GrowJobsCT

There is a sense of foreboding that lingers in the living rooms and kitchens, the taverns and the “Best Buy”s, the work sites and sleepless nights of working people across America.  The intensity is acute for those who have already lost their job or their health insurance, their pension or all of the above.  But even for those who still hold an increasingly rare “good job,” the feelings of unease and impending disaster lurk always just beyond the latest “to do” list cycling through the brain.

Regardless of political affiliation, working people share a sense that corporate policies are at best indifferent to the problems of the USA, and political leaders lack the fortitude and integrity needed to insist on laws and policies that would promote growth domestically and stop allowing the export of our industrial and technological base.

This, fundamentally, has been the great disappointment of Obama.  Repeatedly, from the newest voters to the most senior, one hears, “When is he going to do something about this?” and “Does he really not get it?”  People had voted for, and placed such hope in, the promise to elevate government above politics, for the purpose of serving the people rather than the entrenched elites who are running us into the ground.  Naively, it was supposed that the same elites were not so entrenched they could not be overwhelmed by good-intentioned public servants.  We now know better.

But our situation gets progressively more dire.  Debt, both private and public, continues its crushing accumulation.  Wages and benefits face frontal assaults from initiatives like GE’s “reset for the new economy.”  Congress and the President refuse to put serious limits of job and technology exports, and instead promote new trade pacts of the same variety currently draining our economy.  Jobs — and especially a decent job — are harder than ever to find.

To be sure, working people — along with everyone else — have a wide-ranging, wild-raging mulligan’s stew of answers to the current mess.  Everything from Tea Party bromides to socialist prescriptions have been suggested, discussed and argued out to screaming matches and fist fights.  The superficial dissonance allows politicians to claim there is little or no consensus.  That’s disingenuous.

There is actually a lot of agreement regarding some policies — such as trade.  According to the Wall St. Journal, Americans oppose new “free trade” agreements by a 2 - 1 margin.  CNN polling says 63% of Americans believe the government ought to guarantee access to health care for all citizens.  A recent poll by Stan Greenberg indicates that 61% of Americans believe the government ought to be investing in job creation.

If our elected leaders continue to ignore measures that will stop the job drain, begin to end the staggering income inequality sucking the marrow out of middle class life, and allow Americans to get back to work, with some ease about the future — the sense of dissatisfaction, and genuine dread, will continue to grow.

Somehow, amid the blue transfixing light of the television, and the daily meds to combat ‘depression’ and other psychic ailments, we have forgotten the one healthy emotion now needed more than ever in the face of such ruinous policies.  Anger.  It’s not time to be depressed, or feel defeated.

It’s time to get mad.