In case you don't know me very well, let me be specific: I voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Presidential election. She was a true reflection of me and my educational and workplace experiences, and she had enough chutzpah (way more than me) to reach the highest levels of her chosen profession: public service. I identified with her in so many ways that I really believed she would be the best president for me, and by extension, the rest of the nation.
Now I suspect that Hillary, like me, is enjoying retirement. She's probably baby-sitting her grandchildren and trying not to listen to the political reality offered up daily in the national media. Our advances in race relations, immigration management, and health care are about to be reversed, and judging by the rise in hate crimes, we aren't as nice a country as we used to be. But that really doesn't matter, because the political reality is that we are now about to be focused on trade policy, de-regulation of Wall Street, and ways of punishing women for having abortions.
If I sound bitter, it's because I am. On the other hand, I am a pragmatist. As a journalist, I realize that public attention can be focused simply by choosing which stories the media will cover, and making those stories the lead. I know that Donald Trump--or his advisors--will decide what his administration will focus on, and that's what we will hear about in terms of politics. And then we'll hear about all the ways America has become increasingly divided.
I'm a fortunate daughter of this country. I have both undergraduate and graduate education, and I've had several good jobs that resulted in a decent pension. And Social Security still exists. My former employer supplements Medicare by providing a generous stipend for my supplemental insurance (Parts B and D). And I'm healthy.
This is all good, but what if I didn't have these benefits? What if I just had a high school diploma, or a GED? What is I had a string of low-paying jobs with very little or no benefits? And what if I didn't have an insurance stipend? I'd be living in a hovel and probably getting Medicaid and food stamps. My daughter often tells me that I live in a privileged world, and I have finally been shocked into understanding that she's right. Only about 30 percent of Americans have a college education, and many Americans--often women with children--just hang on with serial, low-paying jobs that offer no pensions. Those are the men and women Hillary Clinton wanted to help--the part of the 99% who really need changes in the way America works.
Will Donald Trump help these people? I can hope, but I doubt it. He talks about bringing back manufacturing jobs, but those are no longer a reality. Good jobs today are in service: medicine and allied medical health, insurance and financial services, teaching and academic administration. Mediocre jobs are still in service: food service, military service, hair and nail, retail sales, home repair, housekeeping, and child care. We've moved from the Industrial Age, where manufacturing was king, to the Information-Technology Age, where data, programs, and applications are king. If you can't use a computer with reasonable expertise, you're going to struggle to find employment. According to the Pew Research organization, "Tectonic (structural) changes are reshaping U.S. workplaces as the economy moves deeper into the knowledge-focused age."
There's another reality that Americans need to face. For the past 30 years or so, there has been a strong anti-intellectual movement growing in the U.S. To paraphrase something I've read a number of times, "my ignorance is just as good as your education." Fewer Americans read, fewer Americans consider varieties of opinions, and fewer Americans respect those who do have strong intellectual skills. One of the reasons I believed Hillary Clinton would make a wonderful President is because she is an intellectual who has read enough history to learn from it.
On the other hand, we now have a President who seldom reads (what's he going to do about those daily written briefings?), and whose version of communicating with the nation is through 140-character tweets. Tweets may offer attitude, but they don't offer in-depth, factual content that is needed to make decisions that affect the fate of our nation and this planet. Donald Trump may have billions, but if he can't read, understand, and develop effective arguments, he will be seen as under-educated by the rest of the world. His campaign "sound bites," as offered by media, offered few facts, context, or accuracies, yet the American people seemed to find him exactly to their anti-intellectual liking.
I worry about anti-intellectualism. I worry that think tanks, be they right or left, are encouraging this anti-intellectualism, so that when people no longer read non-fiction or gather facts that will help us learn to judge the progress of our government, these think tanks can take over the nation. It's kind of scary to think, for example, that the Koch brothers may be our future: they will end Medicare and Social Security, while obstructing efforts to reform taxes, raise the minimum wage, and alleviate climate change. Anti-intellectualism will set us back 100 years, and maybe more.
So I'm dealing with the current political reality and dreading the future. Mr. Trump, you can be sure I'll be paying attention. And I'm not alone--there are lots of women and men out there who see you for what you are, and we'll be voting in 2020.
Mrs. B
Now I suspect that Hillary, like me, is enjoying retirement. She's probably baby-sitting her grandchildren and trying not to listen to the political reality offered up daily in the national media. Our advances in race relations, immigration management, and health care are about to be reversed, and judging by the rise in hate crimes, we aren't as nice a country as we used to be. But that really doesn't matter, because the political reality is that we are now about to be focused on trade policy, de-regulation of Wall Street, and ways of punishing women for having abortions.
If I sound bitter, it's because I am. On the other hand, I am a pragmatist. As a journalist, I realize that public attention can be focused simply by choosing which stories the media will cover, and making those stories the lead. I know that Donald Trump--or his advisors--will decide what his administration will focus on, and that's what we will hear about in terms of politics. And then we'll hear about all the ways America has become increasingly divided.
I'm a fortunate daughter of this country. I have both undergraduate and graduate education, and I've had several good jobs that resulted in a decent pension. And Social Security still exists. My former employer supplements Medicare by providing a generous stipend for my supplemental insurance (Parts B and D). And I'm healthy.
This is all good, but what if I didn't have these benefits? What if I just had a high school diploma, or a GED? What is I had a string of low-paying jobs with very little or no benefits? And what if I didn't have an insurance stipend? I'd be living in a hovel and probably getting Medicaid and food stamps. My daughter often tells me that I live in a privileged world, and I have finally been shocked into understanding that she's right. Only about 30 percent of Americans have a college education, and many Americans--often women with children--just hang on with serial, low-paying jobs that offer no pensions. Those are the men and women Hillary Clinton wanted to help--the part of the 99% who really need changes in the way America works.
Will Donald Trump help these people? I can hope, but I doubt it. He talks about bringing back manufacturing jobs, but those are no longer a reality. Good jobs today are in service: medicine and allied medical health, insurance and financial services, teaching and academic administration. Mediocre jobs are still in service: food service, military service, hair and nail, retail sales, home repair, housekeeping, and child care. We've moved from the Industrial Age, where manufacturing was king, to the Information-Technology Age, where data, programs, and applications are king. If you can't use a computer with reasonable expertise, you're going to struggle to find employment. According to the Pew Research organization, "Tectonic (structural) changes are reshaping U.S. workplaces as the economy moves deeper into the knowledge-focused age."
There's another reality that Americans need to face. For the past 30 years or so, there has been a strong anti-intellectual movement growing in the U.S. To paraphrase something I've read a number of times, "my ignorance is just as good as your education." Fewer Americans read, fewer Americans consider varieties of opinions, and fewer Americans respect those who do have strong intellectual skills. One of the reasons I believed Hillary Clinton would make a wonderful President is because she is an intellectual who has read enough history to learn from it.
On the other hand, we now have a President who seldom reads (what's he going to do about those daily written briefings?), and whose version of communicating with the nation is through 140-character tweets. Tweets may offer attitude, but they don't offer in-depth, factual content that is needed to make decisions that affect the fate of our nation and this planet. Donald Trump may have billions, but if he can't read, understand, and develop effective arguments, he will be seen as under-educated by the rest of the world. His campaign "sound bites," as offered by media, offered few facts, context, or accuracies, yet the American people seemed to find him exactly to their anti-intellectual liking.
I worry about anti-intellectualism. I worry that think tanks, be they right or left, are encouraging this anti-intellectualism, so that when people no longer read non-fiction or gather facts that will help us learn to judge the progress of our government, these think tanks can take over the nation. It's kind of scary to think, for example, that the Koch brothers may be our future: they will end Medicare and Social Security, while obstructing efforts to reform taxes, raise the minimum wage, and alleviate climate change. Anti-intellectualism will set us back 100 years, and maybe more.
So I'm dealing with the current political reality and dreading the future. Mr. Trump, you can be sure I'll be paying attention. And I'm not alone--there are lots of women and men out there who see you for what you are, and we'll be voting in 2020.
Mrs. B
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