Coast business leader: Have voters given Washington a hall pass?
The most disturbing thing I saw during President Trump’s State of the Union address had nothing to do with his speech or with Nancy Pelosi’s antics. Instead, it had everything to do with what I saw on my social media feed the following morning.
At a time when our country faces incredibly important policy questions that will affect us all for a generation; at a time when we have a national debt as a percentage of GDP that is higher than at any other time in modern history; at a time when interest rates are so artificially low that there’s virtually no room to ease them when the next recession hits, which could lead to historic and prolonged market disruptions; and at a time when the unsustainability of major social safety net programs, such as Social Security, likely means that it wont be around for those in my generation who are currently paying into it with every paycheck - I have yet to hear any substantive debate about any of these issues.
Instead, it seems voters are so engrossed in talking about torn-up papers and snubbed handshakes that they won’t even bother thinking about the very real policy implications that will far outlast the current cast of federal politicians.
Frankly, it seems there aren’t conservatives or liberals anymore. We might as well throw those words away. Those words require thoughtful opinions about public policy and a more sophisticated understanding of the long-term implications of the things we are facing. Instead, the American electorate has become so transfixed on the interpersonal dynamics between politicians, sitting and watching with bated breath for the next promo-worthy personal conflict between them, that policy is no longer a central part of the discussion.
This is something we should all stop to consider.
At a time when we should be having robust discussions about public policies that will impact all of our lives, we’ve instead allowed ourselves to be turned into an audience for a reality television program, and the principal characters from both political parties are using their nightly appearances in prime time to keep everyone’s eyes off the ball. They’ve even become caricatures of themselves - Shifty Shiff, Crazy Nancy, Slick Mitch, etc. We buy their merchandise, parrot their marketing slogans and cheer each time our preferred team scores another insult. Yet, the power players in Washington have kept our eyes so firmly fixed on the palace intrigue surrounding torn-up speeches, impeachment trials, phone calls, and tell-all books that we seemingly can no longer see the forest for the trees.
Who’s to blame for all this, you ask? Well, it’s certainly not Donald Trump, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Shiff or Mitch McConnell. They’ve simply become actors in the play we’ve all demanded of them.
It’s us — the folks who have given Washington a hall pass to spend their time in practicing for the next Bachelor-esque episode, instead of doing the people’s business and addressing the very real problems we face.
How do they get away with it? Because that’s what we want, right? Discussions about public policy are just too boring. We’d rather have our next reality television fix. We are the consumers, and they’re just selling the products we are willing to buy.
Congratulations. It seems we got exactly what we wanted.
Ashley Edwards, of Diamondhead, is a local businessman and a post-grad student in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government