Depressing Descriptions of Reality

David Brooks wrote a thought provoking column yesterday.  It was not an optimist piece particularly when you add in Thomas Egan's column today.

1st Egan's point.  We are a nation of opinionated ignorants.  That is why Donald Trump can get away with telling on average 5 lies a day.  He says it and his supporters believe it.  That leaves me speechless so I will just put in the link.

Link to "We're with Stupid"

As I have written before, we expect our leaders to lead.  My original purpose in writing this blog was to promote governing from the middle taking the best ideas from the Right, Center and Left to solve problems in the interaction of government and the citizens.  The U.S. has not moved in that direction.

And as Brooks writes, that is the fault of our government leaders in both political parties have they have obfuscated the legitimacy of the other political party's point of view to the point where large bodies of citizens believe their point of view is the only legitimate one.  Since no one is perfect, policies are complex in how they interact with the citizenry, this is a prescription for frustration and failure to move the country forward in a productive manner.

What Brook's focuses on is the roots of belief in the political parties.  The GOP has become a slave to the mantra that each person has to be free to maximize their economic condition.  The Democrats have become a slave to the mantra that each person has to be free to maximize their right to personally be treated fairly by society.  The result is a hyper focus on identity politics that has no roots in communal well being.  Political parties used to share common values respecting the roots that belonging to a community generated.  That loss of sense of community and belonging has been replaced by splintered identities.  Politicians created this situation and Brooks is not sure how we get back to that better place.

That is my take away 24 hours after reading the column.  The column is a complex thought and well worth reading.  So I will put in a link in now.

Link to Brooks Column

I can't really put a finger on how society got here.  Economic conditions (globalization and technology) certainly created stress on segments of society and a complex web of issues created a serious separation between rural and urban voters in how they prioritize their thoughts that determine how they vote.  I want to blame Mitch McConnell for saying he wanted Obama to have a failed presidency.   That goal and how he accomplished it certainly laid the foundation for where we are today, but he is a politician and that thought did not materialize out of the ether, it had to have some basis in reality that I cannot identify any more.

I long for a government that understands its responsibilities to govern well and produce a steady state of the nation.  That means agreement on certain basic goals and they compromise or experimentation at the state level to figure out the best way to get to those goals.