The Great Divides

Once upon a time, there was a very strong country called the UNITED STATES of AMERICA.  It was a nation based on being a classless society, where anyone could, by the sweat of his or her brow, make a success of life, enjoy prosperity, provide a good life for their children.  

One day, the nation woke up to discover it was crisscrossed with divides.  Now, the people knew the language of racial divides, so for a while they thought of the problems as being tied to that & that alone.  

It didn't take long for the good people to realize that there were other divides, divides that hadn't existed just a generation before, that were fraying the fabric of their once close-knit society.  They had to stop blaming the people they were long accustomed to blaming & start realizing that most of THEM were on the wrong side of a divide, too.  

This is the story of the divides.  It's a story with an unfinished ending because it depends on whether The People realize that it's not just one group that's being shed from the once healthy whole, but many.  If they do wake up - and there's no  guarantee they will - how might they respond?  Do they lash out or do they work together to pull themselves up by the collective boot strap & act together for a more equitable future?    
 

RACIAL DIVIDE
In 2008, our nation elected its first African-American president, a person no one envisioned in that slavery was not part of his heritage.  His white mother was from Kansas, the heart of our Midwest;  his father was from Kenya.  That is significant, although I can't explain why.


Barack Obama's election was hailed as ushering in a post-racial era.  Would that had been true.  Instead, we find ourselves deeply divided over race, with many on the right placing full blame on Obama for being a massively divisive force that tore the country apart.  SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act on the grounds that protections were no longer necessary - and red states from coast to coast passed voter id laws that are nothing less than updated Jim Crow.  

Where we are racially in 2016 was inconceivable eight years ago.  But that is not the only divide that's opened over the past eight years. Inequality is no solely longer based on race & that is almost impossible for some people to get their heads around, especially, it seems, ones most diminished by our new unequal & unjust reality.

FINANCIAL DIVIDE
Our current financial divide impacts all races.  The Meltdown of 2008 left America's middle class tattered, torn, diminished.  Let's look at the impact of the Great Recession & how its apparent biggest effect was the boom of the wealthy & the bust of everyone else.  

According to Pew Research the median income of a lower class family in 2007 was $18,264; in 2013, it was $9,465.  The median income of a middle class family in 2007 was $160,060;  in 2013, $98,067.  Upper class families - $729,980 v. $650,074.  The median income of the poor has basically halved, the middle class, only slightly better, the upper class...  The upper class is doing quite well, down only 11.46% from 2007. THAT is a financial divide!

 

CLASS DIVIDE
The Great Recession did more than hit incomes.  It hit opportunities as well.  While financial powers became stronger, taking advantage of the weakened economy to strengthen their position, the once mighty middle class was left sprawling.  

The manufacturing jobs that had once been the spine of our prosperous middle class had already been offshored to cheaper labor markets, while  sophisticated computer scheduling has made holding multiple jobs virtually impossible.  

We've become a nation of part-time workers making paltry service industry wages with virtually no benefits.  While there are those - like myself - who can make the most of the new realities, the current "gig" economy provides, for most, a barely-making-it income.  

Let's not forget the skyrocketing cost of college & reduced access to affordable funding.  We're experiencing the reverse of the post-WWII years, when the GI Bill gave a degree to millions of Americans who might never have gone through college; of the '60s, when college was affordable & government-backed loans relatively easy to repay.  

But things changed in 1997, when lending giant Sallie Mae was - drum roll, please - PRIVATIZED.  What was a victory for banks & the financial services industry spelled disaster for the merely well off, the doing okay, the struggling & for the country.  Loans were no longer about making college accessible, but about turning a profit.  The cash cow of government & Wall Street gored the middle & lower classes, with countless grads & many who never finished finding themselves chained to their debt.  

The wealthy can afford to send their darlings off to the best schools, but those who aren't - tough noogies.   College is less & less an option for those who can't bankroll it on their own.  Those who use student loans to get their degree often find themselves "student-debt slaves."  This reversal of post-WWII America does not bode well for anyone.  It further weakens the existing middle class as it financially guts potential future members.  

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer & the middle class disappears, leaving the USA with a growing class divide.

Strange Quirk
Is it a strange quirk of human nature or is it peculiar to the American spirit, the tendency to disregard doing things that are clearly NOT in our own best interests, instead allying ourselves with factions clearly out for ends that will not end well for us?  

It seems that the heart finds it easier to blame the poor & The Other for our problems, rather than the mighty powers that left our economy in ruins.  It's clear that they have recovered & are doing quite nicely, while the rest of the country still flounders, still wonders what happened to the American Dream.

I have a theory.  Those people who have lost life savings, seen their nest egg broken, their pension bust, their mortgage underwater & their children mired deep in college debt?  They recognize they can't take on the people whose reckless actions lead to financial destruction.  So they look around for someone on whom they can vent, can feel a sense of getting back their own.   

They look for a savior, someone who feels their pain & is tough enough to bring down the mighty who have done them dirt.  And they find...  Donald Trump, who personifies all that has brought them to their knees yet who promises to be their savior.  A vote for him will be a vote against the Establishment that betrayed them.  Their visceral need to strike out, to do SOMETHING, to go with their gut instead of their head, sweeps away every other consideration.  

Will they come to their senses or will they give into their deepest desires?  Reason tells me that they will stop themselves before dragging us over the cliff, but experience says to prepare for a long drop & a bad ending.