Tucker Scott ‘26
Opinions Editor
For one of the countless job interviews that I am sure many of us have been going through now that the spring semester is coming to an end, I was asked a question: What is the biggest problem facing America? The honest answer is that we’ve given up hope. Hope that our politicians and politics as a whole will change anything for the better. So instead we are just beating each other over the head over what little power the government does use.
I have been engaged with politics for a decade now. My first political memory was the 2016 election. If I had to categorize my experience I would say that it has been dominated by a narrative of hopelessness. Every election has been categorized by the same doom feeling of, “if this candidate doesn’t win it’s the end of democracy.” But then once a politician does get into office, nothing changes. Let me ask you, honestly, if Harris had won the election would anything be radically different? Sure spending might be a bit higher and we’d be a bit more isolated on the world stage but on the big issues would anything change? Honestly, I’d argue no.
Republicans and Democrats have been campaigning on these same issues for decades and have either made no serious progress in either direction or gone so off the rails in one direction it’s laughable. Take immigration: we’ve been debating immigration since the 1900’s. Which is expected as a big wealthy country, who is allowed in and what benefits they gain is something any society would naturally discuss and debate. But the difference is that progress was actually made on these issues, even if it’s a bill you may not like, at least something was done. However since the 1970s our immigration debate has been basically frozen. Every election cycle politicians claim that this time, this time they’ll fix it. But they never do. Republicans have been running on repealing Obamacare since Obamacare was a thing, and despite being in charge of all three branches of government, twice, simply refuse to do so. Democrats have been running on expanding healthcare for half a decade and again have done almost nothing. Climate change, abortion, gender, race, taxes, economics, military size, immigration, guns, free speech, size of government, the list goes on and on and nothing is being done about it. It’s why people really resonate with politicians like President Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders because yeah they say some wild crazy things, but at least they actually want to change things and get some policy forward.
So in the face of such an overwhelming amount of hopelessness and helplessness, it’s easy to sink into despair. To think that there is no hope for the future and that politics is just a suckers game where no matter which side wins, the American people are the losers. But the truth is that it is just that attitude that politicians count on. If we don’t expect our politicians to do anything and still show up to vote anyway, then they effectively get away with getting paid to just sit there and stoke the flames of resentment. If there is no hope for our politics, why bother having a conversation with someone about solutions? If we don’t expect our politics to be in service of anything then we won’t get frustrated when our politicians remain in power for half a century and get nothing done. It’s a vicious cycle.
Despite these overwhelming negative odds, I am still calling for hope and a reframing of how we view politics. First, we must grapple with the fact that the government, especially the federal government, can’t do everything. Second, we must realize that any step made, even a misstep, is still a step in the right direction. Third, we must accept that our solutions may not work the way we intend to, and when they have unintended consequences we have to of course correct them.
And to be clear I am in no way calling for some form of toxic positivity where we ignore the real problems that our country, and the world, is facing. That would be foolish and irresponsible. Rather I am calling for a shift in understanding. Rather than seeing a problem as a failure it should instead be viewed as a chance for something to fix and for us to be better.
Featured image courtesy of Amaha
Leave a Reply