In Tuesday’s elections, most voters didn’t see their candidates as leaders. Americans are cynical about politics, exhibited by
the broad-based discontent with both parties, the president, and Congress. Nearly two thirds of the electorate
didn’t even vote
— turnout this year was likely lower as a percentage of the electorate
than any time since 1942. Negative campaign ads reached depressing lows,
directly appealing to Americans’ fears and anxieties, and most people
don’t think the results of the election will change political gridlock
in Washington. This election campaign was a loss for the common good.
We seem to have become cynically resigned to politicians always
blaming the other party for every problem instead of
solving them and alleged political leaders pursuing a 24/7, 52-week strategy of
winning instead of
governing. There are no more off election years to make society better; every day and every decision is just a part of the next campaign.
The
campaigns and the media coverage were all about polls, attacks, and
sound bites. The Republican campaign message was simply: vote against
President Obama. And the Democrats deserted him, wouldn’t discuss either
his accomplishments or his failures, and had no message of their own
that got through. The campaign wasn’t about the most important issues
facing the country. Here’s what we should be talking about:
The economy While we are making progress in reducing international poverty,
poverty in America is still 2 percentage points higher than it was in 2007,
the year before the most recent recession. The inequality gap is
growing while social mobility is declining — a very bad combination.
People who live paycheck to paycheck (
nearly half of Americans) have stagnating wages and declining quality of life, while
the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans captured 95 percent of the income gains in the first three years of the economic recovery.
Unfortunately, these big problems were barely discussed as election
issues this fall. Both Republicans and Democrats need to articulate
how we could create an
opportunity society, which both parties say they support.
Immigration
Our immigration system is still completely broken, and the Republicans
were not held responsible for obstructing reform and blocking a
bipartisan Senate bill from going to a clearly passable vote in the
House. Republicans and Democrats don’t talk about when and how they will
work together to fix the system. Instead, some candidates used
immigration as an appeal to fear, condemning “amnesty” and raising the
specter of terrorist threats from across our borders. We should hold our
political leaders accountable for their fearful distortions, confront
them with the facts, and insist that they explain
how they plan to fix this broken system.
International terrorism
ISIS presents a very real danger to millions of people, but our political leaders need to do a much better job articulating
how
best to confront the crisis instead of just blaming the president or
other party. We should ask our elected officials if it really makes
sense to keep doing what we have been doing in Iraq, Syria, and the
entire region. If alienated and angry young people, even in our own
country, are being attracted to such a perverted cause because of
perceived grievances, wouldn’t it make sense to discuss those grievances
instead of burying our collective head in the sand? Instead of
circulating the endless rhetoric of defending our values, we need to ask
the hard questions about how we have violated those values for so many
years in the Middle East — and about the consequences of our past
foreign policy mistakes so we don’t repeat history.
Health crises
The Ebola crisis became the most pathetic use of human tragedy for
political self-aggrandizement that we saw this fall. Instead of
propagating a narrative of fear and paranoia, elected officials should
be focused on
how best to save lives — starting in West Africa —
and not allow American isolationism and its underlying racial
prioritizing to create bad health practices.
Money in politics:
In one of the only stories I’ve seen on this issue,
Luke Russert reported on “Meet the Press:”
“Remarkably, you could pay for 80 British general election campaigns
with what’s being spent on this year’s midterms alone.” The media
reported on how much was being spent but not what that means for the
future of our politics. The reality that the richest people in America
have increasing influence over all our elections has disturbing
implications for our democracy, and we need to insist that our
politicians talk about
how they will confront the problem — or
at least demand disclosure so we know who is spending the enormous
outside money to win elections.
Race:
The endless media talk about how President Obama’s unpopularity was bringing down Democrats almost completely ignored how
race
played into that. Disagreement with Obama’s policies is, of course,
legitimate, but so much of the animosity, even hatred for Obama as a
person, has roots in our country’s complicated history with race. Not
talking about it is to be oblivious to its continued influence on our
lives and our politics.
Older white voters dominated this electoral campaign, but if the demographic and voting trends of the past couple of decades continue,
it is likely that the 2016 elections will see a another decrease in the
share of white voters and an increase in the share of minority voters,
especially Latinos. So despite the results of this election, the
future belongs to candidates who can appeal to the changing demographics
of America.
The new title of my current book,
The (Un)Common Good, painfully resonates in this election, as concern for the common good was all too
uncommon.
Unless we return to the ancient idea and vision of the common good, the
health of our public life will continue to deteriorate. The greatest
social leaders are always the ones who demonstrate hope despite the
challenges and show us that there can be a positive future if we make
good decisions and build it together. That is the kind of hopeful
leadership our nation so desperately needs, from the bottom to the top
of American society — and it may be the only way our political leaders
can find their way again. Our best leaders today are not coming from
politics but from civil society, courageous non-profits, and social
entrepreneurship from both the private and public sectors — they just
want to solve problems. What politics needs will most likely come from
outside of politics. Cynicism is easy, but hope takes more of a
commitment. Fear can’t lead us in a better direction, but the decisions
to act on hope always can and always will.
Jim Wallis is president of Sojourners. His book, The (Un)Common Good: How the Gospel Brings Hope to a World Divided, the updated and revised paperback version of On God’s Side,
is available now. Follow Jim on Twitter @JimWallis.
Image:
Steve Collender / Shutterstock.com
