America Headed Where?

There are those who say they think America is doomed to a bad future. In some ways that can be said of any nation or society state. It is especially said by those who think the current trend of political ideology is all wrong and is certain to destroy what we identify as our nation or society at the time.

I suppose some of this gloomy thinking could be true. Certainly what is happening now in Washington DC is not a positive from my perspective. We have a congress that is inept and gridlocked. We have a president in the White House who pretends to be a leader but is rather a bully and clumsy thinker on the world stage. We have an economy that grows in some sectors but not in all, especially in those sectors that will promise good growth for the long haul.

The same gloomy thinking can apply to Illinois, a state that has political gridlock in its capitol. Illinois is a state that shut its eyes when legislators balanced the budget year after year by not properly funding state-owned pensions – school teachers, university employees, state workers, and municipal workers throughout the state. Thus the investment pool guaranteeing pension payouts were short and now the state is behind at least $50 billion. This is technical bankruptcy for the state of Illinois. And both parties let this happen, indeed, gladly used the ruse to pretend the budget was balanced.

Did they do this with unseeing eyes?  No, the pensioners in the system lobbied the legislature to stop this practice. I know; I’m a retiree of the University of Illinois and thus a beneficiary of the State University Retirement System (SURS). All of the pension plans are molded from the same plan. All were shorted current payments into the investment fund that endowed each plan. We university staff analyzed what the legislature was doing back in the 1970’s and 1980’s and every year before and after. But the legislature blithely continued the practice.

So we can label Illinois a broken state. And we can label America a broken nation, at least in terms of finances. The federal debt is enormous and growing. And the annual budgets are deficit in plan, and actually in deficit when the books are closed at the end of the fiscal year. Both political parties blame the other but in truth they are both to blame for not managing this aspect of American life better.

Yes, America is broken and much demonstrates the truth of this statement.

But I am essentially an optimist. I believe it can be fixed. When is the open question. But the fix will occur when the electorate demands action to mend broken methods and processes. Getting the electorate to that position is the gaping hole that is difficult to estimate the timeline. 

Once the fix is made of course, it will take many years to actually mend the broken promises and budgets. But we will hope that the elected leaders will continue to mend this problem and many other issues that feed off of the core of why we allowed ourselves to become broken in the first place.

Optimism is the hope that right things will get done.

I came across a quote from Foucault, a French philosopher, who said: “The work of an intellectual is not to mould the political will of others; it is, through the analyses that he does in his own field, to re-examine evidence and assumptions, to shake up habitual ways of working and thinking, to dissipate conventional familiarity, to re-evaluate rules and institutions and to participate in the formation of a political will (where he has his role as citizen to play).”

That’s a mouthful but it means – rethinking what is done in the name or citizens so that the actuality and factual truth is known and evaluated properly, is the proper means by which a political body or nation state if managed well. It takes citizens to make this truly implemented and effective.

Foucault would have each of us monitor, evaluate and think constructively about our nation state and insist our elected officials do their jobs properly. If this is so then Foucault believes the nation state will be healthy and fix what is broken, or even avoid the brokenness in the first place.

I think this works. I think this can work. But in our current situation, at least those of us living in Illinois, we have two main arenas in which to exercise our citizenship: in the state house and the governors mansion in Springfield; elect people who will do the people’s will, not pander to the lowest common denominator and fears; and in the US Capitol and White House elect people who will fix the broken and dishonest political gamesmanship, while governing with purpose and forethought for the ages.

It will take fortitude and work to study and monitor all of this. But it is our duty as citizens to do so.

So, to arms, folks! It’s time the elected understood the minds of the electors. If so the broken will be in repair mode and our hopes of the future will be made whole again.

May 31, 2017