The Fight for Happiness
As we approach 2020, the primary battle wages on in the Democratic Party. The candidates debate their policies as they make the case for why they would be most electable and would produce results for the American people. Over 30 million people voted in the 2016 Democratic primary and we may see even greater numbers in this upcoming cycle, but a larger portion of voting-age Americans don’t vote in the primary or the general. Voter apathy has become a characteristic that seems to have sunk into status quo. Far less of our people turn out to determine their government in our country than in the majority of our counterparts in the industrialized world. It’s easy to assess why.
Americans are distrustful of the government after incident after incident of blatant lying and pervasive corruption. The government lied to get us into war in Vietnam and thousands of soldiers died along with greater numbers of Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Laotians. A generation later, history repeated itself in Iraq. Our presidents and our lawmakers have lied to us about national security and about our financial security. They set the bull loose and let predatory financial institutions kick millions of families from their homes. They fed us lies of deregulation and tax cuts for the rich as a means to our shared prosperity as the rich extracted the wealth of everyone below them bit by bit. It is natural that while so many Americans recognize the unfairness of our economic and political system, they are skeptical and often downright cynical of reforms and so-called reformers that might dig them into a deeper hole rather than lift them out. In order to defeat Trump, Democrats would be wise to demonstrate their integrity by rejecting campaign contributions from Corporate PACs whose corrosive role in our political system has sown the seeds of mistrust over so many years. Beyond running a campaign of integrity, Democrats should paint a picture of what the future could be if we were able to bring our agenda to fruition.
Two of the presidential candidates, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, have run campaigns in which they have been presenting an explicit contrast with the status quo deriding the financialization of the economy and co-opting of our political system by the wealthy and big corporations. They have inspired grassroots donors and volunteers through campaigns built on the promise of “big, structural change” and “a political revolution.” Whether or not they support the parliamentary reforms paramount to accomplishing those ambitions is another matter. Elizabeth and Bernie are running to expand what it means to be an American. In the America we progressives are fighting for, healthcare is a human right. Education is a human right. Access to clean air and clean water are human rights. Child Care is a human right. And a livable planet is a human right. This is so much more than one policy or even one candidate. This is about building a society in which people live happier, healthier, more fulfilling lives.
Pete Buttigieg began his campaign waxing poetic about the idea of freedom and how the Democrats ought to talk more about how our agenda is about extending freedoms to all Americans. This was, of course, before he co-opted the “centrist lane” and began holding fundraisers with billionaires in wine caves. Our agenda is about freedom, freedom from predatory institutions and for-profit industries that deliver us stress, anger, and sorrow. The progressive agenda will free us from the exploitation of the owners of capital over the rest of us by providing every worker with a set of basic benefits, the unalienable right to collectively bargain and join a union, and the mandate that every big corporation permit democratically elected workers to enter the corporate boardroom and get a vote in corporate decisions. The progressive agenda will give new parents the freedom to spend precious time with their loved ones without fear of losing their incomes and financial security. The progressive agenda will free us from the fear of not being able to raise our grandchildren in an environment rife with natural disasters, mass migration, and strapped resources. And, of course, the progressive agenda will free us from the misery that is the for-profit health insurance industry and the greed of massive health care providers, medical supply manufacturers, and the pharmaceutical industry. On average, 30,000 people die every year from a system in which healthcare is treated as a commodity, not a right. In the richest country on the planet, we can make healthcare a human right and free Americans of the pain and anxiety around being able to afford their prescriptions and make their dialysis visits.
When we extend these freedoms to Americans, they will have more time to learn new skills, engage in their hobbies, and spend quality time with their loved ones. Americans will have more money to spend on vacations and they will have more paid time off to go on vacations. Without so many of the anxieties in our current system, we will have better love lives and better sex lives. We would be able to build more human connections with our relatives, our neighbors, and members of our communities. This is what social democracy looks like. There is a reason that countries that report the greatest level of happiness are consistently Scandinavian countries. It is because these countries have made the decision shape their political and economic system around a basic set of progressive values. This is the future we can build here in the United States. We just need to inspire enough people to believe in it.
