JUNE 14, 2019 – And I’m not talking only about Nero. I’m talking about Congress. I’m talking about all the Democratic candidates for president—because to date there are no Republicans with requisite spine to challenge the incumbent. I’m talking about the media—mainstream, social, cable, network, business. I’m talking about . . . all of us.
Yesterday, the business section of my favorite news source (for better or worse), The New York Times, carried a feature article about the alarming condition of the Social Security Trust Fund. This is not news, but it should be. Or rather, it is news, but it shouldn’t be.
Why are we not talking about how to fix Social Security before it goes over the cliff? And while we’re not talking about that, why are we not talking also about the looming insolvency of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation and many state pension funds? Are we so mired in immediate crises or made-up crises and so distracted by our immediate tasks, demands, and pleasures that we have neither time nor attention to avoid extreme pain—not 50 years hence but closer to 15?
Within a democratic framework are we not capable of identifying our most serious common issues, understanding them beyond a superficial level, then working toward a long-term solution through debate and compromise, give-and-take?
The only exceptional excuse would be, “We’re too focused on climate change,” except we’re not.
Where is leadership? Where is pressure on leadership?
Or must we accept the political reality that in a democracy, addressing a long-range problem must wait until the problem becomes a crushing crisis?
In current times—The Times of Nonsense?—many of us are tempted to point at rigid partisanship and polarization and conclude that democracy has spent its currency, that democracy has failed. However, to damn democracy, with all of its many imperfections, is to open the door to anarchy and authoritarianism. The track record of these two alternatives is not good. In fact, the record is quite bad.
Nevertheless, our democracy has entered a period of deepening danger. If we do not improve our game—soon—events will overtake us. We will find ourselves increasingly hobbled, facing a narrowing set of viable choices, be the issue Social Security insolvency or adjusting to the cascading effects of climate change.
Now more than ever, we need to engage on the issues and demand the same of people who, for whatever reason, seek to govern or pretend to govern. We need to hold them—and ourselves—accountable.
Let’s start with the people who are currently in positions of power. Let’s demand that they quit their narcissism, their self-interests, their contempt for reality. Let’s hold their feet to the fire with hard, probative, and persistent questioning. Let’s demand reform of what we have before we lose it irretrievably.
But before we can demand anything of the leaders we’ve put in power, we need to demand more of ourselves. We ourselves need to quit fiddling before Rome burns . . . up.
© 2019 Eric Nilsson
