Falling Apart

Writing in the New York Times (January 13, 2022), David Brooks asserts that “America is Falling Apart at the Seams.”

            To illustrate the point, Brooks points to increasing motor vehicle deaths during the pandemic, and he notes that altercations on airplanes have ‘exploded’, the murder rate is ‘surging’, drug overdoses are increasing, Americans are drinking more, Nurses say patients are getting more abusive, teachers are facing a ‘rising tide’ of disruptive behavior, hate crimes are at the highest level in twelve years, gun purchases have ‘soared’, charity giving is decreasing, and there are high rates of depression, suicide, and loneliness. “This is what it feels like,” he says, “to live in a society that is dissolving from bottom up as much as from top down.”

            Brooks says he doesn’t know “what the hell is going on,” or what the answers are. But he suggests the causes may be found in social media, rotten politics, cultural changes, some spiritual or moral problem, and/or a long-term loss of solidarity or rise in estrangement and hostility. The situation, he says, is ‘dire’.

            He’s right, isn’t he? All those distressing features of our great new America cited so colorfully by Mr. Brooks are certainly valid symptoms of a nation falling apart. But my goodness, why the mystery about causes? First though, it should be noted that most people still drive sensibly, that the vast majority of people on airplanes behave quite civilly, that most people do not commit murders, that most people are not druggies or alcoholics, that most patients are not abusive to Nurses (even though hospitals are difficult to endure), that most school children are not disruptive, that very few people commit hate crimes, and that charitable giving in 2020 was $471 billion. (The amount is not yet known for 2021).

            Okay, that said, back to causes of the dire trends. Murders are up because police numbers and morale are down. No mystery there.

            People are losing it on airplanes because somebody is asking them to wear a mask, and they are no-vax Trumpers. No mystery there, either.

            People are driving too fast because they are young and foolish, and there are not enough police to catch them. Not a mystery.

            Children are disruptive in class because they are disruptive out of class, and can’t handle discipline. The other students and the teachers should not be forced to put up with them. Again, no mystery.

            People are buying more guns because they are scared. It’s a rational thing to do, not a mystery.

            I don’t know why people are more abusive to Nurses, but since most people in hospital these days are unvaccinated Covid patients, I could hazard a guess.

            Now, what about all the fear, anger, depression, suicide, and anxiety among those of us not doing all those bad and reckless things? Brooks suggests that “rotten politics” may be a cause, and I think he’s got that right. Except he doesn’t elaborate, so I will.

            It’s our rotten politicians who are sending us off the rails of peace and tranquility. The bureaucracy part of government is working fine. Still getting my Social Security check, and the IRS will collect my taxes right on time. But the political part? That’s not working hardly at all, and hasn’t for a long time.

            What’s going on? Congress hasn’t been functioning for decades. Now there are a hundred or so Progressives who won’t work with their own moderates to accomplish anything. These progressive folks are serious and passionate and focused about what they want: more socialism, more entitlements, less individual responsibility, even less social responsibility. The government will take care of everything and everybody.

            Then there are those 150 or so Republican Congressmen, Trumpers who say they believe the 2020 election was stolen, and all the rest of their conspiratorial baloney. They even think the January 6 insurrection was tourists having a picnic. It was actually treason.

            The other Republicans, including their fearless leader, that great intellect and personality Mitch McConnell, are silent to the point where it’s deafening. What on earth is wrong with them? Oh, yes, they’re afraid Trump will get them defeated at the next election.

            Bottom line: The extremists of both parties are preventing the moderates of both parties from doing anything. That’s the sound of a government falling apart. And government falling apart is a reason for our fear, anger, depression, and anxiety.

            Moreover, we have no leadership. Biden is a vice-president, not a President. He’s error-prone. He’s made big mistakes: the Afghanistan withdrawal debacle, the border debacle, canceling the Keystone pipeline, and some remarkably slow and confusing Covid actions. Now there is inflation that really hurts us ordinary people. And Putin is poised to attack Ukraine. Putin’s been threatened with severe sanctions, but negotiations have not worked. I wonder what kind of advice Biden has been getting. For example, has Putin been given a face-saving way out?

            In fact, I wonder what kind of advice Biden has been getting all along. Who are his advisors? Maybe he should get new ones.

            The so-called Voting Rights Bill, which can’t pass, does not address the most important issue: making it impossible for Trump to overturn the next election. The Electoral Count Act must be fixed to accomplish that. Heard Biden say anything about that?

            Biden got the Infrastructure bill passed but miscalculated the Democratic opposition to the rest of his wish list. He promised to unite us, but has made the divisions worse. He looks more and more like a Progressive, too.

Okay, so why are the we depressed, angry, afraid, anxious, and hopeless? We who are not speeding, not objecting to masks on airplanes, not abusing Nurses, not committing murder, not doing drugs or drinking ourselves to death, not raiding the Capital? I call us the Good Citizens, the Silent Patriots.

            A lot of reasons. Because our culture, our very way of life, is being canceled. There will never be another Greatest Generation, or another Ike, or FDR, or JFK, Ronald Reagan, or Frank Sinatra or Patsy Cline. The culture of honesty, hard work, individual responsibility, taking care of one’s self and family and property; going away.

            And inflation is eating our paychecks and savings.

            We’re scared the Progressives will turn the U.S. into a socialist State, or else that Trump will win (or overturn) the next election since, like the last time he won, the Democrats will have no good candidate who can beat him.

            Why can’t either of the two political parties nominate honest, capable, articulate, intelligent, visionary candidates? It’s their responsibility to do that!

            But they aren’t up to the task. Just Sayin’.