BY MICHAEL S. JOHNSON | JUN 22
The single-story wood frame house needs a paint job. The foundation is cracked. Windows are broken and the roof leaks.
Oh, yes, it is also on fire.
Research guru David Winston has been using a picture of this house for years, to make a powerful point: Too often in politics we miss the big picture. We replace the windows and fix the roof, but don’t put out the fire, which in Winston’s analogy is a bad economy. Fixing the economy has been the number one priority of Americans in nearly all of the years Winston has been presenting his burning house. But government has done little, while concern has turned to fear and fear to anger and anger to despair. And, once again economic doom and gloom loom are on the horizon. There is talk of recession.
But Winston’s house could represent much more than gross neglect of economic problems. The inferno has spread throughout our system of governance and a political process that has produced one of the most bizarre elections since 1828. The fire is singeing our society and the values and culture that underpin it. The institutions, which serve as the foundation of our economy, our society and our politics are crumbling. We will soon learn whether they are built of granite or sandstone.
Take a look around. The two leading candidates for the Presidency are among the most disliked of any who have led their tickets in modern history. They carry more baggage than FedEx.
The Republican candidate is not really a Republican and the Democratic candidate has been driven by an antagonist who is not really a Democrat. What the media like to call the presumptive GOP nominee has left a good many in the Party bewildered, befuddled and bewitched. He has left a path of destruction not matched since Attila the Hun.
Whether Donald Trump wins or loses, our two-party political system will likely experience fundamental transformation in the aftermath. Liberal and conservative are meaningless terms. Anarchism, libertarianism, progressivism, democratic socialism, socialism, fascism are all segmentations of political thought more relevant than the former, and they really don’t define us, either. The role of the parties and their too-cozy relationship with governance are under serious scrutiny, as is the ebb and flow of money and influence and ‘establishmentism.’ These forces may take down the elephants and the donkeys. What we are familiar with today, may not survive tomorrow. And that may be a good thing.
It is not just Trump or the parties, or politics, however. Trump is an aberration reflective of the fears, anger and sense of abandonment and betrayal pervasive in politics and society. He is a prophet of the potential for widespread deconstruction.
The United States Congress is more unpopular than it has ever been. People have less faith in government and do not believe those who serve in government serve the public’s best interests.
The Executive Branch has reached so far outside its constitutional boundaries, the very framework of our balance of powers is showing cracks. It is closer to autocracy than democracy.
Organized religion is in decline. The millennial generation is the least religious generation in 60 years. Cardinal Timothy Dolan calls it the trinity of me, myself and I. In a bow to our national narcissism, ABC Good Morning America led a campaign to break the record for the number of selfies taken in one day. The question then becomes how long does it take for the photographer to tire of the subject?
About 75 percent of Americans believe the state of moral values is in decline. David Brooks has written about it a number of times. Someone recently said we were living in a “make up your own morals society.”
Racial tensions seem more potent and in your face than they have been in 50 years. Race is being injected into everything from inequality in education to the names of streets and buildings, from the application of criminal justice to college campus meeting rooms, from Oscar nominations to a lawsuit over Hulk Hogan’s sex tapes.
The news media are viewed more unfavorably today than at almost anytime since research has been conducted and for good reason. Most Americans don’t trust them as a reliable source of information. They can’t be relied upon for much more than entertainment and a cosmetic stimulant of our most basic emotions and instincts. They won’t change because their ratings and revenues are going up.
We are also a nation adrift in a sea of worthless information in a time when knowledge is more in demand and never more critical to our decision making. People can now believe absolutely anything they want to believe because somewhere, someplace on the Internet can be found justification for it.
But research tells us that while most Americans are uninformed and misled by too few facts and too much opinion, they actually believe they are better informed and better able to make intelligent decisions.
We have twisted one of the most beautiful and expansive languages in the world, the English language, into an inoperable dysfunctional means of communication because political correctness and social and cultural elitism demand its destruction.
Emergency responders, among the most respected and critical professionals in society, are under assault. The State of Louisiana will soon enact a new law giving them special protection from violence.
And again, the economy is of no comfort for those in the middle or waiting to get there. The unemployment rate is low not because people have good jobs; but because millions have quit looking for them. Economic uncertainty has turned the American dream into a nightmare for many who have little hope of advancement or retirement. A public speaker named Scott Galloway mused not long ago that we now live in a nation where it is easier to become a billionaire than a millionaire. The Wall Street Journal is now running stories about the possibility of another recession.
What is most telling is that a sizeable majority of Americans (it ranges from 54-67 percent in different surveys) believe that their children won’t be better off than them; that the future is not morning in America, but evening.
We are a nation in the clutches of divisiveness. Columnist Katherine Parker asked recently: “How do we sustain our unitedness when our dividedness is relentlessly articulated and shrewdly used to turn one against the other? …”One nation indivisible, my eye” .
We all need to put a stop to it. Time to grab the nearest brown, paper bag and start breathing into it. The entire country is hyperventilating.
So, here’s a thought: The primaries are over. For the next month forget Trump. Forget Hillary. Don’t listen to them. Don’t read about them. Don’t take a single breath in anger or exhilaration at what either of them says or doesn’t say, does or doesn’t do. Don’t engage in conversations about them. If you have to, change the subject to a real American phenomenon, the Chicago Cubs. Ignore the candidates and all of the devilish pundits and profiteers who tempt you with their antics.
It’s attitude adjustment time. Change your behavior. Force yourself to give others the benefit of the doubt. Wave the flag. Enjoy the 4th.
Do something, anything other than obsess over Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, just for one lousy month. Okay, three weeks.
What have you got to lose? I’m pretty sure you won’t lose sleep over it.
Editor’s Note: Mike Johnson is a former journalist, who worked on the Ford White House staff and served as press secretary and chief of staff to House Republican Leader Bob Michel, prior to entering the private sector. He is co-author of a book, Surviving Congress, a guide for congressional staff. He is currently a principal with the OB-C Group.