Choosing a President/Upping the Game

W hat does that tell us about the 63 million Americans who voted for him? They have been deprived of sequential civic education and lack the bilateral civil contract that might have tied them to the benefits and burdens of citizenship. Most of them don’t respect government, feel left behind, are suspicious of education and expertise, attitudes that are validated by the right -wing media. They feel threatened by the manifestations of a pluralistic society. Much of their alienation is warranted. A palpable element of their nihilistic disenchantment is the reality that they were in fact left behind by an expanding technology-driven, market-oriented, economy. Housing, education, health care, retirement security; the foundations of a middle- class life, are beyond their reach. Even so, it is astonishing that this cohort could believe that Trump would address their issues, given his profile. It is equally incomprehensible that after three years tens of millions still support him. It is some consolation that our flawed democracy also gave us eight years of Barak Obama; in all respects the antithesis of our current President. And it is probable that the next president will be a healer rather than a divider, with a core of decency, empathy, and experience. Even so, if we are to avoid a future electoral train wreck, we will need to 1) reduce the causes of alienation and 2) educate the next generation to respect the role of government and to accept the responsibilities of citizenship. Hopefully the next government can take the first meaningful steps to achieve these goals. The first step would be a generic civics curriculum tied to federal funding of education. A corollary, achievable in the near term, would be the restoration of campaign financing limitations. Other achievable goals would be, the termination of the anachronistic electoral college, and the mitigation of gerrymandering. It should also be possible to make the day we elect a President a national holiday. The problem of restoring a modicum of security for this alienated and marginalized group is daunting. Simply passing out money as a palliative is not sustainable and does not address the harmonics of the issues. Subsidizing economic development in rust belt communities would help. It is more likely that the solution, if any, will lie in a generation that has both different expectations and different responses to economic distress. Sheldon Greene is a novelist, an executive in a wind energy development company, and a lawyer with a background in high impact, public interest law.