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In order to have a chance at wining the White House in 2020, Democratic hopefuls and their strategists need to fully acknowledge and address just how devastating the 2008 recession was for working people everywhere in America, and what a generation of largely flat wages did to their aspirations. Even more than climate change, American’s wallet change needs to be paid attention to.
Yes, there are Americans who are very rich. And, yes, there are Americans, partly from lower economic brackets, whom are angry; and there are some who, by dint of temperament – not circumstance -- are bigoted and misogynist, or against anything not exactly like them.
There is also the vast middle of the American populace who perceives the current state of the economy as uncertain, and with that belief, the general trend seems to be: avoid risk, hunker down and protect yourself from becoming a “have-not.” These Americans are now saying things like: “I used to see the future opening up before me. Now I see the future receding.” This state of mind is not true to America’s founding idea. That idea – never conceived of as an ideal – was creativity. Creativity is the subtext of “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Creativity is hand-cuffed by living in a purely defensive posture.
Yes, there are pockets of optimism out there, but for the most part, small tweaks and repeats (or sequels and prequels) are now the name of the game – in business and in life. Fear has created a self-imposed restraint that we now see reflected in the cinema, in stores and showrooms, in politics, and in our own minds. America’s lanky economic inequality is holding everyone back.
Americans used to live in an exclamation point (!), stepping out with a can-do attitude, informed by an air of confidence (not assurance). America’s motto was, “Let’s give it a go and see what happens.” Now Americans live in a question mark (?), hunched over in a self-protective posture, waiting for some unknown thing to pass. Equally significant: Americans perceive themselves as living in a tale of two nations: Wall Street v Main Street.
Thanks to recession, terrorism and war, the pillars of American optimism are wavering. New words like "sub-prime," "derivatives" and "ponzi" have been added to our lexicon. The earth has shifted under our feet. For the most part, Americans no longer feel grounded.
Democrats seeking to be the next POTUS need to GO GREEN – not only in terms of the environment, but in terms of peoples’ experience of MONEY.
The United States of America has become a land of a stagnating working- and middle-class, of wealth inequality, and of dollars inundating politics. In 2020, money could be a “family” issue. To a large extent, money, if communicated effectively, can cut across the usual identity politics of race, ethnicity, gender, and heartland v the two liberal coasts of Los Angeles and New York.
An American founding idea was that status has no legal right. Now we have the perception that the moneyed gentry have a leg up, even in terms of their kids getting into good colleges. Main Street is set aside.
More than immigration and terrorism, the middle- and working-class (particularly whites), give Democrats low marks in the handling of the economy, even lower than Republicans. Democrats need to start carving out a place of respect for working men and women in our globalized, money-driven world.
Like never before, peoples’ conception of “green” and which candidate and party they perceive as best helping to alleviate American’s anxiety about making ends meet and boost our confidence in the future, will define who next sits in the Oval Office.
