Letter #2 -- Government and the Middle Class

  

Dear Barry,

WNET, our public television station, reported tonight on its “Need to Know” program about the strains facing the people who live and work on Main Street in Nashua, New Hampshire.  There are a couple of general themes and reflections that emerged from the program that I’d like to share with you.

First, and most important, is the sadness that my wife Judy and I felt watching the program.  The statistic that 100,000,000 Americans – 1/3 of the population – live below or only slightly above the poverty line is not merely shocking but also infuriating.  Deepening our outrage, moreover, was the human face that the program put on the statistic: 

·      the couple with only part-time employment but $50,000 in medical debt following the premature birth of a child; 

·      the husband and wife with four children whose life savings have been drained from $30,000 to $500 following a series of job lay-offs; 

·      a low-wage newspaper delivery man who never has a day off; 

·      the student who believes that her college debt  will follow her her entire life; 

·      the Main Street businessman who’s closed two or three stores and has now liquidated his entire savings to try to salvage the last. 

The head of an extended household observed that she got paid on Wednesday and, after paying the bills, they were broke on Thursday.  Living paycheck to paycheck, she wondered how her family would survive if she lost her job.  Regrettably, she’s about to find out;  the narrator reported that, shortly after the interview, she was fired.  The Episcopal priest and the local marriage counselor both noted how those who had previously been immune from the consequences of the economic downturn were now victims of it.  The gravamen of these anecdotes, in my judgment, constitutes an indictment of any idea we might hold about the nature and purpose of civil society. 

Secondly, and this is really what I wante to share with you in this letter, is the sense of betrayal toward government expressed by the people in the program.  These are good people;  no one is looking for a handout.  They are looking for help in working through their problems. From their perspective, the institutions of government have simply failed them.  They don’t blame Democrats or Republicans, they feel abandoned by both.  As one small businessman put it, he’s making choices, decisions, and concessions every day in the effort to save his business.  Why, he wondered, can’t our leaders in Washington do the same. 

  

The job numbers reported today suggest an upward trend.  If it continues like this for another few months, the pundits say, it will help you politically in seeking re-election.  You yourself observed that, while positive, the increase in the number of jobs created is far from satisfactory.  You are correct, and I hope that the circumstances faced by good people in Nashua, NH – multiplied 10s of millions of times across the country – will shape your own actions in the days, weeks, and months ahead. 

The dilemma, of course, is that political discourse in an election year is unavoidably polarizing.  We are more attuned to sharp elbows rather than handshakes, to ranting instead of reasoned dialogue.  The disconnect between the frantic bombast of the candidates traipsing across New Hampshire in advance of next Tuesday’s primary and the quiet desperation of the people interviewed on “Need to Know” is jarring.  I fear that, when the contest is joined by the Democrats this fall, we will continue to be assailed by accusations, self-serving pronouncements, and lugubrious predictions of national decline if the other candidate is elected. 

I’m a realist.  [Well, at times I’m a realist.]  I know that you will be required to put on your political track shoes and run the race.  But I also believe that by temperament – and by personal experience – you are inclined toward comity.  Though people like myself were often frustrated by and critical of your willingness to find common ground with an obstinate, often unreasonable (to us) opposition, your electoral success in 2008 speaks to the value of that approach.  The American people might not agree on what work they want government to undertake, but all the polls reveal that they want a government that works.

Respectfully,

Larry
January 6, 2012