaid to complete paperwork necessary to continue receiving Medicaid assistance, 17.8 million people lost that assistance.

The truth of all of this is now evident. Government can help people but when it does not, anger, disappointment and frustration turn those without it away from any belief in government or to thoughts that government is helping everyone but them.

POLITICS

Politics is little more than the formalization of human nature.

People who would never even consider politics as a career or even a hobby can be masterful politicians.

And those who like to dabble in politics can often be terrible examples of the breed.

It does not help that the major political parties that share the direction and success of government have fallen on bad times.

The Karl Rovian concept that the Republican Party only needs to elect a President because only the President has the influence and constant presence that no member of Congress can ever have. That concept has resulted in its choice of Donald Trump for the third time in a row – an historical precedent.

The Democratic Party has failed to convince Joe Biden that his very physical presence works against him overwhelming important accomplishments. He must know what everyone knows – people react first through perception not fact. And yet no one in that party has brought enough pressure on him to dissuade his need to run again.

In New York City and State, the Democratic Party has taken complete control of the political landscape. The Republican Party seems to have run out of candidates who are not Trump supporters – which may work in Staten Island but not elsewhere.

This is true even as its Governor and Mayor stumble badly causing deep problems and great concern about the welfare of the State.

The Governor, little more than a local politician from Buffalo before her automatic ascension to the job and then a campaign against a Trumpian Republican who never had a chance of winning, has failed to help the city time and time again.

Her failure to permit migrants shipped to New York from Texas from getting jobs and a new life throughout upstate New York State where jobs and opportunities actually exist, has kept the city in constant turmoil and overwhelmed a Mayor who is over his head to begin with.

And her decision to place fully armed Army reserves at several subway stations to search for guns has done nothing whatsoever to stop the criminal and behavioral chaos now facing subway riders every night and day. She hasn’t got a clue.

The Mayor is lost. Despite thirty years with the Police, he refuses to fight for a return of their immunity so that they can again be a visible presence on the streets of NY where they belong. He still counts his well-dressed presence and preacher-like statements as an example of government leadership.

The new madness of men walking up to young women and punching them in the face or slamming them in the head would end quickly if even the most damaged of them saw a cop every now and then.

REALITIES

The Broadway area hums with visitors and tourists.

The midtown office buildings remain essentially empty.

Big businesses don’t pay mortgages; banks don’t want to inherit empty 40 story buildings.

Cars are everywhere…people are not.

The disjointed impact of Covid lingers the way the disease does.

The discontent exists and will very likely cause political decisions which can be severely injurious.

There is an 833 page document outlining what changes might occur with a return of MAGA – including the idea that 660,000 civil jobs should be changed to political appointments. The document has nothing to do with the man who won’t read a one page summary of it…but who will accept it wholeheartedly.

It looks forbidding.

But realize this: no country in the world has ever attracted the universal belief that it is a glorious place where everything is possible…where people breath the idea of an AMERICA which they have never seen…but will walk thousands of miles for the chance to find a life otherwise impossible for them.

True then. True now. True forever.

Walk through the two block Manhattan-based Jewelry district. At the store level you see familiar faces and wardrobes of the essentially Jewish community who “work retail at wholesale prices”. But above them in the old looking grey buildings that line the streets are Chinese immigrants who make the brilliant-looking jewelry they sell.

Look at the women from Eastern Europe and Eastern Africa who are the broad base of those who offer home care to the old, sick and essentially helpless without them.

Look at the Hispanics who essentially do the gardening in the Garden State of New Jersey and throughout Texas as well.

Look at the same people doing the heavy roadwork in areas throughout the country…or the careful basement work keeping water from homes.

When did welcoming immigrants become dangerous migrants?

For so many of us born and raised here, money seems the only true value left.

But not for the rest of the World which sees AMERICA with the eyes and beliefs that this country and this country alone can provide freedom, opportunity, the right to happiness and life itself.

Let’s not forget.