–Clarksburg California, population 418
We spent the Fourth of July in a tiny town just south of Sacramento, nestled along the Sacramento River. We attended a perfectly wonderful, hokey, old-fashioned, small town Fourth of July celebration complete with a brass band, a parade with old fire engines, kids on bikes and lovingly-restored vintage Fords. It was a Fourth that many of us never had but nevertheless remember with great nostalgia probably from some old MGM musical. After, there was a pool party at the home of friends and colleagues of my son. Sitting around the pool in a slight alcoholic haze, with a bunch of happy kids splashing in the water, I began to wonder how is it that so many Americans seem reasonably happy and optimistic about their own lives, and yet at the same time are so pessimistic and unhappy about the life of their country. Granted, my son’s friends and colleagues are all well-educated and well-employed, but their general worldview or at least their country-view is decidedly pessimistic. It’s difficult to understand this disconnect.
For example, President Obama has been polling positively for several months now, meaning that more Americans now think positively of him, and his leadership of the county and the economy. That is a significant change from a few years ago and currently his approval numbers are running well ahead of most other presidents at the end of their second term. At the same time that more Americans think that Obama is doing a pretty good job, two thirds of all Americans polled think that the country is headed in the wrong direction. Its all very confusing until you ask most Americans what the right direction would be and then you begin to realize that no five Americans, including your wife and children, could agree on what the right direction might be, and how we might get there.
On the positive side, I see America as being in pretty good shape. At the risk of sounding like Pollyanna, I see an economy generally in decent shape. Maybe not as booming as we had hoped, but still – unemployment is down, wages are going up, but slowly, more Americans now have healthcare coverage, and life expectancies are lengthening. We are more energy independent, we are moving toward alternative energy, crude oil prices are dropping, and we’re cleaning up our air and our water. The auto industry seems to be doing ok and some manufacturing is returning a bit. Our Silicon Valley and Silicon Beaches are the envy of the industrialized world and we are still a very innovative culture. You can start out with nothing and end up a billionaire, with the right idea, at the right time, in the right industry.
Having said all that, there is a definite downside to all this upside.
Many Americans are being left out of the party. Many regions of the country are a disaster and not getting better, but slowly sinking into despair, drugs and crime. Almost eight years ago, America optimistically elected a black President thinking we could join together and perhaps lessen racial tensions, heal racial wounds and perhaps even create a newer more bipartisan era. Looking back it now, it seems kind of naive.
We should have known what was going to happen when no one ever said, “Wow we just elected a half-white President”. From the get-go, people loved him and people hated him, and that was practically before he had even opened up his mouth. The conclusion I’ve come to is that there is some deeply tribal instinct in all of us: There is the “us” and there is the “other.” I grew up in Brooklyn and worshipped the Dodgers and disliked the Yankees. Actually, I didn’t just dislike the Yankees — I hated the Yankees. There are kids growing up today who hate the “Republicans” or the “Democrats”. There are probably some who even hate the “Declined to state”. There are also young Bernie Sanders Democrats who are outraged that the FBI didn’t recommend that Hillary be prosecuted because it’s the wrong outcome.
When the Sunnis and the Shias hate each other, you can almost understand it. Its sectarian and they’ve had centuries to practice hating each other. But when Americans end up hating each other because one registers “R” and the other registers “D,” it’s absolutely baffling. We no longer have to hate you because of your race, color or creed, or where your grandparents came from; we can hate you just because you vote with “them.”
It’s kind of our version of progressive, modern-day enlightenment. Hope you all had a happy Fourth of July.