Politicians won’t, nor are they able to solve problems

ACHTUNG: This is not a “fair and balanced” article. It is an editorial by the editor.

“But there’s nothing you and I can do

You and I are only two

What’s right and wrong is hard to say

Forget about it for today

We’ll stick our heads into the sand

Just pretend that all is grand

Then hope that everything turns out ok.” — Steppenwolf, “The Ostrich”

Adam Curtis, my favorite documentarian, has been making the same point in his last few films that politicians in this modern world are unable to solve the world’s most pressing problems, so they try to manipulate or manage them.

This is not good news for someone like me, who has long maintained that the purpose of government is not to create a healthy business climate, but instead solve problems and serve as a fair referee. But too many people laugh and scoff at such a preposterous notion.

I have grown increasingly cynical over the years about prospects for the future because politicians collectively are doing almost nothing to solve real and compelling problems. In too many cases they deny these problems even exist.

Here are seven pressing problems getting worse, and perhaps they’ll overwhelm us and cause our extinction:

1. Venerable longtime Wayland High School teacher Claude Smith, during the civil rights era of the 1960s, asked a classroom of students: “What was the Civil War fought for? And who won?” To this day, too many have not accepted history’s verdict on that issue, and we pay for it dearly with the persistence of racism.
2. Some continue to deny climate change, despite seeing daily reminders of predicted catastrophic weather events. They brush aside ideas such as the Green New Deal and continue to resist attempts to get us off our addiction to oil and coal. Meanwhile, oil and coal producers continue to dominate our legislative bodies, protecting their interests and their money.
3. We still haven’t found a way to craft a fair and effective policy on immigration while borders to the south continue to be overrun by poor people desperate to leave their dangerous and crumbling homelands. The hard-line approach to keeping out “the hoardes” not only sullies our reputation as land of the free, but also costs us a lot of money.
4. The United States far and away suffers more gun deaths than anywhere else in the world. It’s gotten so bad that parents worry their children are no longer safe in schools and public spaces. We already have more of assault than anywhere else in the world. Special interest groups such as the NRA have bribed lawmakers to the point that almost none of them will even suggest the return of the Brady Bill of 1994, which at least reduced the problem temporarily.
5. Too many American families are living paycheck to paycheck and are only a medical misfortune away from going bankrupt. At the same time, a tiny few hold more wealth and therefore power than 80 percent of common everyday working stiffs. Wealth inequality has grown considerably over the last 40 years, contributing a great deal to anger, mistrust and polarization in society.
6. The United States’ infrastructure has been crumbling in our midst, as we witness bad roads, bridges, buildings, contamination and sewer and water issues. We just haven’t been willing to invest in these things.
7. Technology has progressed much faster than our ability to understand it. One of the most pathetic public meetings I ever watched involved members of Congress interviewing the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, knowing nothing about what he was speaking. So how can they even begin to properly police runaway artificial intelligence that someday could do us in?

With a few exceptions, I submit lawmakers and legislators spent the vast majority of their time doing the bidding of their donors and ignoring the wishes of the public. Just look at the recent state-wide ballot proposals that have passed in Michigan at the same time our elected lawmakers have opposed them. And who among the common folks really thought that a $1.7 trillion tax cut for the well to do in 2017 was a good idea? It didn’t matter, they went ahead and did  it anyway.

So we common everyday stiffs have only one power — the vote. I hear tell legislators want to regulate and reduce that as well.

I simply have little or no faith in politicians, particularly those who pander to base emotions rather than wisdom or common sense. Think hard about our state legislators and state senators. Can you name anything good they’s done for us?

We are indeed going there in a hand basket.