This is such a curious time we’re living in. Maybe that’s always true, but it seems particularly true right now. While I was driving to my office this morning, an interviewer on the radio asked a conservative columnist for the Washington Post if she thought the Republicans wanted to lose the election. What?? Can you imagine anyone even asking that question during any other Presidential election year?
One of the curious happenings is the meteoric rise of Donald Trump. At least I think it’s curious. But I’ve been thinking about this, and here is where I come out on it. . . .
No matter where you stand on Trump, as a nation we MUST pay attention to the underlying message in this phenomenon: a very large percentage of people in our country are shouting defiantly “ENOUGH!” Granted they are not in the majority. . .yet. . .but they are very vocal, and they are not going away. Their disgruntlement, disenchantment, and defiance are here to stay, and their numbers will be growing.
I certainly am not the only person saying this right now, but I don’t think there can be too many of us spreading this message. For several years I have been saying that we can only continue with the ever increasing economic inequality we have, with the horrendous differential between CEO and worker salaries, with the middle classes disappearing and the lower classes working harder and harder with nothing to show for their efforts.
We MUST squarely face our greed, indifference, and self-centeredness. We MUST develop an economic system that doesn’t depend solely on growth for success. We MUST redirect some of the huge corporate profits that are being sheltered overseas and spend them on rebuilding the infrastructure of our country, improving the schools, providing livable housing for everyone, making sure no one in this country goes to bed hungry even one night.
And until we do all this and more, we will face a growing percentage of our people who simply are at the point of “OK, that’s enough. We’re not going to submit any longer.” And they will become increasingly prepared to do whatever it takes to bring about some fundamental relief.
This is not who we are when we’re at our best. Let’s begin NOW to change the trajectory we’re on.
